Plant Travels and Excursions

I was in Ecuador 2 years ago....during the trip I got to 14,000 feet and well above the tree-line into the alpine tropical zone. Every night is winter with frost common. During the mornings it is often cold, windy and foggy while the afternoons can be sunny (still windy) and more spring-like. Loads of bizarre plants, most which I haven't a clue as to ID. Many hard buns similar to Raolia but i think many of the ones here are from the Asteraceae. Some plants as seen below. The unknown was like a super-tight Antennaria...fuzzy yet wet-tolerant.

The area where I live was completely glaciated. This has caused natural rock outcrops to be covered by glacial till. Very little habitat remains that supports plants which would be suitable for a rock garden. The habitat that remains is either alvar (SW of my area), end moraine, or rock canyons that occur South of my area. I am posting a link that contains lots of photos. This website was created by the people who volunteer to maintain this Nature Preserve. The photos on this website should given you an idea of the plants that can grow on rocks (technically gravel) in my area.

St. Cloud is a city in central Minnesota, about 80 miles north of Minneapolis.  Quarry Park is actually a city park, a re-naturalized area set aside for hiking and picnicking.  Quarry Park SNA (Scientific and Natural Area) is adjacent to it and remains a wild area.  Both the Park and SNA sit atop granite bedrock, and in the city park it was mined in the mid part of the last century (hence its name).  While the Park contains much deeper soils, in the SNA the bedrock is never more than a couple feet under the surface of rich loam.

I thought I would post some photos of a few halophytes (salt-tolerant plants) photographed during a visit last week to the east bay-ward side of Île d'Oléron on the Bay of Biscay in central France, for general interest and IDs. These plants were growing on sandy beach ridges and in the salt marsh behind the beach area, where salt water invades with the rising tide and with storms. The adaptations for salt-tolerance are quite interesting...

Nothing special and not much in bloom. Sorry no names.

Yes, the title is very intriguing...
The area is named after the Uncas Skipper, a butterfly that occurs over a large range of North America, but known only from two locations in Minnesota, both being disjunct from its normal distribution range.  The caterpillar feeds on Blue Brama grass (Bouteloua gracilis) and needle grasses (Stipa spp.).

The snow is finally starting to melt in the alpine areas of the Pacific Northwest and we spent a couple of days in the Olympic Mountains last weekend. The air mass was cool and the mountains in sun above the clouds which resulted in superb light conditions. We went up the Switchback Trail onto Klahhane Ridge and then along the ridge towards Mount Angeles. We found three Olympic endemics on the ridge, Campanula piperi, Viola flettii and Petrophyton hendersonii. The Petrophyton had exquisite foliage quite unlike some plants in cultivation.

This is a trail that was pushed through by cat many decades ago to bring supplies to crews fighting forest fires in the interior... that may not sound promising, but it's now a nicely grown-in trail, usually wide enough for 2 abreast, and with enough sun penetrating for there to be lots of flowers along the trail. (Actually it's a better trail than most of those created by horsepackers, meaning that it goes continually uphill in a business-like way without meandering pointlessly up and down!)

The trip that took us to the unusual table mountains called tepuys lasted only 6 days and we spent only two nights and one full at at the plateau. However we had some days in the rainforest surrounding the tepuys too. In my view the chance of meeting a dinosaur is much greater there than on the rather naked mountain tops. I think Arthur Conyan Doyle was thinking of the hidden valleys at the foot of Auyantepuy and the others here in Canaima when he wrote his book.

The cool wet weather in the Pacific Northwest this year has delayed snowmelt in the alpine areas. There is so much snow in the North Cascades that the road to Artist's Point near Mount Baker will not be cleared this year. Last weekend we headed down to the Wenatcheee Mountains on the east side of the Cascades hoping to find snow-free alpine areas. We were not disappointed.