Pursh gave it the species name rediviva, which is Latin for revived, or live again.
Tag: native plants
Day in the High Country
The mountain treeline is my favorite place to be on a hot summer day. Temperatures are at least 15 degrees cooler up there and any reprieve from the high nineties is welcome. I had plans to hike a trail to a destination, but once I got there I just wanted to wander across the open…
I Fancy It’s Springtime in the Rockies*
“Warm sunny days, endless skies of blue, then without a warning another winter storm comes raging through” is a line in the song Springtime in Alberta by Ian Tyson. It’s a common phenomena throughout the Rockies. The native plants and animals are adapted to these quick changes. The grass is turning green: Just in time…
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.
The Pollinators are Here
The cherry trees are abuzz with insect activity. As one of the earliest flowers around my house, the cherry trees offer an early source of nectar to pollinating insects. Insects represent 80% of the world’s species. There are over 900,000 species of insects. Worldwide, many scientists agree there are more unnamed insects than named. There…
Arctic Blast
A temperature drop of 80 degrees in less than 48 hours: That’s what most of Wyoming experienced early this week. It was a balmy 60 degrees late Sunday night, and a klondike-like 16 degrees below zero Tuesday morning. I can’t help but wonder how the local flora and fauna survive these extremes. The range plants…
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.
Mountain Snowpack Critical for Stream Flows
Well, we’ve had a few wet snows in the last two weeks here in Wyoming. Due to the warm weather in the first half of April (at least here in Central Wyoming), the soil at lower elevations is able to absorb much of the moisture from these snows, which is a welcome occurrence. I recently heard…
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…
Wyoming Life 