Alberta Wanderings

Glad you enjoyed! I still have the whole trip home with a few more stops  :-[

Heading back,  but still at altitude, the highway near the snow/tree line.. a few views from the vehicle..
https://picasaweb.google.com/cactuscactus/AlbertaRockyMountainsMay312011...

A pause in posting the mountain pics.. from a short walk up the road, some Castillejas... the Flora shows only C miniata in my area, but lutescens and occidentalis are not terribly far away, and I do wonder how carefully surveyed this 'agricultural' area has been! I saw mention of a possible hybrid for similar plants to those I have seen in my area on flickr.....
I posted elsewhere and earlier, photos of Castilleja a couple miles from here, a varied colour colony, with many beautiful mixed colours; even closer to home, starting about a 1/4 mile up the road, and continuing in varying densities on both sides for at least a half mile.. this colony is not as mixed--most plants are in the salmon to orange/scarlet range, but there are some of the near whites and other pale colours, and an occasional true red (less orange)..
full album: https://picasaweb.google.com/cactuscactus/July102011Castilleja
and the companion album of other plants, not yet captioned:
https://picasaweb.google.com/cactuscactus/July102011BesideThePaintbrushes

just a sampling here

Nice range of colours!  Can't help you out, off-hand, with IDs though... I've lacked the concentration to apply the key myself.  It seems to be largely the shape of the bracts, at any rate...

Lori wrote:

Nice range of colours!  Can't help you out, off-hand, with IDs though... I've lacked the concentration to apply the key myself.  It seems to be largely the shape of the bracts, at any rate...

Thanks, Lori--yeah, I haven't sat down with the glossary myself yet, either...lol.. I had basically thought it was really variable miniata, but I just have not seen anything online (which I no means not that much!) showing this level of variation.. I happened on a flickr posting  taken a little south of here, with a mixed colour plant similar to those at the other site nearby,(see this album:
https://picasaweb.google.com/cactuscactus/Castilleja2009

and someone more knowledgeable was suggesting it looked like a hybrid..he was hoping to get into Canada to see some of them, so I'm watching that thread for further replies...
If I get a chance and think of an easy way to tag that I can find and doesn't draw too much attention from the road, lol, I may go mark some of the colour forms just up the road to see if they come at all true from seed (something I really doubt)

C miniata does have some normal colour variations, but not usually this much.. still, with no clear alternatives, I was just assuming that these populations had more variation than what I could find in any of the  books I have, or online; recently, though, I have been in touch with someone in U.S. who is more familiar with the genus, and he believes these may be hybrids with one or more species besides miniata; I'm waiting till he is back home from fieldwork to take a closer look at my photos from two sites near here :)
Interestingly, there is not much colour variation in most of the local wildflowers (that come to mind now!) and mostly quite subtle.. Geranium richardsonii is my local geranium, and ranges from pure white to white with pink veins to almost pinkish white...lol

Okay, I thought at least I should finish that May 31 trip to the mountains started so long ago!
https://picasaweb.google.com/111492944361897930115/AlbertaRockyMountains...
On the way home, not so very far from the Columbia Icefield, and still at fairly high altitude- below the timerline, but not by a whole lot---
Hilda Ridge. This is a roadside pullout area, between the Columbia Icefield and where the road drops back down again, going south. Based on the notices posted at the entry to the site, there is some sort of access to skiing from here, not sure where/how.. never been up there in winter, and not likely to do so, driving through a long stretch of avalanche prone roads to get there!... I go there for the plants...

Not a large area, it has fairly steep to steep gravel/stone slopes, treed to varying degrees, which fall down to a river on three sides, and the highway  and then higher slopes rising on the fourth side. There are some exposed areas with nice plants along ridge edges and down the slopes, as well as among open trees and bushes on the flat top of the site, and also down into shadier places among denser tree growth and shaded slopes. Shaded areas still had significant snow on May 31, and it was not long gone in the open it seemed...

Still at Hilda Ridge.  https://picasaweb.google.com/111492944361897930115/AlbertaRockyMountains...
Earlier, we were talking about Anemones I'd seen in a few places, including on this trip, a half hour or so (? rough remembering) up the road at the Columbia Icefield. There, what was presumably Anemone parviflora was found, commonly growing through Arctostaphylos rubra. Here, it was growing in mats of Arctostaphylos uva-ursi... Still generally no more than 10cm high...

Anemone parviflora with Arctostaphylos uva-ursi

Arctostaphylos uva-ursi

https://picasaweb.google.com/111492944361897930115/AlbertaRockyMountains...

Some little Crucifers; I just don't have enough knowledge of these to attempt names- and I don't think I've ever seen these plants in seed, so no help there.. I presume the yellow flowers (though there are bright and creamy yellow flowers) and the white (leaves also look different) are different species, but wouldn't swear to it!

Unidentified Brassicaceae

Unidentified Brassicaceae, with Arctostaphylos uva-ursi and Zigadenus elegans in first image

Unidentified Brassicaceae, white flowers, with tiny Sedge (Carex sp?)

Last two for this site:
https://picasaweb.google.com/111492944361897930115/AlbertaRockyMountains...

Salix species;  a mid-sized willow as far as I remember- i.e. a metre or so tall, at least; I think I photographed ground hugging species at this site later in the year (not this year) but no sign of them this early..

An Antennaria species in an exposed spot in gravel at ridge's edge; definitely not attempting these, and especially without flowers.. these higher altitude plants seem to have slightly proportionately wider, shorter leaves, and a less tight mat than those in dry places farther down..

Thanks Trond and Mark-- yeah, I figured Draba too, likely; there are a lot of them in the mts here! And so far I only have the very tiny maps in Flora of Alberta-- the whole province in a couple of cm- so I can't tell exactly where those tiny dots are, other than in the mountains, near a large river, etc
As for keys, I've glanced at them, but without seedpods (none present so early  in the year) it seems very unlikely I can tell much for sure... Likely that site has been officially botanised, but I have not seen any such information yet... I agree, they are very charming plants I'd be happy to grow :)

Continuing on the May 31, 2011 trip into the mountains...
Continuing on from the last site, still on the Icefields Parkway which goes between Banff and Jasper townsites; The road has been up not too far from the treeline, and continues at that altitude for a while longer as we head back south, then drops down much lower, following a river valley  much of the way back to our turn west at the Saskatchewan River Crossing..
At the high levels at the end of May, there was still snow in many places, and only the earliest plants were growing or flowering.. farther down, things were beginning to green...
These are just shots taken from the vehicle while we were driving (no, I wasn't the one driving while taking photos ;)

Another break in sequence, I wanted to post some images of Gentiana, and decided the full posting should go here...

Here is a plant that I don't think is too common around here ( mind you, I have realised I have pretty stiff standards for common, as we do have numerous species that will be found at nearly any site you look at, and certainly in nearly every spot with a suitable habitat)- I have only run into it twice so far, in quite different spots maybe 10-12 miles apart as the crow flies..
The funny thing is, the first time I saw it, on of my earliest bicycle botanising trips, in 2009,  it was on a spot of medium moisture, in a strip of land between a field and the roadside ditch, not far (100 metres at a wild guess, maybe less) from a farmstead, and since this site also had the only presumably escaped colony I've seen of Campanula rapunculoides, I actually thought this was another garden escape- especially since the only wildflower book I had at the time did not mention any true Gentians in my area!
It wasn't until I found it again, in 2010, that I realised it must be a native, and once I looked in some other books, realised it could be Gentiana affinis- I still haven't carefully compared it to the formal description, but it should be the only true Gentian in my area...
This first plant (and I only saw one plant maybe 2) was fairly robust, probably around 30 cm, with numerous flowering stems. My old camera has issues with blue/violet, and I don't think the colour is quite right in these photos, I think it should be a bit deeper and bluer (I've edited, but still take it with a grain of salt); though I don't remember the other population as being so blue--they exactly matched the Gentianopsis they were growing with- more violet; maybe it was just about the kind of light on those occasions! I'll have to try to find some this year with the new camera!

I did get back to this site, September 24 of the same year, and got some seed (unsown- thinking it was a garden escape at that time, I didn't give it much priority! wonder if it's still viable?), here's what it looked like then:

Now the other site, from 2010- a bit later, Aug 25 (Aug 18 above), yet the plants seem not as far along- first off, much smaller plants- single stems and not as tall, a wetter location in a roadside ditch, and I think a cooler August, I believe Aug '09 was quite warm, whereas we'd already had frosts at this time in '10- I was thinking it very late for plants to be just getting going on their flowering-- surely a risky strategy in this climate- I wonder if they got to make seed even that year? They seemed a bit later even than the Gentianopsis crinita they were growing with, which were also in flower, but did have a number of spent blossoms and some seed capsules coming along even if not fully ripe...
These plants had some red on the leaves as well as stems (possibly from the cold nights) and overall charmed me more than the larger, more floriferous specimen had the year before!

Thanks, Mark! I have plenty to learn myself, didn't even know it was native...lol.. If I manage to get some fresh seed, I will keep you in mind-the problem with the site with smaller plants is that its a hefty bike ride, and those seem to ripen seed so late that riding conditions may not be so good...lol .. but who knows, I may find a closer spot? I'd like to try growing both- its quite possible the large plant is just older and/or in a better site etc

Another plant portrait- actually from just up the road from the small Gentiana above- this road has a slightly different flora than most of the sites around here I have botanised- I will do a feature on it when I get the albums done...
Meanwhile, here is a plant I have yet to identify, even though I have sent seed to a number of folks overseas! It feels like an Erigeron to me, though I have not yet been able to say which one-- it is smaller than most of the other local species, and though it has small stem leaves, it has clear basal rosette clumps through flowering, unlike most of the other locals.. The flowers are a bit pinker than appears in the photos, and all the same colour, no whites as some washed out shots appear.. it grows on banks at the sides of the roadside ditches- theoretically these spots could be quite dry at times (though again, the ditch bottoms, not far away are always damper, and nothing was dry around here the last couple of summers!).. you can see it in one or two shots growing with Oxytropis monticola, and Dasiphora (Potentilla) fruticosa among others..
I forgot to add, its about 30cm tall (flowering stems)..
EDIT: See below, I'm going to go out on a limb and call this Erigeron glabellus

Thanks, Mark- I agree the flowers look a lot like Erigeron philadelphicus, which I believe occurs here (I have not keyed out the several spp that look like that, which are quite common here), but I think if i am interpreting the Flora correctly, philadelphicus should be a taller plant (though height is variable in all of these) without the significant persistent basal leaves shown by these plants- which actually showed an even fuller clump of basal rosettes at the end of the season when I was collecting seed..

So, going back to the Flora of Alberta again, narrowing down from the 24 species of Erigeron in Alberta- several are alpine species, so they are out; several annual/biennial- out, since these plants have those well-developed basal rosettes after flowering, clearly not monocarpic; those not having pink/purple flowers, out; the remaining relevant characters seem to be persistent basal leaves, eliminating a couple more which do not; whether cauline leaves are reduced- this seems to  eliminate E peregrinus, which was at first glance a good bet; and finally number of ray flowers- while I definitely did not count them! these plants have a lot of them, which again seemed to rule out peregrinus, which has fewer (giving a more aster-like look to the flowers).. I am left with Erigeron glabellus -while I wont swear that's right, it seems a pretty good fit, and is widespread on the map (if anything, too much so, making me wonder why I have only found it in this one limited area-- a number of plants over about a mile or so on one road) and listed habitat type in the Flora is also about right...

Thanks, Trond! This gentian is lovely- I do love all the other members of the family which are more common here too, and I'll show them soon-- the subtle but lovely Halenia deflexa and Gentianella amarella are everywhere, and the very showy Gentianopsis crinita I have found in a number of places..

Thanks, Mark-- this is my favourite local Erigeron (foliage and size wise- all the flowers are nice) in my near area- until you get into the foothills/mts and the nice small species start.. I collected seed (2010)and didnt get any sown, will be trying to see if its still viable this spring..
Flora of Alberta mentions that 'our area' if you can call Alberta an area! - "ssp. glabellus, with short, appressed pubescence, the leaves essentially glabrous, and ssp. pubescens with coarse, spreading, septate hairs throughout" frankly I'm not sure what kind of hairiness that describes! more glossary time needed...lol.. No suggestion of whether those two ssp. are in different places, or just random variations ... The plants I photographed seem mostly smooth apart from hairs around the edge of the leaves, so not sure where that places them...

I found one more album of shots from Alhambra Road (where the small Gentianas and Erigeron above were shot)- the last album was the third week in August, and I was commenting on the Gentianas still being in flower (they were) and not seed yet - really I was thinking of this visit- late Sept is very late in our season! and the Gentianas were still not in seed-- Although the Erigeron seed was finally ripe- quite late compared to other species in the genus around here......I wasn't able to get back after this, so don't know if the Gentiana ever ripened ....

Erigeron glabellus

Same day, Sept 22, 2010, same place- Alhambra Road (not the official name, its the road through the town of Alhambra), about 12-14 miles or so from home..
At this time, there had definitely been frosts- in fact there was snow the day before this botanising bike ride! The Gentiana affinis still had not ripened seed, though some seemed close, other plants were still in flower, as were its cousins Gentianopsis crinita, growing beside (not pictured here)...
Notice the wide variation in leaf shapes and fall colour.. these plants are quite pretty in their fall shades, even the faded flowers very picturesque.. again, these are small plants, prob 10-20cm....

I wont repost the whole thing here, just a couple of similar shots, but thought this post on Antennaria-probably A pulcherrima, one of the tall/erect species, deserved a mention - see it here:
http://nargs.org/smf/index.php?topic=690.15    reply 29
This is something like 5 miles from home, in a nice stretch of roadside/field edge, at least seasonally moist, where I have photographed and collected seed from  a nice assortment of plants- nothing really rare, though this Antennaria is not too common around here (according to the map, may not have been officially observed this far from the foothills- depending on whether I have the id right!)
Antennaria pulcherrima

Thanks, Rick- good tip- now that you mention direct linking to specific replies, I'm pretty sure I should have known that! I'll try to remember this time, as its handier...lol

Okay- I am determined to at least finish posting photos from that May 2011 trip in this thread..lol
full album of this section:
https://picasaweb.google.com/111492944361897930115/AlbertaRockyMountains...
So, back at it! To save time, I'm using much of the same text as on SRGC, but a slightly different and larger set of photos..
From the near tree line elevations in Jasper National Park, we've come back south toward home, eventually crossed back into Banff National Park, then left the north/south running Icefields Parkway for the more or less east/west David Thompson Highway which will take us all the way home!  The 'off colour' forest in a couple of the  photos is an area which was deliberately burned by park officials a couple of years ago..

As you can see, not a lot of traffic on this highway! Probably there are some key weekends when its much busier (we are very unlikely to go into the mountains on those weekends!) but even times when the Icefields Parkway between Banff and Jasper townsites is quite busy, this highway is not...

The bear was very close to the road, near the eastern boundary of Banff National Park, and seemingly dining on dandelions-- maybe that's what we need around here ;)

full album of this section:
https://picasaweb.google.com/111492944361897930115/AlbertaRockyMountains...

.. Then we move into and  through the montane zone and Kootenay Plains- an area I've posted images from in the past-- a rather broad area between mountains, with a couple of rivers and rather dry grassy plains; Due to  low precipitation (variably, depending on exposure etc) and the open grassy areas (and the rivers, no doubt!) this has been an important area for wildlife, esp in winter when they can come down from  harsher/snowier higher elevations and find grass for grazing with generally shallow snow cover if any. The concentration of wildlife (and easily traversed plains) made the area important to Native peoples as well, and there are still large chunks of land in the region managed by aboriginal people. There was an early attempt at farming/ranching by European settlers in the area which failed (I don't know the history of it, but suspect low precipitation/fragile plant communities in some sections- the grassy areas that presumably would-be ranchers were drawn to- probably made agriculture a dicey proposition!).. now most of the land in the plains is protected...

more to come from this day, including a stop at my favourite site in the plains... but not tonight!

Nice to see the black bear, Cohan!  We only tend to see black bears down at road elevations too; we see grizzlies (though not often) up where we hike.  Interesting that it has an ear tag... it's been marked for some sort of study purpose.  

Often on these dashes through the mountains we have not seen much more than deer (which we usually see many of between Rocky Mtn House and Nordegg especially (for those who don't know the area as Lori does, that's through the 'pre'foothills to the beginnings of the mountains); this trip we saw sheep by Abraham Lake, moose ( I forget where, but of course we see them not rarely at home) and this bear..
I guess if it's going to hang around within a short distance of the park boundary and kiosk, it's looking to be tagged and studied..lol

Cohan - seeing the black bear reminded me that the only one I have seen was also in the Kootenay area . I had a great time driving from Astoria OR to Canal Flats , following the river where I could . Really enjoyed the scenery , the plants and that I could buy a Moro bar in Canada . Seeing all the dead trees in the Roger's Pass area was a bit heartbreaking . Got as far east as Banff .
Keep the pictures coming bud

Sorry to temporarily divert your thread, Cohan, but I had to look up "Moro bar".
http://www.cadbury.co.nz/Products/Chocolate-Bars/Moro-Bar.asp
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moro_(chocolate_bar)

(They are not so common here that I even knew what it was!  ;)  The basic one without nuts sounds Mars bar-ish though.)

Swweeeett!!! You have Mars bars too . I'm coming back

Yes, no shortage of those here.  In addition to the regular chocolate bars, stores selling fresh hand-made chocolates have sprung up on every street corner in recent years in the bigger centers.  Do let us know when to expect you so that we can lay in a supply!  :D

Lori wrote:

  Do let us know when to expect you so that we can lay in a supply!  :D

Will be in the Wenatchees in June . The lure of chocolate would probably be enough to get me across the border

I'd never heard of Moro bars, either, but Mars is a staple ;)
No hand-made chocolates in my neck of the woods (I suppose someone might be doing it in Red Deer, but I haven't noticed....), but I used to visit a place that had them in Toronto- along some nice things like little Italian corn meal cookies.. one advantage of that sort of place is prices that keep you from over indulging  ;D

There are actually two areas with the name Kootenay -I've looked up the reason in the past and forgot already  :-[ but I assume its something to do with the home range of the Native tribe of the same name.. the (I think) larger and better known area is the mountain park etc, in British Columbia, west of Banff National Park.. seems a beautiful area- I've been through as a child, we had relatives on Vancouver Island and went through the mountains many times with my grandparents, but I have not been there in recent years;
The area I was in is the Kootenay Plains, in Alberta, in the eastern edge of the Rockies, not that far from home, probably a much drier place, though I don't know all the ins and outs of the other Kootenays!

Trond- we have plenty of dandelions already! I was thinking maybe we need bears to eat them- though we'd need an awful lot! Bears are rarely seen in my immediate area (I've never seen one here, though its not totally unheard of) but by the time you go about 30-40km west its quite possible- by that distance you are in the foothills forest (though not the foothills) which extends all the way into the mountains...

I'll try to post the next set of photos tonight if my internet connection is better (wonder how many tries it will take to post this...lol)

I had no idea (nice seed info, btw!)-- so I looked it up-- I knew it couldn't be Alberta- no agriculture on the Kootenay Plains! (some Native communities probably have some livestock, but I've never seen any of it!) and surely no one growing the range of plants in that seed guide!
It seems to be from Castlegar, British Columbia, a place I know we have passed through on family trips, but I don't know much about it- my impression is that its between the higher wetter western Rockies- and the lower drier Okanagan.. and quite far south, not so far from the U.S. border.. not that close to Kootenay National Park, either, but on the Kootenay River..
http://www.hellobc.com/castlegar.aspx?gclid=CNaagbmBqa4CFQ8CQAod5By6RA
map:
http://maps.google.ca/maps?hl=en&cp=7&gs_id=s&xhr=t&rlz=1C2CHMA_enCA366&...

Bet you could grow some nice alpines in those mountains- probably a few zones warmer than me...

here's a link to the Kootenay region in B.C.
http://www.hellobc.com/kootenay-rockies.aspx

And here is the Kootenay Plains, where I visited..
http://www.whereadventurebegins.com/kootenayplains.htm

It does seem 'The Kootenays' in B.C. covers quite a large area (I hadn't realised!) with a very long lake, a river, a park, etc- so there would be all sorts of uses of the name, and the area in Alberta is totally separate...
The search led me to look at various places in south eastern B.C.- many of which we used to pass through on family trips- but most of which I knew very little about..lol
Then, I was led to look at hardiness zones, which led me to this site, with some rather shocking updates to climate zones-- I find myself in zone 4A- when we'd thought of ourselves as 2/3! I shall need to be bolder ;)
http://www.plantmaps.com/

cohan wrote:

Then, I was led to look at hardiness zones, which led me to this site, with some rather shocking updates to climate zones-- I find myself in zone 4A- when we'd thought of ourselves as 2/3! I shall need to be bolder ;)
http://www.plantmaps.com/

Well, it's good that it's encouraging but it's always better to let the plants tell you what's hardy and what isn't, than someone's untested, assumed, or vague assignment of zone ratings!  (A lot more fun too!  :)  )
(Arrghh, my apologies, but you know how I can't resist commenting on the unreliability of zone ratings...  :rolleyes:)

Edit:   And now having looked at the map.... wow, it's bizarre!  The area west of Calgary is in a warmer zone than Calgary??  I doubt that people trying to garden out on acreages west of here would agree with that!  :o  Oops, my mistake... the colours on the legend are hard to match up to the colours on the map, but on closer examination, I think it shows a warmer zone in Calgary than west of here, which makes sense directionally.

Probably less pics at one time is a good idea, but sometimes my connection is not simply slow, its very unstable- in the time I prepare a post it might disconnect/reconnect several times, and trying to post, esp photos is an exercise in frustration.. other times its fast and good, especially late at night, when not so many people in the area are using their smartphones!
Anyway, the tangential searching mentioned earlier has me wandering through real estate listings in southeast B.C... no I'm not moving, but its fun to look! So no pics tonight...lol

Lori, I am with you on those zone ratings, I was really joking above- I'll try plants that I think might have some chance based on what I can find out about where they come from, compared to conditions here.. what number is on my map wont change much
-- especially, I find, around here--- there is just not a lot of experience growing a lot of the things I am interested in, so the ratings for plants are just not that useful- especially those that are not based on anything ;) If the zone ratings (for plants) are based on temperatures in their habitat, it at least gives you some idea to start from, though its only one factor...

These 'new' zones for Alberta are kind of dubious... we certainly still expect some zone 2 lows, even if not more than a couple of days, and maybe not every winter-- so zone 4 really seems like a stretch.. they also put Rocky Mountain House, Sylvan Lake and Calgary all in the same zone- those two towns are not quite the same as each other (there are reasons one is at the edge of foothills biome and the other is at the edge of aspen parkland!) much less either being the same as Calgary- where your winter minimums may be close to ours, but you are on average a few degrees warmer in winter! And I think Red Deer was 3b- colder than Rocky Mountain House 60km west? seems unlikely (even with a bit of additional 'chinook' advantage in Rocky, there are also more likely to be out of season frosts)