Bob Grier’s From the West: Beauty on the Gilbert-Baker WMA
Blooming currents and logs
Tuesday found me hiking the Gilbert-Baker Wildlife Management Area north of Harrison. Moisture and spring’s arrival can be especially kind to the canyons and rocky outcroppings of the Pine Ridge and this year they were even more generous than usual — Green tree buds glistening, flowering plums and currents, last year’s drab brown leaves returning to the soil — even a heavy bank of rainclouds approaching from the west couldn’t destroy the beauty. In fact, the overcast light is ideal for closeups of nature’s beauties and I hiked about looking for subjects and compositions that attracted my eye and camera. Here is a mini-gallery of images, I couldn’t find my Jon Farrar wildflower field guide this morning so I’ll hazard guesses only, and hope that a kind viewer may add the names. I’ll certainly admit to being “overpowered” by all of the WMA’s resident beauties — perhaps it would be better to select fewer subjects and work harder on compositions, exposures and post processing to make one or two images stand out even stronger. Large format photographers — with 4X5, 5X7 and even larger view cameras, heavy tripods and one or two lenses work that way — I’m still stuck in the “35mm-mode”, shooting more than a few exposures and selecting those that appeal to me.
White-tailed shed and blooming holly
plums and currents blooming
Tree details
Ancient
blooming plums
flowers needing identification
Hi Bob. Great photos, as always. The flower is probably blue (or little) larkspur, Delphinium nuttallianum. Come on Fern Boy Steinauer, jump in here and enlighten us. Is it really true that Indian maidens once placed one of these flowers behind their left ear when available for courting?
Jon, and hopefully Steinauer — I knew that was exactly the flower you named, just kidding. If we get the expert on line here, he might be able to help with the “blooming holly” as well. Jon, thanks for ending the motel series.
Take care.
I was sort of hoping you would pick up where I left off with motel memories. I remember the time, we were in Valentine, a Know Nebraska Tour to watch grouse display, and……
I think it’s Oregon-grape, Berberis repens. Come on Fern Boy, out of the bog so we have someone writing who knows something.
Farrar is harassing me into responding to this blog, so I will succumb to the pressure and submit a comment. I am the botanist with the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission. I have never before been involved with any aspect of blogging. Being an old-stick-in–he-mud, much like Farrar, I put up stout resistance and ignore all types of new technology. For example, I have absolutely no idea what twittering is! Nor, at this time, do I care to find out. I suppose, however, in a few years I will attempt my first twitter. So for my first involvement with blogging here are a few facts to go along with the plants shown in Bob’s photographs above. Enjoy
Oregon grape (Berberis repens), also called holly-grape or grape-holly, is a low or creeping shrub native to coniferous woodlands throughout much of the western United States. In Nebraska, it is found only on the Pine Ridge escarpment growing under dense stands of ponderosa pine. Its leaves are evergreen, a dark lustrous green, tipped with sharp spines and resemble those of true hollies (genus Ilex), which are not native to Nebraska. The fragrant flowers of Oregon grape bloom in May and June, and bear blue to purple berries in September and October. The berries are consumed by ungulates and rodents, although humans would find them distasteful.
Blue or little larkspur (Delphinium nuttalianum) is a beautiful, though somewhat uncommon, wildflower found in grasslands and open woodlands in four northwestern Nebraska counties. It is one of four native larkspurs found in the state. They are easily distinguished from each other based on their range, flower and foliage color. Geyer’s larkspur, which grows on open slopes in the far southwestern Panhandle, has grayish foliage and light blue sepals, and whitish petals tipped with blue. Prairie larkspur, our most common and widespread Delphinium, has white flowers and is found in native prairies throughout the state. This plant contains a toxic alkaloid poisonous to livestock if consumed in large quantities. The blue-flowered dwarf larkspur (D. tricorne) grows in rich deciduous woodlands, and sometimes prairies, on the bluffs of the Missouri River and its lower tributaries in southeastern Nebraska.
Delphinium is Greek for “dolphin” which refers to the shape of the flower. Delphinium flowers have five spreading sepals, the upper sepal arched back in a spur. With the sepals are four smaller petals, the upper two with nectar-bearing spurs extending into the larger sepal spur.
The showy yellow flowers of golden or buffalo currant (Ribes odoratum) are strongly fragrant, their scent resembling that of cloves and cinnamon. Golden currant is found in dry woods and prairies throughout much of western Nebraska. It is one of six native Ribes (currants and gooseberries) found in the state. Gooseberries have spines or prickles on the stem, whereas currants are smooth stemmed. Our cultivated currants and gooseberries are European species and have not escaped into the wild in Nebraska. The berries of most of our native Ribes are quite tasty either raw (when ripe) or in jellies and pies – pies of green (unripe) gooseberries have a similar tartness of a good rhubarb pie. The berries of wax current (R. cereum), this plant found on dry, gravelly slopes and canyons in the Panhandle, have a glandular skin and are less palatable.
Gerry,
Thank you for the great information — I may even absorb some of the info and remember it — the faster I go, the behinder I get!
Bob