Alberta Wanderings 2010

[Lori S.]

Yes, just out of curiosity, I did look it up... it's called Medicine Lodge Ski Area, south of Highway 12.  I haven't been there either (and no interest, as well) - it looks like it's probably not visible from the highway...

For some reason, I can't post the link to the satellite photo in Google.... but it's amazing to have such easy access to something like that!  (But funny too, in that if you just type the name of ski area into Google, it comes up with a spot out in a cultivated field a few miles out to the west... the wrong coordinates must have been registered!)

[cohan]

Cohan,
Once again - I love your 'show' from your part of the world very much, let me feel like to be there!

Gerd

thanks, gerd

[cohan]

Yes, just out of curiosity, I did look it up... it's called Medicine Lodge Ski Area, south of Highway 12.  I haven't been there either (and no interest, as well) - it looks like it's probably not visible from the highway...

For some reason, I can't post the link to the satellite photo in Google.... but it's amazing to have such easy access to something like that!  (But funny too, in that if you just type the name of ski area into Google, it comes up with a spot out in a cultivated field a few miles out to the west... the wrong coordinates must have been registered!)

that's the one
one of those 'rivers' that wander through the area is the 'medicine river' the other is the 'blindman river';
i think i will have to break down and find some good paper maps--
i've spent a half hour trying to look at maps online--google often doesn't have any names for smaller features like these (i agree the satellite images are fascinating, though vary in quality--my road has such poor quality images that i can't tell for sure where i am on it..lol), and many other maps also don't show (or don't name) small features, or by the time you get close enough to see them, the map is  focussed on such a small area that you can't tell where anything is...lol..then, terrain/topo maps etc often don't show place names, so again, hard to tell what's where when looking at these small places.....

[cohan]

i posted a few shots of things still flowering in early november--
http://www.srgc.org.uk/smf/index.php?topic=6205.15
here is an album with the last flowers, plus pots of seedlings etc..
http://picasaweb.google.com/cactuscactus/November072010LastFlowers#


here are a few shots from my drive to work from nov 15, then the 16th!

[cohan]

and some images around home, first nov 04, then 16,18

an album with more from 11 04, not labelled yet..
http://picasaweb.google.com/cactuscactus/November042010Home#

[Ragged Robin]

Cohan with a cappuccino to hand I have been traveling through your recent landscapes and thoroughly enjoyed the views!  Is it mainly wheat growing in your part?  These end of year images are so homely somehow and the homesteads and buildings really become part of the whole.

The seabuckthorn berries glow so yellow, what a wonderful sight - do birds take them after the red berries or are they equally popular? 

What wonderful names attached to lakes and rivers, intriguing to to know why Medicine River and Blindman's River?  Comforting to know you work near Leslieville - it has a good ring to it from another part of the globe!

Love your shot of sunlight through your trees and I have to say that our forest Autumn in the Alps looks remarkably similar to yours except from a different angle 

[cohan]

tks robin
right here, there is some wheat, also barley, oats and canola (may still be called rape seed in europe?) as you go a bit east, the conditions shift just enough that wheat becomes more common, and i even (in the trip to gull lake) saw some fields of corn-i'm not 100% sure what they do with this--i'm guessing it is harvested green for cattle feed, since even in that area corn would not be reliably ripening, so it could not be grown for ripe grain for human or animal consumption--ok i just did  a little quick research, and as i thought, a lot of it is raised for silage, but also it used to graze the cattle on over winter..apparently this practise is being promoted and spreading in central alberta..
http://www.topcropmanager.com/content/view/3428/38/
http://www.agcanada.com/Article.aspx?ID=28744
the second link is farther south, but should be a roughly similar outcome to the areas around gull lake..
medicine river:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medicine_River_(Alberta)
the name comes from native words, 'medicine' was an early translation roughly referring to things with spiritual/healing properties (my paraphrasing; eg-this place has strong medicine)..think of medicine wheels, for example..
blindman river has two naming theories, according to wikipedia-one relating to an incident of blindness on the river, one referring to the winding river's lack of sightlines:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blindman_River

i'm not sure if the birds eventually take the seabuckthorn--i would assume so, but i have not been there in later winter to see--certainly the berries are tasty, though hard to remove..i know here the birds strip all berries, including white cornus (almost immediately) and symphoricarpos -takes longer, maybe because the bushes are near the ground, not so comfortable for some of the berry eating species..there were also some cornus berries left at gull lake, which there are not here, so maybe the birds just hadn't got there yet....

yes, my forest doesn't have too much angle, unless i hold the camera sideways

[TheOnionMan]

Cohan, I was looking around at Alberta on Google Maps in reference to your mystery Eriogonum (possibly E. androsaceum), to get a general idea about where the plant is found, before exploring more in the floras, and I am curious about one thing I see in the satellite view.  heading west and reaching the mountains, past Strachan, I see this patchwork of clearings, but zooming in on them they clearly are not for building development.  Do these clear patches represent logging areas?

Also I'm amazed by the very sensible approach to most roads laid out on a strict rectilinear grid, whereas the curvy spaghetti network of roads in eastern USA cities can challenge the navigational skills of even life-long residents of these areas.

[cohan]

mark, i'm not personally familiar with that area, but it must be logging--i know there is logging around-you see logging trucks occasionally, but most of it is kept away from major roads, especially into the mountains where obviously views of clear cut are not good for tourism (you see logging roads in places, but rarely can you see the cleared areas from the highway)..
this should be into government land which is managed by provincial forestry agency..

its possible to run straight roads a) in areas where the roads were built before there was much settlement (and/or a grid established for settlement) , so that there are not many homesteads to work around and b) where there aren't too many geographical features to get in the way; we do of course have lakes that cause diversions, less commonly hills, since they are not rock, no reason to go around them-just over or carve a road through ..of course once into foothills and mountains, its a very different story..

[TheOnionMan]

I finally got myself organized and wrote to Dr. James L. Reveal, Ph.D, Professor Emeritus, University of Maryland and noted authority on the genus Eriogonum, regarding the mystery Eriogonum from west central Alberta that you so nicely illustrated here:
http://www.srgc.org.uk/smf/index.php?topic=5641.msg170030#msg170030

I've heard back from Dr. Reveal, he reviewed the photos, and reported back  "All images are of Eriogonum androsaceum Benth. As for a distinction between E. ovalifolium and E. androsaceum  all one needs to do is look at the base of the flower. In the first the rounded base of the flower is directly attached onto the pedicel; in E. androsaceum there is a short stalk ("stipe") that extends from the narrow base of the flower down to the pedicel.

Nice pictures of E. androsaceum and if you look at the narrow leaf blades that are faintly lined on the thinly and darkish tomentose upper surface that will quickly distinguish this species from the broader leaved E. ovalifolium  that is usually distinctly densely white tomentose on a smooth upper surface.  The line business is something you can best see in the field as this is faint and does not really preserve on herbarium specimens."

Cohan (code name: the Condor ), maybe go back to your message and edit it to add the update about the positive ID, these might be the first photo images available on the web of this particular species. ( edit by Maggi : I have done this for the Condor    )

I also sent Dr. Reveal this link that reports an expansion of stated range of E. androsaceum in the e-Flora of British Columbia:
http://www.srgc.org.uk/smf/index.php?topic=5641.msg170132#msg170132
Dr. Reveal writes: "I am aware of this but have seen no specimens to support this".

[Lori S.]

I also sent Dr. Reveal this link that reports an expansion of stated range of E. androsaceum in the e-Flora of British Columbia:
http://www.srgc.org.uk/smf/index.php?topic=5641.msg170132#msg170132
Dr. Reveal writes: "I am aware of this but have seen no specimens to support this".

Does it say somewhere in the eFlora of BC that the range is expanding... ?  I can't find it.  Flora of Alberta (Moss, Packer; 1992) indicate the range as including southern BC in the 1983 2nd edition, so it has been in the general area for some time... ? 

Given the conflicting descriptions of this species, and the lack of photos, I'm not sure which records should be believed and which not! 

[TheOnionMan]

I also sent Dr. Reveal this link that reports an expansion of stated range of E. androsaceum in the e-Flora of British Columbia:
http://www.srgc.org.uk/smf/index.php?topic=5641.msg170132#msg170132
Dr. Reveal writes: "I am aware of this but have seen no specimens to support this".

Does it say somewhere in the eFlora of BC that the range is expanding... ?  I can't find it.  Flora of Alberta (Moss, Packer; 1992) indicate the range as including southern BC in the 1983 2nd edition, so it has been in the general area for some time... ? 

Given the conflicting descriptions of this species, and the lack of photos, I'm not sure which records should be believed and which not! 

Lori, my mistake for accepting the Flora of North America, I see from the USDA site, Hitchcock & Cronquist "Flora of the Pacific Northwest", and other references (I don't have Flora of Alberta but believe its findings) that I've been misled by the online Flora of North America site which does not include BC in the plant's range.  The E-Flora of BC clearly reflects the existence of E. androsaceum in BC, not as a new thing, but as further confirmation, shedding more question on the Flora of North America site.  I wonder if the FONA site regards the BC species as belonging to a different taxa, such as E. flavum... just guessing why the discrepancy.
http://www.efloras.org/object_page.aspx?object_id=92192&flora_id=1
http://www.efloras.org/florataxon.aspx?flora_id=1&taxon_id=250060170

Thanks for your research and taxonomic diligence!

Mark McD.

[cohan]

thanks mark for the research, and maggi for the editing! i will have to change labels and tags on my picasa page so these images will be searchable..
ironic that it turned out to be what i initially called it out of ignorance...lol

lori, did you decide that this is the same as the plants you commonly see west of you?

note: i've been told there is some discussion going on about the stipes mentioned above, and these erios, at the NARGS forum; we'll see what may be concluded eventually...

[cohan]

a few shots around the acreage yesterday; it was cold- somewhere below -20C in the daytime, so i didn't stay out long taking pics, though it was nice to see the sun after a week of intermittent snow and mostly cloudy...
pic 1 a view through the trees to the neighbour's cows..
pic 2 a cat that we suspected had been around for a few weeks, but scarcely seen; well he/she (we're still a little shakey on this, and i am suspecting a neutered male) came out into the open a couple of days ago when it was very cold, and we decided to feed him/her (we usually don't encourage cats that may come from neighbours etc, since our existing cat-who came from the neighbours a couple of years ago...lol has been having a very bad year with visiting cats beating him up)..well, this cat was totally tame, friendly, and starving he/she seems to be staying in an old building on the property, or maybe under it..there is no place heated for it--we have no porch or barns, and our cat is dead set against it coming in (i tried second day against better judgement, and our other cat was instantly in attack mode, so straight back out) so we are hoping maybe we can find another home for it before the next deep freeze (warming up overnight tonight, back to more normal temps..) or else i may try to build some makeshift but well insulated lair for it..still not sure if we can rig any sort of heat, though....
pic 3 my rock gardens past and future--mostly dug all the old rocks, pots sunk into soil for winter; see the bumps...lol
pics 4, 5 trees behind the house, and just inside the driveway
pic 6 native, self sown, ubiquitious Rosa acicularis; one of the few fruits to make it into winter without all being eaten by birds...

[cohan]

road shots from the trip to work, yesterday..
note: the mountain shots are zoomed, but have an effect similar to or just slightly larger than the way we perceive them visually (that is, we unconsciously zoom in on the area of interest, block out the rest of the view)
compare pic 7 with the same view in reply #183 above)