#utahnativeplants

[inkandpenstemon]

Asclepias asperula, common name "Antelope Horns." Showy and poisonous.

[inkandpenstemon]

Phlox pulvinata, Newfoundland Mountains, Utah.

[inkandpenstemon]

The seed pod of Dicentra uniflora fills up the two fused inner petals of the flower, which looks just like it's common name, Steershead.

[inkandpenstemon]

Phlox hoodii growing in my garden from wild collected seed in Tooele, Utah. Proud of this one.

[inkandpenstemon]

Smarch

Smarch. The in between season. And this Smarch has been one for the record books, the Smarch against which all other Smarches will be compared.

At least I’m forced to be at home during this Smarch. Food shortages have made me turn again to sowing the vegetable garden. Seedlings are under grow lights and will be transferred outside. Long put off projects are being picked up again. By being forced to stay put, I am being forced to recenter my domestic life. Wanderlust has been put to heel.

But signs of Spring are cropping up as they usually do. Botany has taught me that treasures and beauty are in unlikely places. I think of distant hills, and grassy spots among boulder fields that seem uninteresting to everyone but to those who know the waypoints marking the location of something rare or unusual. I find it metaphorical in many ways. How much beauty do we pass over because it doesn’t scream at us, or it demands time and patience for us to stop to notice and appreciate it. Whenever I drive by large expanses of sagebrush and pinyon juniper, I become so excited because I know that there’s treasure in those grey expanses. I now even have learned to see the sagebrush itself as beautiful.

Viola beckwithii is flowering.

Given the injunction to distance ourselves from one another and to stay close to home, my knowledge of the natural world and panning for this type of gold is serving me well, as is the garden. I built my garden so that when I came home from the mountains or desert, the separation wouldn’t be so painful because I had a piece of that same feeling here. While everyone else has to sit on a postage stamp of grass and maybe a few flowering bulbs, I am surrounded by portraits of the places I love. A climber I have been out with a few times and who is learning to love plants and birds told me his interest stemmed from a conversation with a co-worker who is now to old to climb and hike. In her words “when we lose our arms and our legs, God sends us flowers and birds.” He took it to heart and now I have a partner who knows what Clematis seed looks like and is impressed by my arcane lectures about the differences between Clematis species we find on the trail. I’m just ahead of the curve. When my arms and legs fail me, my garden will be here.

[inkandpenstemon]

Eriogonum shockleyi, Frisco Peak, Utah.

[traviswardhorticulture]

#Daturawrightii #Datura #UtahNative #UtahNativePlants #Zion #ZionNationalPark #OptOutside #Hike365 #FindYourPark (at Zion National Park)

[traviswardhorticulture]

#Penstemonpalmeri #Penstemon #PalmersPenstemon #UtahNative #UtahNativePlants #zion #ZionNationalPark #FindYourPark #Hike365 #OptOutside (at Zion National Park)