Sunday, March 2, 2008

A flashback to the green vale of yore

Maybe it's the snow we've mostly been looking at for the past three months or just the thought that we never really wrote about the plants that grow out here - those that make the tundra...either way or both, it is nice to think back to the shapes and colors, the textures, and the different ways each reacted to the wind and changed from summer into fall. So here are a few of the vegetative structures, whose roots and seeds are hanging on up there under the frozen white, waiting (for a brighter day).


Ah yes, the great treeless Aleutian landscape! Naturally void of standing trees and volcanically sloped like the Hawaiian Islands due south. In the summer it's lush, thick, spongy, and the great mass of growing tissue creates and traps heat-a tad different story than winter.


Wow! Giant buttercups. These are buttercups, but not the familiar ones all over Seattle, the Ranunculus sp. These are Narcissus anemone (Anemone narcissiflora villosissima). Italian speakers should have fun with that one. The species is broken up into several subspecies, but taken whole, it can be found south to the Queen Charlottes except for one area on Vancouver Island. Also present are the dark green crowberry, and the taller, reddened Dock (Rumex fenestratus).



This is Cloudberry, or wineberry, or Baked appleberry, Knottberry, even Salmonberry. So, Rubus chameomorus! Surrounded by crowberry. Cloudberries are good sources of vitamin C and were/are eaten by native peoples from the Arctic south to central Vancouver Island. The most common name, Cloudberry comes from Old English 'clud' which meant 'rocky hill.' Traditional stories are that the berry grew on two of England's highest mountians, where the clouds sit all winter.



'Fresh healthy erosion' can sound like 'good welcome flooding' in the city where each get a bad rap, and arguably, where sources of new soil are cut down, paved upon, paved around, and power-blown away, this is right. It can be an enjoyable exercise though to discuss the implications of artificially limiting nature's responses (controlling erosion) because of artificially induced problems. But we do like stability. Anyway, here is one of nature's favorite regulators: roots! These Dune grass roots haven't stopped the process, but they limit it, and seem to like it. (Above is a very active feeder bluff).



Mountain harebell (Campanula lasiocarpa) with crowberry, arctic willow, and a carex species.


Fireweed, highbush cranberry...


The Aleutian forests are Sitka alder thickets - a favorite hangout for the willow ptarmigan and a nice place to get away from it all.


Arctostaphylos alpina, or Alpine bearberry, or raven berry, or gray jay's eye. These red fall leaves- when dried, ground to powder and mixed with lard- were used as a cosmetic face powder. Unfortunately, we just found this out.


This is one of the two coltsfoot species here (Petasites frigidus)


Caribou food - lichen growth on an alder branch.


This complex features Swedish dwarf cornel (Cornus suecica) a close relative of the more common bunchberry or dwarf dogwood, with its red berries and cross-shaped leaf pattern. Also present are the spreading carex sedges, fireweed, a couple of cloudberries, and a mat of crowberry.


This patch of tundra is dominated by the familiar Fireweed (Epilobium angustifolia).


Dunegrass or Lyme grass (Elymus mollis)



1 comment:

Clark hoyt said...

It's hard to believe all of these beautiful plant are there under the snow just waiting for the Sun. Thanks for your great pictures and info. How did you learn about all of these plants?