Alberta Wanderings

[cohan]

Okay, still on May 31!

https://picasaweb.google.com/cactuscactus/AlbertaRockyMountainsMay312011G1AlpineSpring

We arrive at the Columbia Icefield, where the attraction is the glacier, with a massive tourist centre across the road (hotel, restaurants, gift shop, I think, I've never gone in, way too busy even on this weekday in late May (though doubtless much less busy than peak days), a trail that leads up to the glacier's edge ( the trail is kind of fun, great views, great rocks, and of course interesting to see the early colonising plants close to the glacier), but my interest is farther back, in among and on the moraines left behind by the gradual retreat of the glacier..
These plant communities seem to have arisen very slowly--despite being below the tree line, there are, at most, a few small stunted (spruce, fir?) and not even that in most of the area..
There are markers along the trail showing where the glacier was in which year, and I haven't worked it out exactly (nor do I know how evenly it retreated) but the century mark isn't too far from this area, and I think it must at least be many decades since this section was under the ice-- progress is slow!!

   

[cohan]

I wasn't sure if there would be much plant activity so early (there was still snow around, and other places where it had clearly melted recently) but I was hoping-- on a visit about a month later last year, there were things that had already finished flowering...
I was to be pleasantly surprised...

full album: https://picasaweb.google.com/cactuscactus/AlbertaRockyMountainsMay312011G1AlpineSpring

The most conspicuous plant at this time was Arctostaphylos (Arctous) rubra visible for some distance on the nearly bare gravel (some things not yet leafed out, or barely emerging)...

 

This is very funny-- on previous visites, I had admired the good sized mats of this plant, admiring this stemless (or nearly) willow with the beautiful leaves! I was never early enough till now to see flowers, nor apparently was I ever there at the right time for berries! So when I saw the sweet little creamy urn flowers, I was quite stunned... Of course to see it at this season must be among its finest moments, the spring colour was glorious... I have not been there for fall colour ( though I saw some Arctous in fall colour once across the parking lot, must have been A alpina, much smaller leaves, and I had not realised there were two alpine species, so never thought to question this plant)..
I now really want to grow this!

     

Some plants were later, with only flowers, leaves not yet showing, or just starting...

 

[Lis Allison]

What a fabulous plant! And you ought to be able to grow it where you are, don't you think? I don't suppose I can grow it here.... even if seeds were available. 

[cohan]

Thanks, I do love it too even in summer green the leaves are beautiful, now that I have seen spring colour and flowers, its even more wonderful, and probably looks great in fall too.. I'll be looking for seed sure.. unfortunately ( for me, not the place or plants!) this site is in a National Park, so no seed collecting possible (I might take one or two berries if there were tons of them, but that's in the unlikely event I get there at the right time!) , if I am lucky I might find it in the mountains outside the park, but not so many spots to easy access alpine areas there, I have to look into Mount Baldy, as I mentioned earlier, by Nordegg, much closer, but also drier mountains, so might be a very different flora...
Apart from that, I will be watching for it on seedlists! As for cultivation, I guess no way to know without trying!

[Hoy]

Arctostaphylos rubra is a very handsome plant - and not unlike A. alpina, the only one native here. As you say, Cohan, you have to be early to catch it flowering but the berries last long and I can find berries in late Autumn (on alpina that is), presumeably rubra behave likevise

Isn't it allowed to eat berries in the park? Then you can spit out some seeds

[cohan]

Technically, I don't know if you are allowed to eat berries or not! But I don't think anyone would be too upset if I ate one or two..lol.. still I may or may not get to that area in fall.. I will still try to find it somewhere else, its not an uncommon plant, I think, but all the other locations may also be in the parks or even farther away! lol

[cohan]

same site: https://picasaweb.google.com/cactuscactus/AlbertaRockyMountainsMay312011G1AlpineSpring

Another surprise from this site-- I must have been here when this was in fruit, or near it, but if I noticed it (possibly not, small and scattered) I don't remember, should dig through old trip photos and see if I shot it...
So, this sweet little Anemone sp (haven't dug much yet, and leaves not fully emerged to help id, but my only guess so far is A lithophila)..surely the flora of this site is well known, maybe I should check for a book in that big tourist centre across the road!!
All plants I saw at this stage were single, and all were in Arctostaphylos rubra mats (at another site up the road, to come, I saw it again, in Arctostaphylos uva-ursi--maybe these spp give it the soil chemistry it needs? didn't see them in Dryas or Salix, though the two sites I saw are hardly definitive)..

     

[Hoy]

I have actually sowed Anemone lithophila this year and they germinated easily. However, if this is the kind of habitat they need I am not sure I ever manage to grow them

[Lori S.]

I think your anemone looks more like A. parviflora.  I like the Arctous rubra... it must be one I've been overlooking too.

[cohan]

Thanks, Lori, my impression was that parviflora should have less divided leaves? I did read both descriptions, but maybe I missed or mis-read something; this one seems like the leaves will be very divided.. I'll see if I can dig up pics of both online, and re-read the descrips.. and check whether I photographed these by chance later in the season..

[Lori S.]

Somebody correct me if I'm wrong, but I'd say your plant is A. parviflora, although, yes, A. parviflora does have the less divided leaves of the two.  What I see in your photo looks like the typical single-stem with the blunt-tipped, coarsely-divided ruff of stem leaves of A . parviflora; the relative size (small) and habit appear to fit.   (A. lithophila, in our area, have prominent bluish petal reverses - something to watch for.)
There are several photos of A. parviflora posted in this section of the forum, and also one or two of A. lithophila.

[Todd Boland]

A. rubra also grows in Newfoundland but it is quite rare here and very restricted in its range...primarily around our Viking site at L'Anse-aux-meadows. A. alpina is our common species.

The flower on the Anemone does look like our A. parviflora.  HOWEVER, our parviflora often have a blue reverse so that feature is not definitive for seperating the two Rocky Mtn species.  Will to wiat for the basal leave to mature to say for sure but I will also side with parviflora.

[Lori S.]

No, I wasn't meaning to suggest the bluish petal reverses on A. lithophila was a definitive difference (I remember you mentioning blue reverses on A. parviflora in your area, Todd), but just one of the differences - the two species are overall quite different (or at least I think they are  ).

[cohan]

Thanks for the input, Lori and Todd, I also have photographs of an Anemone from farther up the road I'll post as well; I think I will dig back to another I photographed in the region last year in mid summer, and I think I was thinking of that as parviflora, which seemed very different from these--for one thing, it was in a little patch with flowers rising from basal leaves (full developed) but I may a) be remembering it wrong and b) not have identified it certainly-- but that's why I was thinking these had to be something very different.. I'll dig up those other photos for your comments, may or may not get them done tonight...lol
Oh yeah--more of this Anemone in another spot some metres--in a totally different zone- away, those will be coming up too...

[cohan]

Okay, so here are some more shots of the Anemone from nearby at the Columbia Icefield site-- a bit farther up slope, in an older plant community, still growing in Arctostaphylos rubra.. looking at them now, I see most of the emerging leaves do look quite rounded, and not linear divisions as I thought they were--good thing the camera records better than I remembered

 

I think I had leaves more like this next one in mind-seems more linear, but will these still widen as they mature to look wider like the others, or is there variation in leaf division in parviflora?



Then, some distance up the road --maybe a half hour to drive? Similar altitude, but a much more mature site, with trees on part of it, and some exposed ridges (the main part of that to come another day)
Would these be the same species, or more than one species?