Shunda to Columbia Icefields, Alberta Rockies in July

[Ragged Robin]

Lovely little things poking out of the rocks in a very barren but beckoning landscape, Cohan, Saxifraga aizoides is cute, more flower than anything!  But some of the ground hugging leaves are real stunners like the Salix - is it always windy there?

[johnw]

pic 4 Salix sp reticulata?

Cohan

Lovely willows but hmm, don't think it is reticulata so unless they are drastically different in the west. 

Also vestita should be hairy underneath.

I wouldn't dare to wade into what they might be. Salix and Galanthus, you know...

johnw

[cohan]

pic 4 Salix sp reticulata?

Cohan

Lovely willows but hmm, don't think it is reticulata so unless they are drastically different in the west. 

Also vestita should be hairy underneath.

I wouldn't dare to wade into what they might be. Salix and Galanthus, you know...

johnw

lol--tks, john--i wouldnt wade deeply into that either those were just a couple stabs from the limited offerings in the book i have; i dont know which other or how many small salix species there are in that area..

[cohan]

Lovely little things poking out of the rocks in a very barren but beckoning landscape, Cohan, Saxifraga aizoides is cute, more flower than anything!  But some of the ground hugging leaves are real stunners like the Salix - is it always windy there?

tks, robin, i love the little willows too... i've only been up there a few times, but i imagine it would be windy much of the time--with the temperature differential from the icecap to the lower areas, and prevailing weather systems coming through the mountains from the pacific before they get to me!

[cohan]

not far from the Columbia Icefield, a little way back south, toward home, still at a pretty high elevation, below the treeline, but not by much; i'd stopped at this place before, one of the few good spots along this highway to get off the road and look around, but i hadn't been during main flowering time before, so i was excited about this stop, and it didn't disappoint me..
site 7 Icefields Parkway, south of Columbia Icefield
the site is a small chunk of land that juts out from the mountains and highway behind, dropping off sharply to a river valley on two sides
pic 1-5 looking ahead from where we parked, the plants were along this ridge, especially from where the trees start, then  follow the open wooded area along the back...
then a couple of plants living on the edge
pic 6 Oxytropis monticola?
a pea with a view
pic 7,8 Zigadenus elegans
have to get used to that new name, though it is so much less poetic!
pic 9 Dasyphora floribunda / Potentilla fruticosa
see, i can get used to some new names these are small to midsized at this site; there were still some flowers another time when i visited in fall and it was snowing here...
pic 10 Solidago sp
very lowgrowing at this site..

[cohan]

site 7
this is a lovely little
Potentilla sp
 i initially thought there were two species: one growing more or less singly in fairly exposed spots near the edge of the ridge, then patches in a somewhat shadier area farther in... finally, i think it was all one species... looks similar to what lori has as P gracilis? though leaves aren't visible in her pic, and the species doesn't appear in my book....lol
a couple of not very exciting pics of the leaves included ...

[cohan]

site 7
a few more species that were scattered among the trees and shrubs in a fairly open, sunny area
pics 1-4 Erigeron aureus?
only a few inches high
pics 5-9 Salix sp
two species, one prostrate (5-7; 7 is in a shadier spot), the other a few inches high

[Ragged Robin]

Cohan, wonderful landscape shots to open with - aren't the trees dark and dramatic?!

I really like Zigadenus elegans - even if it's new name is 'less poetic' the plant certainly is poetic in bud and flower ...the potentilla too a gorgeous splash of yellow...thanks 

[cohan]

Cohan, wonderful landscape shots to open with - aren't the trees dark and dramatic?!

I really like Zigadenus elegans - even if it's new name is 'less poetic' the plant certainly is poetic in bud and flower ...the potentilla too a gorgeous splash of yellow...thanks 

thanks, robin- it really is a land of contrasts: dark trees, light stones and earth, bare rock and riotous green meadows and  ranked forests, waterfall, rivers, lakes, sloughs and dry slopes, hot sun and patches of snow!

the zigadenus is a fave of mine too; its still flowering all over in roadsides here; it seems to me its spreading down here, i dont remember it at all when i was young, and even this year compared to the last couple there seem to be more flowering..i think it may be spreading along highway ditches, as it is less common on back roads, and then nearer the highways, so i think its just starting to spread down the side roads...

[cohan]

site 7
on to some plants i have not encountered at the other sites i have photographed, though i think they are common enough...  a couple of heaths...
pic 1a a view of part of the area where the 2 species occurred, in open coniferous woods, though plants ranged from quite open to quite shady spots, and extended down the back of the slope as well
pic 2 Cassiope and Phyllodoce
pics 3-7 Cassiope tetragona
as far as i know  these are the same, is the red form environmental or varietal?

[cohan]

site 7
the second of the heaths,
pics 1-5 Phyllodoce glanduliflora
pic 1 with Cassiope at the dry semi-shady base of a spruce tree
pic 3 showing how it got the specific name...
pic 6 behind the little ridge into the trees is where the habitat of the Phyllodoce and Cassiope begins
pic 7 the botaniser in action, probably looking at Potentilla
pic 8 more of the area with Cassiope etc, the slope drops off just behind
pics 9,10 a couple of views across the valley behind..

[cohan]

site 7
two more faves
pics 1-4 Androsace chamaejasme
growing in several spots here--esp right on the exposed ridge, among Arctostaphylos etc; this species was flowering in may at lower elevations..
pic 5 Dryas drummondii
still in flower up here
pics 6-9 Dryas octopetala
intermingled with D drummondii in places; tending to somewhat sheltered and partly shady spots; flowers were just dotted here and there, not sure if it had heavier flowering at another time, maybe not due to shade? or its just less floriferous than drummondii.


edit by Maggi: really good to see the Dryas octopetala, cohan....the  SRGC emblem plant !!

[cohan]

still at site 7, a little south of the Columbia Icefields
the peas were not as prevalent at this site as at some others, but there were still a few
pic 1 Hedysarum boreale?
pic 2 Oxytropis monticola?
pic 3 ? Astragalus?
and some more composites
pic 4 unknown?
to me quite different florally than what i called Erigeron aureus at this site ray flowers fewer, wider, with 'serrated' tips...
pics 5,6 Erigeron compositus?
all the plants i saw (only a few) had this immature flower heads with very short ray flowers, not sure how much they will lengthen; i dont remember the one in my garden doing this, but maybe i just dont remember?
pics 7-10 ? Saxifraga?
not sure what this is, small lanceolate leaves; petals with uneven edges on some flowers only, others smooth

[cohan]

a last few flowers and views from this site--
pic 1 parking; you can see tree and snowline is not much higher!
pics 2,3 another ridge toward the highway, much less floristically diverse than the area farther back--perhaps this area was scraped clean not so long ago by road work or avalanche?
the castillejas below were in this area;
pic 4 another small slope behind the bare area, the bulk of photos/species were to the rear and off to the right, out of frame...
pic 5 Antennaria sp
leves in foreground from other plants
pic 6 Achillea sp like the antennarias, hard to imagine any site in alberta without them
pic 7 Draba sp?
a tiny plant, just at the edge of the open woods
pic 8 Gentiana/nella
with Androsace, Arctostaphylos; guess i just missed this one, unless its one of those that doesn't open?
pics 9,10 Castilleja
in the open gravelly area near the road, with Dryas drummondii etc...

[Ragged Robin]

Cohan, the bell shapes of flower such as Cassitetra and Phyllodglandus are very attractive CU and carpeting the ground - I also like the pea form in 090715