Know Your Thistles!
Let’s touch on a prickly kind of subject. Know your thistles before you kill them! When I was a young kid, I clearly remember my beloved Welsh pony eating thistle heads while I was riding him. From my vantage point I could see his soft lips stretch away from his teeth...
The “Currant” Situation
Some of the first early blooming native flowers in Colorado include shrubs in the Currant family. It is middle April as I write this, and strong wind whips with intensity across the San Luis Valley. As the soil continues to warm, the roots of perennial native plants...
Soil: It’s So Much More Than Dirt
All orchids, including this Colorado native orchid, Coralroot, Corrallorhiza maculata, are completely dependent on mycorrhizal fungi to begin their life cycle and and this reliance continues to varying degrees throughout their life. Photo credit: SPD Unseen, unheard,...