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Plant detectives learn basic botany in DNS workshop
Herald Staff Writer
Photo by KARLA SLUIS/Herald photos
Students in a botany workshop hike the Colorado Trail along Junction Creek on Saturday.
Click image to enlarge
Eilene Lyon, a volunteer botany instructor for Durango Nature Studies, shows a palmate leaf shape (like fingers on a hand) of a lupine specimen in the FLC botany lab on June 24.
Eilene Lyon, a volunteer botany instructor for Durango Nature Studies, shows a palmate leaf shape (like fingers on a hand) of a lupine specimen in the FLC botany lab on June 24.
Mertensia franciscana (bluebell)
Asclepias speciosa (showy milkweed)
Gaura coccinea (scarlet gaura)
A drawing in Flora of the San Juans helps a botany student identify a live specimen of Thalictrum fendleri (meadow rue).
Geranium caespitosum (wild geranium)
Frasera speciasa
Frasera speciosa (monument plant or green gentian)
Pulsatilla patens seed heads (pasqueflower)
Marcey Olajos examines a milkweed specimen in the botany lab at Fort Lewis College on June 24.
Erika Good, a Durango Nature Studies volunteer naturalist, smiles after correctly identifying a Geranium caespitosum during a hike June 26.
Durango Nature Studies activities
- July 10, Yoga at the Nature Center, $10 members/$15 non-members.
- July 26, Full Moon Hike, free for members/$10 non-members.
- Aug. 21, Nature Journaling, $10 members/$20 non-members.
- Aug. 24, Full Moon Hike, Free for members/$10 non-members.
- July 12-16, Junior Naturalist Field Camp spots open, ages 9-11.
- Wilderness Skills & Backpacking Camp, sixth-eighth grade, Aug. 2-6.
- Field Days, organized groups of 8-25 kids on open dates, $5
- Second Annual Family Bluegrass Festival, Aug. 5, Rotary Park, 5:30-7:30 p.m., $5 per person.
- Online Auction, Aug. 24-31.
For more information, visit www.durangonaturestudies.org, or call Executive Director Sally Shuffield at 769-1800.
To pick or not to pick
If you cut just a snip of this or a snip of that, plant specimens may be taken on some public lands, said Eileen Lyon, a volunteer botany instructor for Durango Nature Studies.
Here are some restrictions and guidelines:
- No picking is allowed in national parks.
- If you’re taking an entire shrub or tree, such as a Christmas tree, or if you plan to sell the plants, such as herbs or chokecherries, you must get a permit. Call or visit the San Juan Public Lands Center for information.
- If you’re collecting for your own purposes, ask yourself: “Do I really need this? It’s best to leave a plant for everyone to enjoy, especially if it’s growing along a well-used trail.
- Some plants are considered threatened or endangered. Educate yourself before you pick. You should also be able to identify and avoid toxic plants, such as poison ivy.
- If there is only one plant, leave it alone. If there’s an entire field of the species, it’s OK to pick.
- Harvesting a single flower is preferable to digging up roots, which can kill many perennial plants.
- Don’t dig up an entire plant and try to transplant it into a garden. Instead try harvesting seeds in late summer or fall, but keep in mind that germination can be challenging.
At a botany workshop June 24, this meant fuzzy plant stalks - not teenagers or creepy old men.
Durango Nature Studies presented the two-day beginner class, which was taught by Eilene Lyon, a volunteer instructor for Durango Nature Studies. The first portion was a brief plant-part overview followed by hands-on examination of wildflower specimens in the new botany lab at Fort Lewis College. The second portion was a hike up the Colorado Trail at Junction Creek on Saturday to stalk intriguing stalks in their native habitat.
Lyon is a DNS board member and taught the class as a fundraiser for the organization. The lab smelled like a florist shop, and Durango's "summer snow" filled the room. The floating fluff-balls from the cottonwood and willow trees are a common sight along the Animas River and city streets in June.
"If you're allergic to these (wind-borne seed pods), you've come to the wrong place," Lyon said after someone sneezed.
"Look at all these plants and handle them," she said. "That's how you'll learn: by seeing what an umbel (branched flower head) looks like up close."
The complexity of flowers - sepals and calyxs, phyllaries and rays - was eye-opening for some students.
"Wow. There are so many different parts that I never noticed before," said Janice Sheftel, examining a flower head closely. "This gets you to pay attention and see differently."
Botany is fun if you like big words. It's also fun if you enjoy solving mysteries because that's the sense of triumph that comes from flipping through a guide to pinpoint the exact name of a wildflower.
Lyon taught students to use a dichotomous key to go beyond the common name of a plant and arrive at its specific genus and species. A key includes pairs of yes-no questions with minute details about plant parts such as "upper petal angled more than 45 degrees?"
"If you like to play Clue, you'll be good at this," student Cindy Smart said.
Lyon's specimens showed the region's varied and beautiful flower forms such as dense clusters of orchid-like monument plant (Frasera speciosa), fuzzy-firework seed heads of the pasqueflower (Pulsatilla patens) and delicate sprays of bluebell (Mertensia franciscana).
On Saturday morning, the class reconvened at the Junction Creek trailhead on the Colorado Trail. Students used Susan Komarek's Flora of the San Juans: A Field Guide to the Mountain Plants of Southwestern Colorado, which contains a region-speific dichotomous key. Candace Carson, a student in the class and a local author, also supplied copies of her High Country Wildflowers book. The trick to identifying plants is to learn the vocabulary first, then take your time and look closely, Lyon said.
Students wandered slowly off the trail, backs stooped and eyes riveted to the ground. Lyon warned the group that keying plants makes for a different type of nature experience.
"Identifying plants is an addictive hobby," said Lyon. "Don't take someone who wants to go for a brisk hike. The two things are mutually exclusive."
Lyon recommends budding botanists bring a good local guide, a jeweler's magnifying glass, bug spray, sunscreen, hat and camera or sketch pad on plant walks. June and July are the best months locally to search for wildflowers, she said, or August if you're up in the higher elevations. In the fall, Lyon plans to teach another botany class focusing on woody plants and fruits, which will be listed in FLC Continuing Education's fall catalog.
Erika Good, a DNS volunteer naturalist and beginning botanist, attentively followed the questions in a key to identify a violet flower near the trailhead parking lot. She will be teaching a nature-journaling workshop for DNS and wanted to understand more about plants.
"Did you figure it out?" Lyon asked.
"It's a Geranium caespitosum," Good said, smiling. "I did it!"
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