Alberta Wanderings 2010

[cohan]

i thought i wouldn't start a thread for this year until i got past some of the same early spring images i have posted a couple of times already-seems i get inundated with images once the flower season is fully underway, and never catch up!
i'm doing better this year, though not 100% up to date...lol
first off, a few images from a walk on the family farm which my acreage was carved from (now uncle's land);
wetlands are common here, and except for the very wettest spots, they naturally tend to be wooded, even if its smallish willows, dwarf birch(betula pumila) etc, but also tamaracks (larix laricina) and black spruce (picea mariana)..

many areas are kept artificially cleared (sometimes burning, often bulldozing) in order to keep them suitable for grazing, and of course heavy grazing will help them stay clear; one large wet area just behind my acreage has become quite overgrown over the last couple of decades of reduced grazing, which makes quite a difference to the flora--some species i saw as a youth are gone (dodecatheon, spiranthes, etc) others much reduced in flowering (menyanthes); other species don't seem to much care, and carry on shady or sunny (caltha), while still other species are suited particularly for the semi/wooded wet areas (rubus arcticus, maianthemum trifolium etc)..

so this walk was into a somewhat overgrown place-in areas like woodland, other spots more open with clumps of willow and birch, grasses, sedges etc in the most open places...
(more shots and info in my picasa album http://picasaweb.google.ca/cactuscactus/June032010NorthernSpringSkunkberryAndSolomonSSeal# )

first some general shots of the area..
1- the slough, with willow and birch in front; regular woodlands visible behind;
2-3, 5 my path is to the right, where it becomes more wooded..
4-Larix laricina just leafing out

[cohan]

ok--just about time to get ready for work, i'll squeeze in one more!

1 Pyrola sp
i seem to see this type of leaf in exactly this type of location, different from our super common P asarifolia; haven't seen them in flower, no id...
2,3 Maianthemum trifolium
only realised last fall that these are not the same as the ubiquitous canadense..duh..
this is the only spot i saw plants with speckled leaves!
4 Rubus arcticus
very common, but always utterly charming, especially in spring foliage colour..

[christian pfalz]

cohan, do you have yucca in your area ? i´m interested on seeds, and opuntia cuttings from clones which are very hard, i´m interested too...
thanks
cheers
chris

[cohan]

cohan, do you have yucca in your area ? i´m interested on seeds, and opuntia cuttings from clones which are very hard, i´m interested too...
thanks
cheers
chris

no, sorry.. Yucca glauca makes it just into the far south of alberta, many hours drive from here, someplace i have never been to! the Opuntia polyacantha and fragilis are much more common-still not in my area, but a few hours from here ( in my picasa albums you can see pictures from an area where they grow, last year and the year before);if i get there this year, i will keep you in mind, otherwise we can wait until my own very small plants  from cuttings do some growing 
i wonder about sending polyacantha cuttings in the mail--maybe they'd need a haircut first 

[cohan]

within the semi-open slough with clumps of willows and betula pumila, and scattered larix, there are a few old wooded mini ridges (only a couple of feet higher than the surrounding land);
i suspect these grew up on old brush piles where the trees etc were pushed aside when the area was cleared many decades ago (these ridges  already had mature trees when i was young), and or along old fallen larix--i was told there was a dieoff of larix before i was born: there had been huge trees that were used for logs..nothing yet has got to that size since!

naturally, the flora is a little different along these drier, shadier 'ridges', many typical species of the surrounding woodlands-Pyrolas, Mitellas, Geocaulon, etc; some of the wetland species will grow anywhere moist, especially Caltha palustris, which grows through these wooded areas, especially along the low wet areas threading through--old cattle trails, less/unused with fewer cattle on the property than there used to be! (pic 3)
1 Geocaulon lividum
2 Vaccinium vitis-idaea a fairly common plant, though never really abundant here
3-6 Caltha palustris note varied flowers-these plants were almost adjacent..

[cohan]

widespread within the wooded 'ridges' and elsewhere below birch and willow,
Maianthemum trifolium just coming into flower at this time..
something about the lighting and the colours of this plant caused the images to sort of wash out, but in a kind of poetic way!

[cohan]

1,2 Salix sp pretty seed pods and leaves; i assume this is the typical large shrub/small multi-stemmed tree form of most willows here..
3,4 Rubus arcticus the splashes of deep pink are conspicuous for a low plant, but its hard to get a good flower shot, as the flowers are usually raggedy, and carried below their own and other foliage..

[cohan]

farther along, another interesting spot: a more recent brush pile in a long line, with willow mixed wet woods on one side, a young dense stand of larix on the other; the bush on each side and raised area of the brush pile seemed to make this strip a little warmer than surrounding, shadier lower soil, so the plants were a bit farther along..
i've been figuring out our local Ribes species, and here made the acquaintance of R glandulosum--a really pretty low sprawly shrub..
1,2 the brush pile, mixed wet woods to one side
3 the young Larix laricina stand to the other side
4-6 Ribes glandulosum pale flower form
7 another Ribes sp a gooseberry type
8,9 Lonicera involucrata more typical in  regular woodland situations, the brushpile keeps it up from the wet ground..

[Gerdk]

Cohan,
Thanks for these new impressive and detailed  described ' wanderings ' - enjoyed it very much!

Gerd

[cohan]

thanks gerd, i hope at least a few people enjoy them
i think being too detailed is probably my failing this year, i will put all the pictures on picasa, and then only a few here..
i have some violets to come, and maybe you can help me with the marsh/bog species...

[cohan]

this first image should have gone with the last post-
1 Chrysosplenium iowense (alternifolium)
a plant i loved to see patches of when i was younger, and in the last couple of years had not seen much..either its doing better this year, or likely i looked in better places at a better time; still usually very small patches on this farm, since there is a lot of competition from other plants; i think it did better in days of more grazing! but widespread, nonetheless; shady wet areas, often at the northern edge of woods bordering wetlands..

2,3 out of the wet woods, and just before entering regular woods, there is a border area that has remained more popular with cattle, so it has stayed more in grasses etc, and not grown in..
4 Glechoma hederacea a foreign weed, doing very nicely at the damp edge of the woods, here, but not widespread enough to be a real concern on this land, at least..
5 Petasites sagitattus the foliage at maybe the most beautiful stage, half grown or less, and very white!
that's it for this walk--my camera battery died! luckily nothing too exciting was spotted in the 10 minutes or so to walk back to the house

[fleurbleue]

Very nice and interesting plants Cohan, thank you  Some seeds from you have already grown up and I can't wait for the other
 species !

[cohan]

thanks nicole--glad to hear that i'll be happy to see some pics when they look like something

[christian pfalz]

cohan, sorry i forget that alberta is a big country, not so in germany 
thanks a lot..
cheers
chris

[Stephenb]

Cohan: glad you are continuing to wander in 2010! Great stuff and please keep up the detail!! Does Rubus arcticus produce a lot of fruit? It grows in Norway but is quite local in its distribution apart from in the far north (Troms and Finnmark) and fruit is uncommon. How about R. stellatus - do you have that one too?