Friday, July 29, 2011

Mountain Goldenbanner, Thermopsis montana






Let's continue exploring the Rocky Mountains, shall we?  At 8000 feet up, spring comes much later than it does in Ohio.  It was awesome to be there in late June but to see many "spring" wildflowers.  Perhaps the flower I photographed the most was the mountain goldenbanner, a member of the pea family.  It was everywhere in meadows at lower elevations.  At the time, I wondered why this species was so prevalent even though the park has a large elk population that has grazed many areas to the point where they need to be fenced off to exclude the elk.  After a little research tonight, however, I learned that several members of the genus Thermopsis, including this species, contain toxic alkaloids.  The elk don't touch it.

I'm almost ready to wrap up looking back on the rocky mountains.  Look for a roundup of the various animal species that we encountered that I haven't yet shown this weekend.

-Tom

During July 2011, I'm writing about my late June trip to Rocky Mountain National Park.  I hope you enjoy this brief swing to the western U.S.

4 comments:

  1. Thank you Kerri- I'm giving all of the credit here to Rocky Mountain National Park. It IS breathtaking! For it's natural beauty and high elevation. I constantly found myself out of breath. And I'd get lightheaded above 10,000 feet. That's more than ten times higher than what I'm used to.

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  2. Thank you- They are really quite nice, aren't they? I wonder if they would grow in a climate like Ohio's?

    -Tom

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