Wildflower Walks 2016 - slatsz

5/19/2016

22:27

Slatsz’ Wildflower Walks, 2016, Drumheller Springs Park

I have been inserting my photos into a Microsoft Word document and sending them as an attachment to my mailing list.

Some of the files have been too large for the internet service of some of my mailing list.

And it’s a lot easier to upload the photos to the blog than it is to insert them in a Microsoft Word document so I am blogging again.

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Each ‘page’ on the right is a 2016 wild flower walk. As you can see … as of May 19^th, the list is incomplete. I expect to upload the missing walks next winter.

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The winter of 2015-2016 was an El Nino winter. We had two weeks of cold in January because of a dip in the jet stream but otherwise the year has been warm and wet.

The two weeks of cold put off the blooming of the first two plants, Lomatium gormanii, salt and pepper, and Ranunculus glaberrimus, sagebrush buttercup, but most plants have been blooming early.

My records don’t go back far enough, and are not complete enough to be definitive. And, of course, they are limited to my personal observations. I don’t go out every day and I don’t see the whole park when I do go out.

But it seems that many plants are still, in the third week of May, blooming earlier than they did in 2012 by two weeks and more according to my inadequate records. Perhaps we will learn more about variation in blossoming as the years pass.

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I have observed 88 flowering plants in bloom by May 17^th, 2016. There will be many species in bloom over the next month. There are over 200 species of flowering plants in the park.

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If you see me in the park, stop and say hello.

Later, slatsz

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