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Category Archives: trees and plants
Fall In Pieces
Fourteen degrees as a daytime high is somewhat easier to take now that the calendar reads December…even if that same calendar assures me that winter is, technically, still more than two weeks away. We are on the far side of … Continue reading
Posted in change of seasons, fall, gardening, trees and plants
Tagged Colorado aspens, early winter, fall harvest
8 Comments
Riven
The color of the wood caught my eye. Dull gold? Whitened tan? Honeyed beige? Light, in any event, blanched against the worn grasses and graying woodland litter. We were on the way back from a little hike, about a quarter … Continue reading
Posted in trees and plants, weather
Tagged Colorado weather, lightning strikes, pandemic memories, ponderosa pines
7 Comments
Isn’t This a Long One?
January last seems impossibly distant. Memories from back then are round-edged and worn, like relics of a lost civilization. The pandemic was dawning, of course, although few of us in this country had a clue what was to come. Lockdowns, … Continue reading
Vacation Reflections
Well, vacations—both the planned of July and the unplanned of August—are over: time to get back to writing work. What better way to get back into the routine than to reflect on the break? About not writing in August, there’s … Continue reading
Posted in observation, trees and plants, wildflowers, writing
Tagged 2019 wildflower season, Colorado wildflowers, field guides, nature writing
8 Comments
Sunny Flowers
If you’ve been following this series of blog posts featuring the wildflowers blooming in our part of Colorado this July, you may have noticed a relative dearth of the classic and recognizable form commonly referred to as sunflowers. The local … Continue reading
Posted in summer, trees and plants, wildflowers
Tagged Asteraceae, Colorado wildflowers, composite flowers, sunflowers
6 Comments
Penstemons
Thirty days ago, I was inspired to blog the bloom by a prolific little flower I called “the little purple penstemon that blooms earlier than most of the penstemons” (kindly identified as P. virens by Susan J. Tweit in the comments … Continue reading
Pioneers
Not all of our wildflowers insist on living “wild.” Pioneer plants are the first to colonize disturbed ground, including construction sites and burn areas. They help recover disturbed soil by stabilizing against erosion and shading tender seedlings. What makes them … Continue reading
Posted in summer, trees and plants, wildflowers
Tagged Achillea millefolium, Colorado wildfloers, curly-cup gumweed, Grindelia squarrosa, yarrow
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Astragulus
Friends, the month of July is running out of days faster than I am running out of flowers to post. Here, then, is a sampling of the flowers from the Astragulus genus. By sharing them as a group, I’m able … Continue reading
Posted in summer, trees and plants, wildflowers
Tagged astragulus, Colorado wildflowers, locoweed, milkvetch
2 Comments
Weedy Looking Not-Weeds
The conventional definition of a weed is a plant s growing where it’s not wanted. By that subjective measure, any of the twenty-six wildflowers featured on this blog over the past few weeks might qualify as a weed if it’s … Continue reading
Posted in summer, trees and plants, wildflowers
Tagged Colorado wildflowers, evening star, Mentelizia, prickly poppy, scorpionweed, weeds
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Yellowdot Saxifrage
This flower-a-day project has encouraged me to look closer at familiar blooms, but I’ve also found new ones, which has been great fun. I knew this plant, but not its flower. The foliage grows in mats of tightly clustered rosettes, … Continue reading