Prelude I started identifying native plants when I was twelve. Looking back, I realize I have always been drawn to quiet, hidden away places in nature. I grew up in farmland, but my immediate family didn’t farm, so I watched with fascinated interest as the fields around my home played out the seasons of farming…
Category: Native Plants
Lewisia rediviva: Legendary Native Plant
Pursh gave it the species name rediviva, which is Latin for revived, or live again.
Falling Yellow
As summer winds down and fall approaches, the majority of wildflowers are shades of yellow.
Shades of Yellow
We have had one of the wettest springs I can remember in a long time. Nice little rains keep coming- almost daily. It’s always interesting to see how the spring weather pattern determines which plants will dominate the landscape. This year it seems to be the annual mustards (members of the Brassicaceae family) and Yellow…
Early Risers
We are having a nice slow warm up here in my part of Wyoming. Even so, the speed with which the wildflowers begin to bloom always catches me by surprise. Many of our early spring native wildflowers only need a few days above the mid fifties Fahrenheit to start their green up, and then a…
Gotta Be Tough
Spring time in Wyoming is defined by rapid changes in weather. The sun may shine, or it might rain or snow, or rain AND snow, all in the same day. Wet spring snows usually melt quickly into the warming ground. They may be inconvenient, but it’s good to know the earth is getting watered after…
Curlleaf Mountain Mahogany: Witness of the Ages
And so it begins. A little snow melt running down a crack in the rock, a little pooling here and there, and when all the pieces of the puzzle fit together, a native shrub germinates in a sea of rock. It’s not hard to imagine why this green plant is attractive forage for big game…
Among all the dainty flowers above 9000 ft in the Bighorn Range sits the showy Primula parryi, named in honor of Charles Parry, an esteemed botanist in the early days of the US Department of Agriculture. The second photo is the flower from the side, showing the united petals.
Western Blue Flag
Iris missouriensis forms a rhizomatous clump and can exist in large colonies. Its range extends from BC to Baja California and east to Minnesota. The beautiful purple flower is actually composed of three sepals, three petals and three petal-like styles. Also called Wild Iris and Missouri Iris, the leaves, stems and roots are poisonous if…
Growing Roots
If you have spent much time among rock outcrops, badlands, or the Rocky Mountains, you’ve probably seen trees and shrubs sprouting from what looks like solid rock.
Revegetation Efforts Should Focus on Native Plant Species
Propagating native plants in volumes large enough to produce commercial quantities of native seed is not always an easy, or inexpensive task, but using native plant species in revegetation efforts on federal and state lands should be the norm, not the exception. This National Forest in Michigan is taking the needed long range approach to…
Patches of Native Plants Increase Crop Pollination
Using large mango farms as a case study, a group of researchers representing Britain, South Africa, and the Netherlands, recently reported the results of a study in the Journal of Applied Ecology which “show that the presence of small patches of native flowers within large farms can increase pollinator-dependent crop production if combined with preservation…
Wyoming Life 