Orange Crush Part 4 of 4: Desert (and some mountain) Perennials

This is it. The final installment. File under Plants of the Week #10: Perennials of the Desert Southwest (and San Juan mountains of CO).

Clematis, can you believe it? Have you ever seen nicer clematis? NO YOU HAVE NOT. At least I think that's what it is but I have to come clean. I don't remember. Rick and Lynne will tell us! San Juan National Forest, CO.

This one's easy. Mule's ears. Wyethia amplexicaulis Not to be confused with Balsamroot, the shorter, gray-leaved, more drought tolerant version of this. Ute Indian Reservation, San Juan Mountains, CO.

Lewisia nevadaensis. Nevada bitterroot. I'm actually excited typing this because it's such a rare find, and lewisia's in general are such interesting, delicate little plants. To be treasured. San Juan National Forest, CO.

Holy paintbrush, batman. This burst of color looks like a cartoon explosion. Castilleja chromosa. Chimney Rock, CO.

Prince's plume, Stanlea pinnata. The presence of this species indicates selenium-bearing soils. Fascinating. I actually do find it fascinating. Above Pueblo Bonito, Chaco Canyon, AZ.

Penstemon sp. I'm not sure which one, maybe Dusty penstemon? It was growing in a dusty place (Chaco Canyon, AZ) but I bet dusty refers to the dusty green leaves.

Penstemon eatonii, Eaton's penstemon. Near Indian Creek, Canyonlands, UT.

Ahh, my favorite - and I mean favorite - desert wildflower. Sphaeralcea coccinia, Common globemallow. It's common out there, not common up here; it will grow in my desert garden some day. Right next to the 3-tip sagebrush we liberated from the cabin in Montana and under the 10 madrones we have in pots on our patio - just waiting to be planted. They'll need to wait a little longer, they have about 20 projects ahead of them, including rebuilding the wall that will prop them up and keep them warm. Desert plants in Seattle? In my yard, hell yes.

Growing among the ruins of Penasco Blanco, Chaco Canyon

Asclepias sp, milkweed. I don't know the species. Pretty fantabulously interesting flower though. Chaco Canyon, AZ.

Delphinium sp. Larkspur. San Juan National Forest, CO.

Gilia aggregata, Scarlet Gilia. This stuff is just a brilliant flash of color in the desert. Canyon de Chelly, AZ.

Calochortus nuttallii, Sego Lily. The state flower of Utah. DO NOT PICK, you will be arrested. That's what my dad used to tell me, anyway. Canyonlands, UT.

Physaria newberryi, Newberry's twinpod. I sat down in the dirt and keyed this baby out. Look at those pods! Yellow 4-petal flowers in spring, but we missed that part. Canyonlands.

Platyschkuhria integrifolia, Nakedstem bahia. I'm not making up any of those names. Another plant I was determined to figure out with the books. Canyonlands.

Not too shabby this little flower. Reminds me of Coreopsis.

A delicate little mountain gem whose name I forget. Ginger's parents will need to rescue me again. San Juan National Forest.

I know like WTH is this? I couldn't figure it out. Anybody know?

And finally, a bunch of grass? This is a desert wetland! No kidding. It's got the three characteristics: The right color soil (gotta dig, it's mottled) , wetland indicating plant species, and hydrology. It's protected by a little outcropping of rocks, just enough to allow the soil to remain moist via a seep. This grass grows literally no where else but right here. I almost walked right past it, but luckily I had my plant nerd radar on full blast.

Well, that's it for this trip. We'll see the desert again in 2011! I already can't wait.

Since I met Ginger in 1998, we've been to the desert southwest 6 times:

1999: Zion, Red Canyon, Bryce, Escalante and we got engaged on this trip!

2001: Escalante area & Lake Powell w/ Ginger's parents. We rented Jeep Grand Cherokee and violated the rental agreement by taking it WAY off road and out of state.

2003: Las Vegas and the Grand Canyon

2005: Capitol Reef, Escalante, Zion, St. George

2007: Pagosa Springs, Hovenweep, Comb Wash, Lake Powell, Natural Bridges, San Rafael Swell

2009: Pagosa, Chaco Canyon, Canyon de Chelly, Chimney Rock, Canyonlands

Orange Crush Part 3 of 4, Plants that freakin’ rock, desert southwest

Before we begin with the plants, a gratuitous collared lizard shot (Chaco Canyon, AZ)

Now then, on to the desert plants!

(file under: Plants of the Week #9: Trees and Shrubs of the Desert Southwest)

I won’t list everything that we saw, just the cool stuff or plants for which we got great photos. And, sorry this took so long to roll out. Seeing all of these plants again takes us right back though!

The Cactus:

Cane Cholla, Cylindrapuntia spinosior (Chaco)

Brown spined prickly pear, Opuntia phaeacantha (Everywhere)

Claret cup, Echinocerus triglochidiatus (Everywhere, this specimen Chaco)

And cactus-like Narrowleaf Yucca, Yucca angstissima (mostly AZ)

The Trees: Everyone has seen the first two, but they have special significance since I spent a good chunk of my childhood exploring beneath their scarce shade. Just the smell of a pygmy forest brings back a flood of memories. Oh, and you make Gin from Juniper berries, yo.

Utah Juniper, Juniperus osteosperma (Everywhere, this specimen Canyon de Chelly)

Pinon Pine, Pinus edulis (Everywhere)

And very occasionally, usually on north facing canyon slopes, good ol’ Douglas Fir, Pseudotsuga menziesii (with a juvenile pinon pine in the background) (Canyonlands)

Fremont Cottonwood, Populus fremontii (We forded this stream in the 2WD Element. Ginger was like "WHA?" and I was like "Chillax". Canyonlands)

Other trees we enjoyed: Single leaved ash, Fraxinus anomala; Box elder, Acer negundo

The shrubs: There are about ten shrubs that all look like sagebrush from the road, but get to know them and you’ll see they are each specially adapted to certain ecological conditions and have their own merit. And only sagebrush smells like sagebrush, so this is an easy way to tell what something isn’t. Just to keep us all confused, there are many varieties of sagebrush out there, but only Three Tip gets over 4’ tall.

Three tip sagebrush, Artemesia tridentata (either side of Ginger; everywhere, but this is in Canyon de Chelly)

Fendlerbush, Fenderla rupicola (pretty amazing in bloom actually, Chimney Rock, CO)

Utah serviceberry, Amelanchier utahensis (San Juan National Forest, CO)

Chokecherry, Prunus virginiana (San Juan National Forest, CO)

Cliff rose, Purshia tridentata (Canyon de Chelly)

Fremont’s Mahonia, Berberis fremontii (Canyon de Chelly)

Mormon tea (caffeine free!), Ephedra viridis (Grows everywhere)

There were more but I'll spare you. I took note of these, but didn't get good pictures:

• Greasewood, Sarcobatus vermiculatus
• Shadescale, Atriplex confertifolia
• Four winged saltbrush, Atriplex canescens
• Mountain mahogany, Cerocarpus intricatus
• Desert sumac, Rhus aromatica
• Golden Currant, Ribes aureum (also grows in eastern WA, but looks completely different)
• Longflowered snowberry, Symphorocarpus longiflorus (coolest of the snowberry clan)

Next week:
Perennials. Try to stay in your seats.

Nice Hat.

Nice Hat., originally uploaded by gingershana.

OK, one more time, hopefully it's the right size now!

I hope I just added a photo to this post!

beacon

P1040311
Originally uploaded by gingershana

Don't run into the end of the spit!

Coupeville

Coupeville, originally uploaded by gingershana.

This is a test of Flickr's nifty 'blog this' feature. Hope it works!

Catching Up - Our July Vacation Part 2

So, off we went, leaving the scenery of the Gallatin National Forest for some new scenery: The Kootenai National Forest. First we had to get there; of course we decided that it was wise and more fun to completely avoid I-90, so we took the back roads. We dropped about 5000 feet in elevation over the course of the day, but you would hardly know it because you're still very much in the mountains. Our destination was Troy, MT.

This little corner of the very northernmost and westernmost part of Montana is the road less traveled. You wouldn't pass through here because it's on the way to nowhere else, except maybe Glacier National Park, but even so there are faster ways to find that NP. We stayed at our good, very good, friends' father's cabin, right on the Kootenai river, which flows down into Montana from Canada, takes note of America for a few hundred river miles and then retreats back to Canada. And what aboot that?

ANYWAY, it was a super nice cabin with fabulous views. We took a great hike into the Cabinet Mountain Wilderness to a alpine lake. On the far end of the lake, in the shade of the shear cliffs, was a small seasonal glacier that was cleaving off right as we were eating lunch! You'd see a big piece fall off, then hear it 3 seconds later rattling and booming through the valley. Then 5 minutes later the mini-Tsunami waves would bump the far shore. Pretty cool.

But I was far more interested in the - plant geek alert - thirteen species of conifer growing in a relatively short elevation range! I counted nine of these on our hike alone, of which my old Botany professor Roger del Moral might say is totally freaking bio-diverse-tastic. Plant nerd paradise indeed. Here's the conifer list off the forest service web site:

Northwest Montana Evergreens

Douglas-fir (Red Fir)

Englemann Spruce

Grand fir (White Fir)

Lodgepole Pine

Mountain Hemlock

Pacific Yew

Ponderosa Pine (Yellow Pine)

Subalpine fir

Western Hemlock

Western Larch (Tamarack)

Western Red Cedar

Western White Pine

Whitebark Pine

"I went to the Cabinet Mountains and all I did was look at plants." There was one point on the hike where we stopped to look at an avalanche track on the hill across the valley: we realized that we were also standing in another avalanche track. In this area about 50 feet along the trail there were about 12 species of shrubs. Down in the Puget lowlands where I live and work you'd never get that many. Interesting (to just me I guess) was the fact that around Seattle some of these species would never grow together. Wet-loving species right next to species that don't need any water.

So the Cabinet Mountains are a pretty unique place. It's pretty much undiscovered and the locals are no doubt divided about this: Tourist money vs. the old way of life. Again, do not order the fish. Stick with cow meat.

Other highlights? The rock quarry between Kalispell and Libby, MT. This Landscape Architect almost drove off the road after seeing 30' long slabs of Montana ledgestone sitting out in the stone yard - ready for me to buy, truck down and integrate into the Garff Residence Masterplan. Should have pulled over but they were closed...

After 3 days we had to pack up and drive home.

The avalanche tracks

Shrub biodiversity at it's finest. I assure you Ginger does not care. Hey - I do too care!"

Mini-glacier creating mini-tsunamis

Thought this looked straight out of a How To Design Japanese Gardens for Dummies. The bonzai-ish tree, carefully placed stone, shrub background and beargrass foreground. All naturale.

Hurry up, my dogs are barkin'

Even more photos...

Ginger's Flickr account hosts even more photos of the Gulf Islands trip and other vacations. Check it out!

And because you wanted to know, here's what we ate last night. Tomatoes from our garden. MMM!

Catching Up - Our July Vacation Part 1

As Ginger soaks her feet (seriously) as part of our Gulf Island recovery plan, I thought I'd catch up on our Montana vacation from way back in July. The first half was the inaugural Garff family reunion at Grandma and Grandpa's cabin, built in 1947 near Hebgen Lake.

(The lake most recently made headlines for a "malfunctioning headgate" which forced the evacuation of the Madison River below the dam. The dam is older than dirt. And filled with dirt. Grandpa Garff used to say he "went to the dam to get some dam water. But the dam man said I couldn't have any dam water. So I told the dam man to keep his dam water. And I didn't swear once" to wide eyed nephews. How could Grandpa say that? WOW!)

We've attended many reunions here with extended family, always a blast, but this time it was just the FOURTEEN of us + Lola the sole attending species of Canis familiaris. Grandma Judy, the Hawkins, Fosters and Garff's (Me and Ginger). It was seriously fun.

The cabin played a huge role in my formative years and there is not a corner of the house, garage, the surrounding landscape and even the outhouse(!) that doesn't have a vivid memory attached to it. We went to the cabin every summer no matter what and played in the boats and on the beach with the cousins, 2nd cousins, great aunts and uncles, regular aunts and uncles, cousins once removed, Grandma and Grandpa. Sometimes we'd go early in the spring before you should really be recreating at 7000 feet in the Gallatin National Forest. A few times my Dad and I would sneak away after the cabin was closed in the fall and launch the fishing boat into the cold water for one last fishing trip. And we'd launch that little boat with the black velvet upolstered '77 Pontiac Catalina - a car I would later crash at age 14 with my cousin Ben at where else, but the cabin.

The cabin makes you sick (dry heaves twice), the cabin burns your skin (no ozone in Montana), the cabin gives you rashes, splinters, a billion insect bites and the occasional close call with a bear. But the cabin pays you back with the clear sunsets, amazing scenery, unrivaled wildflowers, amazing hikes and incredible memories that fade far slower than anything else.

We spent 4 days eating too much, playing crazy games (Pit is still my favorite) and beating up the neices and nephews behind the boat. The mosquitos were horrible this year but who cares, you're at the cabin.

Kate on the player piano (Sorry Kate, but I am still the best at making the old instrument sing!)

That's Ellen and her prized Vaccinium membranaceum cobbler. Some call it Mountain Huckleberry. Some say it's the state fruit of Idaho. Others call it the best part about the cabin.

Leah did a lot of this. And Sam sort of did the opposite. Who was more enjoyable to be around?

Costco gave us the HO GT3! Are you sure you want more speed, because I can (and did) flip this thing over! Sammie, Adrie and Nick.

Nathan conquers kneeboard.

Kate is screaming for me to slow down. I can't hear you over the roar of the V8 sucking gas!

Sammie pulls a deep water start.

And Uncle Mark loves to drive the boat. Really loves it. As long as Grandma Judy buys the gas. Which she did, at only $4.75/gallon.

After 4 days of fun, cobbler, food, boat, noise, hikes, family, food, little sleep, noise, food, games, water, sun, food, sand, tennis ball w/ Lola, food, noise and fun we bid farewell and headed off on the Montana backroads to Troy, MT. Population: more ungulates than people. This would be a far calmer 2nd half of the vaca. Coming up in July Vacation part II.