More Natives

I’ve been travelling and missed some blooms but as you’ll see in this gallery, I caught some neats shots of the ends of some blooms.  Summer’s on, it is hot and it is dry.  A little rain a few days ago got the cacti flowering, it’s a nice display.  Yucca baccata is just finishing up, gorgeous.  Pictures go HERE and that’s about the extent of it recently.  Oh yeah, I also made a slideshow that you can catch on youtube… embedded below:

VIDEO SLIDESHOW

What’s Blooming, June 9 2010

The big white flowered shrub show is just about over, so get’em while they’re hot.   Along the Animas river Yucca baccata has some impressive spikes of flowers.  Oenothera continues.  Short Lupines are giving way to big, bushy and fragrant Lupinus prunophilus.  Iris is blooming in wet spots, and the usual brand little violets are hidden gems under the trees.

Big bushy Lupine

What’s Blooming June 7, 2010

Nice hike around Durango Hills on Missionary Ridge east of town, the Lupines were amazing, and very fragrant.

http://picasaweb.google.com/durangoplants/WhatSBloomingJune7th2010?feat=directlink

Chokecherry Blossoms

I’m going to sneak up to the high country today if possible to check on what is beginning to bloom there.  Down here around town, I can’t help but notice the abundance of Chokecherry flowers (Prunus virginiana.)  A very common shrub/tree in the shadier spots and along roadsides, the chokecherry puts on a fantastic spring show of funky flowers.  The flowers give way to berries in the summer, most of which get consumed by hungry birds, who spread the plants around the area.   Those not consumed by critters and birdies are often made into jam.

Chokecherry Blossoms

They’re bloomin now, get up early

What’s Blooming, May 26 2010

What’s blooming today?  Well, in the canyons west of Durango there’s quite a show going on.  As you’ve heard the Evening Primrose are putting on a show, as well as our 3 white blooming spring shrubs, Amalanchier alnifolia, Peraphyllum ramosissimim, and Fendlera rupicola.  On our plant walk yesterday we encountered a Rattlesnake, very polite creature.  It’s sort of in our culture to just kill these snakes when we encounter but know that this is a reaction bred on fear and ignorance.  Hanta Virus (spread by mice) doesn’t rattle, and is much more likely to kill you than a snake.  Let the snakes do their job and keep the mice from running amuck.  To take one link out of the ecosystem because we have an irrational fear of that link will irrevocably harm the ecosystem and ultimately harm our way of life, so stand up for the snakes when some hillbilly wants to chop’em.

Here are pictures of what is blooming today…

What’s Blooming, May 12 2010

The first columbines of spring.

Not that I’m going to do these every day… or am i? I give myself two weeks then I disappear until auntie maggie’s birthday. Checking the west facing side of Wildcat Canyon in the tall Douglasfir, didn’t see much except a lot of things covered in dust. Aquilegia elegantula was just starting, and that pesky white one was of course everywhere. Other than that, a little Viola and a bunch of dust. At least it settled out of the air last night, all over everything. Can’t wait for a bit of rain to give everything that push it needs.

Don’t forget to check out the native plant database I’ve been working on, it is located at www.durangoplants.com

What’s blooming around Durango – May 11th 2010

What’s Blooming – May 11 2010

It’s dusty out there, really really dusty.  The wind is howling and stuff is bloomin. Lupinus ammophilus, Delphinium nuttallianum, Arnica cordifolia, Mertensia fusiformis and a few others (see picture gallery) are putting on a nice show.  I see the first bits of the big white flowered spring show coming on, but we’ll save that for next week.  Enjoy the pictures, and please, come check out our facebook group and post pictures of your own of plants you have identified or WANT identified.

So who was this Fendler guy, anyway?

You’ve heard the names, Fendlera rupicola, Berberis fendleri, Ceanothus fendleri, The list goes on and on.  Ever wonder about the guy whose name was attached to these plants?  I do, and surprisingly, he doesn’t even have a Wikipedia page.  Perish the thought!  Augustus Fendler was a German born botanist and plant collector.   Well I know he died in 1883, and I know he was a physics buff (the only book I could find of his available for purchase is Mechanism Of The Universe And Its Primary Effort-Exerting Powers) And well.. that’s about it.. Anyone have a good story about him?  Bring it on!

What’s Blooming May 11th 2010

It’s been a dry spring so far, and windy as the dickens with dust blowing.  What I’ve noticed blooming this week, and of course, that isnt’ all that’s blooming…  Mahonia repans is really putting on a show in shady spots while Physaria is putting on a show on the rocky hillsides.  Some of the dryland Delphinium (the lil ones) are poppin up in the Dry Fork Trail area and they’re gorgeous this year!  That pesky yellow flower on the top of the ridge is blooming as well, but I haven’t reliably identified it yet, but I am pretty sure it is some flavor of Arnica.  Since it’s blooming now, I’ll take a hike up there with the plant book and start counting stamen.