Alberta Wanderings 09

[Ragged Robin]

to finish out the shots from that mother's day walk (may 10)
first, some mossy shots for robin...
sorry, no idea on names...

Thanks Cohan for the photos you posted of moss and lichen - it certainly looks wet in the areas close to the forest!  The CU's you took are great so you can see the structure more clearly - they are amazing....and I love your wild landscape shots too. 

[cohan]

boy, i am so far behind! many, many hundreds of photos, but no time to edit and post! pics of a couple short trips coming, including a trip into the mountains (500 shots there alone to go through!)
back to the farm, late may--hard to believe there was snow on the ground less than a month ago....now we have had temps in the high 20'sC, even though still frost many nights until a few days ago...

here are some
Corydalis aurea
a little tricky to find from one year to the next--being biennial, generally, they wont be found where they were flowering last year! they dont grow in deep shade, usually, but here not out in the open either, usually, it seems, just at the edge of woods, or in open woods; they seem to need disturbed soil, and have a strong correlation with patches of open soil turned up by pocket gophers, as in first shot...
last is presumably stinkweed
Thlaspi arvense
though, i wouldnt swear to have these cresses id'd properly; in any case, an agricultural and garden weed, but still nice to see flowers at the beginning of the season...lol

[Ragged Robin]

Good to have you back Cohan, hope you've had a great time - sounds as if you've been snapping away and I look forward to seeing more of your photos 

[cohan]

a few more from the same day..
Glecoma hederacea
could have sworn there was n 'h' in glechoma! putting on a nice show still then and now--if you get close enough to see!
view of the area where the glecoma is growing..
a couple more views, the poplars just leafing out in late may,
Pyrola asarifolia
all these little evergreen things looked much better this spring, thanks to a snowcover that remained late-last year many were exposed from february on, long stretches exposed to drying winds and cold temps with no access to water yet, so they looked haggard by spring.
more mosses..

[cohan]

Good to have you back Cohan, hope you've had a great time - sounds as if you've been snapping away and I look forward to seeing more of your photos 

thanks, robin--yes, busy capturing the flowers of the season! and even busier trying to get some gardenign done! still have been mostly working on  veg gardens, and a couple other minor plantings, and taking care of stuff in pots that is waiting for beds,,hope to start working on rock gardens soon
i'll try to get lots more pics posted, and looking forward to getting caught up a bit on other people's great photos i know i have been missing...lol

[Maggi Young]

Glecoma hederacea
could have sworn there was n 'h' in glechoma!

I believe you were correct with that "h", Cohan......... the RHS plantfinder agrees, too...... Glechoma     
Good to see your pix.... with or without letters!!  

[cohan]

Glecoma hederacea
could have sworn there was n 'h' in glechoma!

I believe you were correct with that "h", Cohan......... the RHS plantfinder agrees, too...... Glechoma     
Good to see your pix.... with or without letters!!  

thanks for the back-up on the spelling my local wildflower book must have adopted some kind of revisionist american spelling the h goes back
off to work now, try to get some more pics ready soon..

[David Nicholson]

Nice to see you back Cohan with more interesting pictures for us.

[cohan]

Nice to see you back Cohan with more interesting pictures for us.

thanks david
 a while back i promised paddy ( i think!) some pics of local wild
Amelanchier alnifolia
(saskatoon berry) which grow wild all over here, including some large/old (for the species-large shrubs small trees, maybe 20 feet tall) ones in my yard....
here are a couple shots with some trunk detail..shots in full flower coming soon...

[cohan]

okay, i have way too many pictures of
Viola adunca
but i cant resist it, and it grows all over my yard...
a couple of cute little presumed
Carex spp
i am really getting to like these near grasses...

[Hristo]

Super pics thanks, I could give that Corydalis aurea a home!  Pyrola too, if my orchid obesession fades they are next on the list!

[Gerdk]

a while back i promised paddy ( i think!) some pics of local wild
Amelanchier alnifolia
(saskatoon berry) which grow wild all over here, including some large/old (for the species-large shrubs small trees, maybe 20 feet tall) ones in my yard....
here are a couple shots with some trunk detail..shots in full flower coming soon...

What a trunk of a plant which I only saw as a shrub here (A. canadensis)! Never expected an Amalanchier of about 6 m! I am looking forward to the pics of the flowering trees!
- and  thankyou for the superb violet pic!

Gerd

[cohan]

Super pics thanks, I could give that Corydalis aurea a home!  Pyrola too, if my orchid obesession fades they are next on the list!

i will be trying to get some seed from those corydalis--i did manage to find a few plants, so if you are interested...
pyrolas will be blooming soon, and we have 3 or 4 species..i could collect seed of those too, though i have read they are tricky to germinate out of habitat..
speaking of orchids, pics of calypso and corallorhiza coming soon, and more violas for gerd
the amelanchier are nice in flower, plus a couple other small rosaceae trees..

[Hristo]

Hi Cohan,
Yes please on the seed front! Yes I was thinking I would try germinating Pyrola on a terrestrial orchid style agar medium and see it they would grow on after that! I shall wait with anticipation for those orchid shots! Cheers.

[cohan]

Hi Cohan,
Yes please on the seed front! Yes I was thinking I would try germinating Pyrola on a terrestrial orchid style agar medium and see it they would grow on after that! I shall wait with anticipation for those orchid shots! Cheers.

ok, chris, i will let you and others know when i find some seeds... the corys should produce good seed, though not so many plants around; pyrolas are  EVERYWHERE though especially asarifolia ( i was raking grass and leaves from several overgrown spots near stumps in my yard, and was surprised to see pyrolas happily growing invisibly beneath all the debris!), and progressively fewer of other species.... similar to some other stoloniferous species, P asarifolia here seems to have far fewer flowers than bodies, and not sure how many seeds as i havent checked too carefully--but of the bazillions of plants, they must make a fair number...
we also have either or both of 'greenish flowered' and white flowered: P chlorantha/ellipticala, but relatively uncommon right here; others i see may or may not be considered pyrolas- 'one sided' (my book lists it now as  orthilia secunda) is not  rare, though not nearly as vigorous as asarifolia and less abundant yet, though still not rare, is moneses uniflora-- the one flowered wintergreen, the tiny charmer..