A Publication of the Wyoming Native Plant Society
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Castilleja A Publication of the Wyoming Native Plant Society December 2008, Volume 27, No. 4 Posted at www.uwyo.edu/wyndd/wnps/wnps_home.htm Natives Come to Campus Red osier dogwood (Cornus sericea ) comes into its own in the cold months. After the growing season’s succession of colors, we are finally able to see its vibrant red stems that were with us all along. It lends its intense color to riverways across the state. An easy way to tell if moose live nearby is by the presence of short, browsed Red osier stems that look like they’ve been attacked in over-zealous hedge trimming. Such tell-tale signs are wanting at Prexy’s Pasture, where Red osier is among the newest recruit of natives to be added to campus plantings at the University of Wyoming. It is a favorite landscaping shrub for its accents of color and thrives on moist or well-watered settings. The cultivated varieties of this native species have been selected by horticulturalists from plants in the wild for specific colors, growth forms, and climate adaptations. Propagation information is published by Dorn and Dorn (2007). Above: Cornus sericea (Red osier dogwood), from: Britton, N.L., and A. Brown. 1913. An illustrated flora of Red osier dogwood is in the featured the northern United States, Canada and the British Possessions . Vol. 2: 662. Dogwood family (p. 3, this issue). The phenology of Red osier and many other species In this issue: is profiled on the National Phenology Network Natives Come to Campus . 1 homepage (http://www.usanpn.org/), Wyoming Plant Families - The Dogwoods . 3 chronicling development through the growing Flyers on T&E Plants of Wyoming. 4 season, and with links to images showing What a Native Plant Society Means to Me. 5 stages and features...a glimpse of things to Botanists’ Bookshelf - Global Warming . 6 come. BH Additions to the Flora of Wyoming. 8 References – continued on p. 10 New Members : Please welcome the following new members to WNPS: Linda Dudinyak (Jackson); Cheryl Mayer, Custer, SD; Sean Sheehan (Cody); Paige Wolken, Cheyenne, and Mary Wyman, Laramie. Treasurer’s Report : Balance as of 24 November 2008 - General Fund: $1,604.65 ; Markow Scholarship Fund: $848.50 . Total Funds: $2,453.15. Mark Your Calendar : Black Hills Area Ecologist and Botanist WNPS News Workshop , an interagency-sponsored event WNPS Markow Scholarship : The 2009 WNPS When: March 12, 2009 Markow Scholarship announcement is in this issue, Where: Western Dakota Tech (Rapid City, SD) open to all who are pursuing graduate research This one-day professional forum for natural related to native plant species and vegetation in resource professionals and researchers working in Wyoming. The deadline is February 18. the Black Hills is open to the public. If you are interested in speaking or attending, contact: Amy Ballot and Renewal : Starting in 2009, the Wyoming Symstad ([email protected] ; 605-745-1191). Native Plant Society membership year begins in January. This makes for a short 2008 year, but the Changing Landscapes in the Southwest , the membership remains a bargain. Please renew early Southwest Rare Plant Conference, sponsored by and mail your vote by January 25. See the mailing Utah Native Plant Society label for the year through which your membership Where: Salt Lake City, UT on the University of Utah is current, or get the date of last renewal from Ann. campus When: March 16 through 20, 2009 Topics will range from rare plant issues (Southwest Wyoming Native Plant Society region as well as Utah) plant community and ecological restoration, climate change issues and P.O. Box 2500 others. Format will include posters, presentations Laramie, WY 82073 and breakout sessions. There will be a published proceedings from this conference. Dr. Noel WNPS Board – 2008 Holmgren will be our keynote speaker Events President: Beth Burkhart ’08 605-673-3159 sponsors currently include Red Butte Garden and Vice President: Lynn Moore ‘08 472-3603 The Nature Conservancy. For more information Sec.-Treasurer: Ann Boelter ‘08 745-5487 and signup: Board Members: Dave Kesonie ’07-’08 690-1683 http://guest.cvent.com/i.aspx?5S,M3,549fa0a2- Curtis Haderlie ’08-’09 690-4381 ee97-4fab-81b4-288ff73aac78 Newsletter Editor: Bonnie Heidel (Laramie; [email protected]) Plants Without Borders , the2009 annual Webmaster: Melanie Arnett ([email protected] meeting of Colorado Native Plant Society (CoNPS) Teton Chapter: PO Box 82, Wilson, WY 83014 (Joan When: September 11-13, 2009 (weekend) Lucas, Treasurer) Where: Windsor, CO (north of Fort Collins) at The Bighorn Native Plant Society: PO Box 21, Big Horn, WY Ranch (Larimer County Fairgrounds) 82833 (Jean Daly, Treasurer) Plant enthusiasts are also invited to cross borders. Wyoming Native Plant Society members will Contributors to this issue : Beth Burkhart, Robert participate at some level in the Rare Plant Dorn, Walter Fertig, Bonnie Heidel, Dave Kesonie, Technical Conference on Friday and the symposium and Jill Larson. on Saturday. Sunday tours will include Soapstone Ranch, near the state line with Colorado's largest Contributions : Announcements, book reviews and Colorado butterfly plant population. WNPS and ideas are welcome any time of year by mail or CoNPS will print and post more information as it email. The next newsletter deadline is 15 Feb. becomes available. 2 Wyoming Plant Families to be pulled like cotton candy batter, though it is The Dogwoods (Cornaceae) less edible and brightly colored. By Walter Fertig Like most dogwoods, Red-osier has With a name like “dogwood” it is only natural to inconspicuous white flowers with four or assume that members of the Cornaceae either occasionally five petals borne in a flat-topped resemble dogs or are undeniably attractive to our umbrella-like cyme. Wyoming’s second canine companions. In truth, the word dogwood is dogwood species, Bunchberry ( Cornus canadensis ), a corruption of a Scandinavian term “dag”, differs in having four large, petal-like, bracts meaning skewer. The hard woody stems of enfolding the smaller white flowers at the center of dogwood are excellent for roasting game over a the inflorescence which creates the illusion of a fire or for use in basketry or wicker. Indeed, the single enormous flower. This low-growing Latin name for the dogwoods, Cornus, translates as herbaceous species is relatively uncommon in the “horn” in reference to the hardness of the plant’s state, being known only from Yellowstone National wood, which has often been used as a substitute Park, the Bighorn Mountains, and the Black Hills. for metal in the manufacture of weaving shuttles, Additional anatomical differences have prompted bobbins, and farming implements. some taxonomists to segregate the herbaceous dogwoods into the genus Chamaepericlymenum. If The dogwoods are a relatively small family, with accepted, this 18 letter tongue-twister would about 100 species distributed widely across the surpass Krascheninnikovia (Winterfat) as the northern hemisphere, but extending into the longest genus name in the Wyoming flora. mountains of South America and rarely into the tropics. About half of all known species in the Dogwoods produce showy red or white fleshy family belong to the genus Cornus , although fruits that are often as attractive (or more so) than taxonomic splitters have suggested dividing this the flowers. Technically, the fruits are drupes (like group into as many as eight separate genera. cherries) with a single, hard seed inside. Dogwood fruits are an important food source for songbirds Wyoming is home to two native dogwoods, of and grouse. which the shrubby Red-osier ( Cornus sericea , or Swida sericea for you splitters) is the most Red-osier is one of several plants referred to as widespread. Red-osier dogwood gets its common “kinnikinik” (meaning “that which is mixed” in name from the bright red stems (osier is French for Algonquian, Cree, or Ojibwa) for its use by long, willow-like shoot) that are especially obvious American Indians as a tobacco substitute. The when the leaves have shed in winter. In this inner bark of young stems was split and scraped condition the shrub’s bark can resemble that of into threads and toasted over a fire before being willows with which it shares an affinity for wet soils mixed with real tobacco. Though he never and damp streamsides. In summer, Red-osier admitted to trying it, edible plant aficionado H.D. dogwood is easily recognized by its oval to elliptic Harrington noted that Red-osier “is said to be leaves with prominent veins that gently curve to aromatic and pungent, giving a narcotic effect follow the smooth margins of the blade. Cornus approaching stupefaction”. He recommended its sericea is among the few tree or shrub species in use only in moderation. the west with opposite leaves (occurring in pairs on opposing sides of a stem, rather than singly in a Perhaps it is fortunate that we have adopted zig-zag fashion) that are neither lobed nor divided. the term “dogwood” over the more linguistically pure “dagwood” for these handsome and useful The most reliable way to identify a dogwood in shrubs. Certainly, the image of a buffoonish leaf is to break the leaf stalk or petiole and slowly cartoon character noted for sleeping on the job and pull each half apart to reveal the stringy white pith crashing into the postman does not befit the inside. The pith is part of the internal network of dogwood clan. More importantly, the word fibers that give the stem rigidity and flexibility. dogwood allows for the clever botanical joke, Dogwood pith is unusual in its elasticity, allowing it always worth repeating: How do you tell a dogwood? By its bark, of course! 3 Announcing : Flyers on Threatened and Endangered Plants of Wyoming All four Threatened and Endangered contact Wyoming Natural Diversity Database @ plants of Wyoming are now featured on striking [email protected] or 766-3020; or else your nearest flyers recently published by the Bureau of Land BLM office).