Alberta Wanderings 2011

[cohan]

Clearly not 2010, but I think I'll just keep posting here rather than starting another thread...lol

Edit by Maggi..... no, we'll have a new thread for 2011!

First mountain trip of the year, May 31.... around 13 hours, 525km, about 6.5hours driving, a short breakfast in town on the way and a short supply stop there on the way back, the rest divided between around 10 stops....
First full album:
https://picasaweb.google.com/cactuscactus/AlbertaRockyMountainsMay312011AOnTheRoad#

Not far from Rocky Mountain House, and first views of the mountains...

   

[cohan]

First stop, Nordegg area.. some of you may have received seeds from me from this area--lots of interesting roadsides, cleared during road building/maintenance, in an area that would otherewise be forested...
full album:  https://picasaweb.google.com/cactuscactus/AlbertaRockyMountainsMay312011BNordegg#

This little composite, which I think has mainly basal leaves, not sure if I have seen it in flower, was in several seed packets that went out!



A few things in flower:

Dryas drummondii              Oxytropis sericea (presumably)       Astragalus? (just starting...)

             

Some mats:

Antennaria sp.                      Dryas

           
              

[cohan]

A quick stop at the Abraham Lake viewpoint...
full album:  https://picasaweb.google.com/cactuscactus/AlbertaRockyMountainsMay312011CAbrahamLake#

On the way there, and the view from there....

       


New to me, or not seen often at least... this slender crucifer-- Arabis? with fingertip for scale in last image...

         

[cohan]

Sorry, just realised photos were too large in the last couple postings!

Next spot on Abraham Lake; this is where I photographed the Eriogonum etc last fall....
https://picasaweb.google.com/cactuscactus/AlbertaRockyMountainsMay312011DAbrahamLake#

Androsace chamaejasme in full swing...

     

Dryas --integrifolia? 

       

Arctostaphylos uva-ursi    someone has been raiding the flowers!

         

The Eriogonum androsaceum at this season and Oxytropis sericea again

                                  

[Maggi Young]

Good to see that you have the weather to be wandering again for 2011, cohan!

[cohan]

Lol--thanks for the re-start, Maggi
Weather has been up and down here-- cold spring, warmish May, now back to chilly and damp--wonder if it will be another cold summer? At least the native plants don't mind, and I think there will be good bloom on many things due to extra snow= spring moisture!

[cohan]

A couple of unidentified cresses from the same site
https://picasaweb.google.com/cactuscactus/AlbertaRockyMountainsMay312011D3Cress



The white flowered species can grow to form sizable clumps, though still low growing...

     

The yellow flowered thing is super tiny! See fingertip for scale, though that's an extra small individual, none were more than a couple of inches across... I'm not certain whether the linear leaf and wider leaf plants are the same-- I didn't notice those fine distinctions with the naked eye...lol

         

[cohan]

Some views and wildlife from the site
https://picasaweb.google.com/cactuscactus/AlbertaRockyMountainsMay312011D2ViewsAndSheep

Usually we only see sheep droppings.. this time the sheep themselves were there.. likely still snow on some of their higher grazing grounds, these montane zones are valuable to wildlife for having moderate snowfall even in midwinter... These guys were not far from the parking area (we were the only ones there) and not even slightly interested in us....

   

Some views around the site....

     

Last view is up the mountain this toe is cut off from!

   

[cohan]

Onwards through the Kootenay Plains, and on into Banff National Park..
full album: https://picasaweb.google.com/cactuscactus/AlbertaRockyMountainsMay312011EKPToBNP

Typical view of the beautiful wide open David Thompson Higway (in this region--the highway passes through my area, where it is not so wide, with much more traffic!)



A spot I've stopped before, featuring Primula mistassinica, Saxifraga aizoides, etc.. plants just emerging this time, but the view of the water is still lovely; The soil is presumably deposited by meltwater from above, and seems to be the calcareous soil mentioned as typical habitat for P. mistassinica...

   

This school bus was in front of us for a while; we saw them pull into a group campsite, then, on the way home when we stopped at the nearby Siffleur Falls trails, we saw a batch of young teens on bicycles, and saw them return to that campground--nice school outing!

Typical roadside carpets of Dryas drummondii, here as we were stopped to pay the fee to enter Banff National Park...

[cohan]

Onwards and upwards!
full album: https://picasaweb.google.com/cactuscactus/AlbertaRockyMountainsMay312011FIcefieldsParkway

Somewhat unnervingly, for a long way the road (following a river valley) traces the base of the mountains, and road signs advise "No Stopping Avalanche Zone" I tell myself this mainly applies in winter, when I certainly do not travel here! But rocks and gravel come right up to the side of the road, and can sometimes be seen on the other side....



The road suddenly takes a new tack and in one long and dramatic switchback rises up to much nearer the treeline (no views of the road up as I've shown it in past..lol).. There is a viewpoint at the top, and the views are nice, but you know I'm running around looking at plants
Not much in growth yet-- some Salix in flower, and the sunny side of gravel banks, a few Taraxacum and Fragaria--among the first bloomers here too, and in flower from beginning to end of this day's trip!

 

At this time of year, there was snow still, in spots, and deep snow not much higher up...
More views on the way to the Columbia Icefield..

   

   

[cohan]

On up the highway to the Columbia Icefield, still on May 31.

https://picasaweb.google.com/cactuscactus/AlbertaRockyMountainsMay312011G1AlpineSpring

I've shown this site a couple of times before, so I wont show too much scenery, but there are more views in the full album, above...

This is the earliest in the year I have visited, and with the snowline not far above this site, and some snow still on the ground at this altitude, I wasn't at all sure what plant activity I would see, though a visit about a month later last year was at the end of flowering of a couple species, so I was hopeful... My biggest surprise was one of my favourite plants, whose identity I had completely mistaken: I had admired the large mats of this 'willow' with its pretty leaves, but apparently had never caught it in flower or fruit to make me realise it was in fact Arctostaphylos (Arctous) rubra!

   

The sweet little cream coloured urns it displayed on this visit made me immediately notice my error   Flowers were seen emerging before leaves, but leaves were out on many plants while the flowers were still there..



And that spring colour, Wow! Visible even from a distance lighting up the gravel... Love this plant more than ever, and will definitely be looking for seeds!



I looked at several spots, near one another , but clearly at different stages of the slooow re-colonisation post glaciation; this area is below the treeline, and at least many decades out of the ice, yet still has mainly early colonising species.. as you go farther back or up the slopes sideways, which must have melted sooner than the cenral depression (and at the relatively slow rate of melt, metres must be decades-I forget the rates given, but not too far from here is the marker for the mid 1800's!) there are more species and greater density of plants..

[Paul T]

Beautiful plants and stunning scenery, Cohan.

Thanks for sharing.

[cohan]

The next surprise was a plant completely new to me, or, if I'd seen it in fruit later on, I forgot! So, I was delighted to see these tiny Anemone sp poking up from the mats of Arctostaphylos; not rare, but not abundant, either, and always single flowers in the spots where I saw them. I haven't had a chance to do much digging, and since foliage was barely emerging on most plants, I may not have enough to go on, unless the site is known (surely is, to someone!   ) for an id, but my only guess so far is Anemone lithophila ?  Almost certainly, its actually Anemone parviflora--thanks, Lori!  my big hang-up to realising that was that I thought parviflora had only lobed leaves with no further division--not so! less divided than lithophila, but not just the 3 lobes....

     

[cohan]

Beautiful plants and stunning scenery, Cohan.

Thanks for sharing.

Thanks, Paul! Lots more to come-- apparently one day in the mountains = more than a month of editing and posting! I go the photos all sorted and up on picasa a while back, now trickling them out here and to NARGS, and trying not to post the exact same shots, mostly

Not doing much local botanising this year, decided if I ever wanted to make any progress on gardens, I couldn't be out on the bike all the time! Somewhat academic anyway, since it has rained nearly every day for the last 6 weeks! Managed 4.5 hours of digging and mowing today, and got out into the bush on the farm for a walk the other day, and that alone was 300 pics, pre-editing...

[cohan]

Still in the mounds of till below the Columbia Icefield, but a bit farther back (10-20metres, many years)..
Last year, in lat June, I saw tight little patches of a pea, just finished flowering, so I was hoping I'd be there in time to see them in full flower this year, and I was in luck!
maybe Oxytropis podocarpa?

   

Growing here in mats of Dryas -integrifolia?