May 09 in the Rockies

[cohan]

thanks, maggi--it is a great pleasure to share it, too, just the weight of all those other photos waiting to be dealt with...lol--i am now up to 5 temporary folders that i have (usually several hundred in each) stacked up waiting for sorting so that i can keep downloading more to the computer..but this is the most intense season for photos--between flowers, day trips and exciting stormy skies...
nearly done this thread, one or two more sets to go, hopefully finish tonight, started getting the pics ready, now time to go...

[Sinchets]

We have seeds on some D.meadia (possibly hybrids) just now and I am currently growing Dd.conjugens and jeffreyi from US wild seeds. You are right though they are little stunners when flowering. We have them in a woodland bed where they are quite, dry but shaded in summer.

do these species stay tiny for you?
my wildflower book gives size ranges from 10-20cm fro conjugens and 5-50 for pulchellum..not sure if different clones stick to a height, or if its all environmental..certainly a number of plants that grow higher up and here are much taller down here...
here, the dodecs are flowers basically of wet meadows, what we call sloughs, which could have standing water in spring and in wet years, and could be dry or merely moist in dryer years/by midsummer..i suspect similar of the spots i found them in the mountains...

No, here our Dodecatheon have been taller than they were in England- they came here bare-rooted during their summer dormancy. This Spring they were about 25cm in shade and in a woodlandy soil behind the barn. In England they were in polystyrene fishboxes in a peaty soil, but out in the sun and were shorter.  I imagine a lot of the differences in the wild are cultural. We hope to build numbers up so we can try some out in a seasoanlly wet area of the meadow in the next few years. It would be great to see them settle in and self sow like that.

[Lesley Cox]

Rag, the Kootenay ram was a character in a story by Canadian writer Ernest Thompson Seton. Delving really deep into my dark past here.

Must look for that little primula on the seedlists, a real cutie.

[Kristl Walek]

If you are interested in the genus Dodecatheon---the following article is very insightful.
As the author states:

"Dodecatheon is notoriously difficult taxonomically. Members of the genus are widespread throughout much of North America. The boundaries between species are sometimes blurred and the variation within the more widespread species (such as the eastern D. meadia and the western D. pulchellum) can be bewildering. Nearly all recognized species are replete with an array of synonyms, and many names, used in the past, have proven to be not legitimate or misapplied adding to the nomenclatural morass."

http://www.plantsystematics.org/reveal/pbio/fna/dodecatheon.html

The majority of the western species I have grown from wild-collected seed under distinct names have now turned out to be primarily variants of D. pulchellum.

Lesley,
Primula misstassinica is also here in Ontario---and I normally carry wild collected seed most years.

[Lesley Cox]

Thanks Kristl. When is your seed list ready usually and will you still be doing that when you finally move? Or maybe you'll become a brain surgeon or a concert pianist instead?   Which reminds me that I haven't replied to an email from NS.

[Kristl Walek]

Lesley,

Haven't done a list in years--and the beauty of a web-based catalogue is that it is never static. Species get listed as they become freshly available; species get taken off when sold out. I've started adding the 2009 fresh species already. The 2008 Primula mistassinica is still viable and available now; new stock will be available in about 6 weeks.

[cohan]

Must look for that little primula on the seedlists, a real cutie.

i was going to say kristl has it listed, but she beat me to it its actually funny, i have the seed from kristl, and was quite surprised to see the same name when i looked up the plants i found...

[cohan]

No, here our Dodecatheon have been taller than they were in England- they came here bare-rooted during their summer dormancy. This Spring they were about 25cm in shade and in a woodlandy soil behind the barn. In England they were in polystyrene fishboxes in a peaty soil, but out in the sun and were shorter.  I imagine a lot of the differences in the wild are cultural. We hope to build numbers up so we can try some out in a seasoanlly wet area of the meadow in the next few years. It would be great to see them settle in and self sow like that.

i really hope i can find a spot to look at the locals and compare....both spots i saw them in the mountains were truly tiny--probably less than 10cm..

[cohan]

nearing the end, at last
early in the trip, i had been seeing large patches of a pale yellow flowering pea, and at a couple of the stops i found a few here and there, but hadnt had a chance to shoot any of the big patches, so on the way back through those areas (on highway 11, kootenay plains and surrounding areas) we watched for a place to stop..
finally we found a place that had the plants i wanted, plus a last chance to walk down to Abraham Lake;
it was amazing to see how much lower the water is this year (there could have been meltwater yet to come from higher up, where there was still snow on may 30)

[cohan]

so here are the peas, which kristl suggested could be
Oxytropis sericea
my book doesnt actually have a pic of that species, but it seems to fit..
plus another less abundant one, probably
Hedysarum boreale?
this one was nearly impossible to photograph, as those flowers would not be still on the windy roadside!

[cohan]

final pic posting for this thread!
same spot: an exposed roadside just above Abraham Lake;
two pulsatillas; i'd been watching all spring for
Pulsatilla patens
no luck, here i found one seedhead, but not ripe.. and what seems to be
Pulsatilla occidentalis
the relationship between Pulsatilla and anemone must be very close in these western species..
again my little cabbage,  simon has suggested maybe
Draba sp
Sisyrinchium sp
and, a good note to end on:
Dryas drummondii
one of the most typical plants of the (at least lower) rockies--most conspicuous when the small flowers turn to big fuzzy seedheads over the ubiquitous flat mats of foliage on roadsides and slopes; i was happy to catch them in flower for a change..
finally, the road toward home...

[Sinchets]

Just dropping by to drool over those glorious 'peas'- I had some Hedysarum boreale from seed this year, but some caterpillars trashed them  next year I will be more vigilant.

[cohan]

Just dropping by to drool over those glorious 'peas'- I had some Hedysarum boreale from seed this year, but some caterpillars trashed them  next year I will be more vigilant.

tks, simon...in my immediate area, we have very few of the rosette or bushy peas, but we have tons of climbers--probably Lathyrus ochroleucus and Vicia sp..they dont have the vegetative appeal of the dry/high land species, but the flowers are nice and they are EVERYWHERE..lol..vicia flowers pretty much the same as the Hedysarum..

with luck i will be able to get some seeds of those mountain species, if they arent emptied out already by the time i get back...

[Sinchets]

Well, I have had problems with various Vicia in the past- but i still like them. I've never seen Lathyrus ochroleucus though.

[Paul T]

Cohan,

Gorgeous pics as always.  Love the two peas, and that fascinating Dryas.