Castilleja : the newsletter of the Wyoming Native Plant Society

Castilleja

Publication of the Wyoming Native Plant Society

October 2016, Volume 35(3)

Now posted at www.wynps.org

In this issue :

The Secret Life of Lichens 1, 3

Plant Profile: Explorer's gentian 4

Relevancy of Herbaria 5

Growing Native Plants - Trees 6

The Secret Life of Lichens

Lichens occupy some of the harshest habitats in
Wyoming and the world - how do they do it?
“Lichens are fungi that have discovered agriculture",
according to lichenologist Trevor Goward, lichen
curator at the University of British Columbia [Grice
2010). They represent perhaps the oldest known
symbiosis in science, a close relationship between a
fungus species [almost always an ascomycete) and a
photosynthesizing alga species, taking on a
macrolichen growth form.

...At least that was the paradigm until scientists
discovered a third party in the picture that had
eluded science all these years. Spribille et al. [2016)
discovered that North American beard-like lichens
are comprised of three symbiotic partners that
include basidiomycete yeasts. These single-celled
associates may actually account for some of lichen
gross morphology, and for production of secondary
metabolites that have baffled scientists for years.

Two putative Bryoria species of Montana were the
first subjects of study, including B.fremontii [tree
hair lichen). They are common in the Rocky
Mountains, and have chemical contrasts but
provisional taxonomic equivalency. Hypothesizing
that the chemical differences between the two
species would be explained by differential gene
expression, the scientists analyzed -messenger RNA
[also called the transcriptome). Results revealed no
systematic differences between the ascomycete fungi
of the two species. ..but a startling difference when

Above: Explorer's gentian [Gentiana calycosa). Illustration
by jeanne R. Janish. From: Hitchcock, C. L., A. Cronquist,
and M. Ownbey. 1959. Vascular Plants of the Pacific
Northwest, Part 4: Ericaceae through Campanulaceae.
University of Washington Press, Seattle, WA. Reprinted
with permission. See p. 4 for a plant profile of this species.!

the taxonomic range of analysis was expanded to
include basidiomycetes. Both species contained
the same unknown basidiomycete, but it was much
more abundant in one of the species.

Next, the lichen research team analyzed the
correlation and global distribution pattern of
basidiomycete taxa in relation to ascomycete taxa
from many different macrolichens sampled on six
continents, finding basidiomycete yeasts ubiquitous
among macrolichens, with apparent taxonomic
consistencies in the associations between the two
different types of fungi. Most of the basidiomycetes
[Continued, p. 3)

WYNPS News

New Members : Please welcome the following new
members to WYNPS: Ron Bice, Cody; Blair & Nancy
Butterfield, Dubois; Lori Clark-Erickson, Jackson;
Eugenie Copp, Dubois; Janice Hansen, Alpine; Jennifer
Howland, Elko, NV; Sam Jordan, Laramie; Earle F.
Layser, Alta; Janet Marschner, Cheyenne; Bobbie
McCrackin, Atlanta, GA; Janice McKee, Cheyenne;
Lillian McMath, Dubois; John Mionczynski, Lander;
Nathaniel Moy, Elko, NV; Rob Outka, Rozet; Danita
Sayers, Dubois; Mae Smith, Greybull; Georgi Still,
Wilson; Nancy Thomas, Star Valley Ranch; Kathy
Treanor, Dubois; Trudy Trevarthen, Dubois;

American Wilderness Botanicals, LLC., Wilson;
Gardening With Altitude, Cheyenne.

Treasurer's Report : Treasurer's report: Balance as
of 15 Sept 2016: Scholarship = $1295.50; general
fund = $7250.50; total = $8546.

WYNPS Board -2016
President: Karen Clause, Pinedale
r kdclause@centurytel.net )

Vice-President: Brian Sebade, Laramie
r bsebade@uwvo.edu1

Sec.-Treasurer: Dorothy Tuthill r dtuthill@uwvo.edu 1
Board-at-large:

Walt Fertig, Phoenix, AZ ['16-'17)

r waltola64@gmail.com 1

Bob Giurgevich, Sheridan ['15-'16)

r bobgiurgevich@live.com 1

Other contacts :

WYNPS homepage: www.wvnps.org: also on
Facebook

Teton Plants Chapter: Amy Taylor, Treasurer
r tetonplants@gmail.com1 and homepage
http : / /www.tetonplants.org/

Sublette Chapter: Julie Kraft, President

r iewelvioe@hotmail.com 1

Editor: Bonnie Heidel r bheidel@uwvo.edu1

Webmaster: VACANT

Bighorn Native Plant Society: Jean Daly, Treasurer
(P.O. Box 21, Big Horn, WY 82833

Wyoming Native Plant Society
P.O. Box 2500
Laramie, WY 82073

Teton Plants Fall Program Event :

When: Tuesday, October 25, @ 6 p.m.

What: Douglas Fir Fire History and Dynamics in
Jackson Hole

Who: Kevin Krasnow, Faculty and Research

Specialist, Teton Science School

Where: Teton Public Library, Jackson

Watch for future program announcements at the homepage

of the Teton Plants Chapter: h ttp://www. tetonplan ts. ora/

Laramie Event :

When: Thursday, October 27, @ 5:30 p.m.

What: Historical Journey of Wyoming's Plant
Explorers, from Horseback to Satellites

Who: Robert Dorn, botanist and author
Where: Berry Biodiversity Conservation Center,
Laramie, at 10^^ and Lewis Streets [U-WY)

Robert Dorn will talk about exploration of
Wyoming's rich plant life. Advances in technology
across three centuries have streamlined the process-
from horseback to motorized vehicles, quill pens to
computers, and unmapped wilderness to GPS. He
received his PhD from the Botany Department [U-
WY) and authored Vascular Plants of Wyoming [3rd
ed., 2001), The Wyoming Landscape, 1805-1878
[1986), and co-authored with his wife Jane, Wyoming
Birds [2nd ed., 1999) and Growing Native Plants of the
Rocky Mountain Area [2007).

It is sponsored by Rocky Mountain Herbarium [RM] and
Biodiversity Institute [U-WY]. It is preceded by a RM Open
House @ 4:30 pm. A Reception f ollows the talk.

Message from the President

Fall is here! As field season
wind down, here's the news.

Nominations are open for the
"Ronald L. Hartman Wyoming
Excellence in Botany Award",
named after its first recipient in
2015. Send nominations to the
award committee at the Society
address [below).

I'm also appointing a
nomination committee for Board positions - would you
like to be on the committee or run for office? -Call or write!

Please enjoy the fall colors. Thanks again for a great
annual meeting in Dubois. Last but not least, HURRAH for
new members ©.

-Karen Clause

Contributors to this Issue : Karen Clause, Eva Crane,

Robert Dorn, Walter Fertig, David Giblin, Bonnie Heidel,
Mae Smith, Lynn Stewart, Amy Taylor, Dorothy Tuthill.

2

2016 WYNPS Annual
Meeting

Dubois, WY

About 70 people came to
the 2016 Annual Meeting in
Dubois. We also had an
amazing showing in the Plant
Kingdom! Thank you to
Dubois hosts, and to one and
all for coming!

Above: Hold onto your hats! Whiskey Mountain hikes ran both Saturday and Sunday.
Here's a view of some hikers at the blustery summit. Photo by Mae Smith

Left: Aquilegia jonesii [Limestone columbine; Jones’ columbine, appeared in profusion
to the glee of Whiskey Mountain hikers. Photo by Lynn Stewart

Left: Androsace chamaejasme (Sweet-flowered rock jasmine)
contributed to the kaleidoscope of color on top with Aquilegia
jonesii. Photo by Eva Crane

The Secret Life of Lichens, cont. from p. 1

belong to one [newly-recognized) order that appears
to have a shared evolutionary history with the lichen-
forming ascomycetes.

How did yeasts within lichens escape detection all
these years? Their location and the previous
techniques used by lichenologists are parts of the
explanation. The breadth of results indicate that
basidiomycete yeasts are essential partners for most
lichens and may help explain the heretofore
impossibility of reconstituting lichen symbiosis in the
lab.

...Maybe lichens in their three-way partnerships
provide a new paradigm for collaboration! BH and DT

References

Grice, G. 2010. Lichens: fungi that have discovered
agriculture. Discover Magazine. Posted at:
www.discovermagazine.com .

Spribille, T., V. Tuovinen, P. Resl, D. Vanderpool, H.
Wolinski, M.C. Aime, K. Schneider, E.
Stabentheiner, M. Toome-Heller, G. Thor, H.
Mayrhofer, H. Johannesson and J.P. McCutcheon.
2016. Science 353: 488-492.

LICHEN PHOTOGRAPHY ON DISPLAY

Lichen photographs by Bruce Parkinson will
go on display at the Berry Biodiversity
Conservation Center [U-WY in Laramie) from
October 24 thru the end of the academic year.

3

Plant profile :

Gentiana calycosa

By David Giblin

University of Washington Herbarium, Burke Museum
[Adapted from: Douglasia 40 (3). [2016)]

Thou blossom bright with autumn dew,

And coloured withe heaven's own blue,

That openest when the quiet light
Succeeds the keen and frosty night.

So begins the poem “Ode to a Fringed Gentian" by
nineteenth-century write William Cullen Bryant.
Though his musings were of Gentianopsis crinita, he
might as well have been writing about G. calycosa
[explorer's gentian, also called mountain bog gentian
or Rainier pleated gentian), a native member of our
flora commonly found throughout the subalpine and
alpine meadows of the Cascades and Olympic
mountains. Its broader range extends from British
Columbia to California, east to Alberta, Montana,
Wyoming and Utah.

Gentiana calycosa is in the Gentianaceae, a family
of plants closely related to the dogbane family
[Apocynaceae), the latter of which includes the
milkweeds. The gentian family has a worldwide
distribution and comprises some 100 genera and
1,800 species with growth forms ranging from annual
herbs to small trees. The genus Gentiana itself is huge
- about 360 species of herbaceous plants found on
every continent except Antarctica, though the vast
majority of them are found in Asia. The online Flora
of China shows 317 species occur there.

The origin of the name Gentiana traces back to
Gentius, a second-century king of Illyria, who
according to legend discovered the medicinal value of
G. lutea. The specific epithet calycosa is from the Latin
calyx, seed pod, husk or outer covering, and the Latin
os, here meaning "full." The reference to a full calyx is
uncertain.

Taxonomically, Gentiana has presented serious
challenges to researchers. Results from molecular
studies over the past 30 years have warranted the
recognition of serval genera to accurately capture the
evolutionary relationships of many species that
historically were placed in Gentiana.

Explorer's gentian is one of my all-time favorite
mountain plants. 1 think part of it has to do with them
being late-season bloomers [late July to September),
squeezing in their reproductive cycle just before the
impending end to the wildflower season. 1 also like
that the flowers are presented at the tips of stems
that are often are not higher than the surrounding
vegetation. There is often an element of surprise
when first encountering them each year.

Explorer's gentians are perennial herbs, typically
with multiple stems originating from a common base
[cespitose). The leaves are simple, opposite, and lack
petioles [sessile). Overall the plants are quite
striking, though they must be difficult to cultivate in a
garden setting, as I've never seen them for sale in a
nursery. Its flowers have sepals and petals in fives,
with the petals fused into a broad tube. The five,
rounded lobes at the top of the tube have the most
remarkable greenish-yellow flecking. This flecking
continues downward in the tube in patterning so
dense as to form vertical guides for pollinators to
locate the nectaries located at the base of the flower.
You really need to see this if you haven't. The flowers
are primarily bumblebee-pollinated. There are five
stamens fused to the inner corolla tube, and the
ovary is superior. Flower buds typically have a
twisted appearance prior to opening.

Remarkably, 1 was not able to locate a single
scientific publication exclusively focused on the
biology of G. calycosa. What this means is that we
know precious little about the natural history,
physiology, longevity, ecology, or pollination biology
of a common member of our native flora. A study was
conducted on a related member [G. algida) native to
the Rocky Mountains, in which the researcher found
that plants responded to oncoming thunderstorms by
closing the petals of their flowers. This remarkable
response improved reproductive output by keeping
pollen and stigmatic surfaces dry [you can find an
abstract of that study here:

r http://www.amibot.org/content/88/6/1088.abstra

ct ). Whether our own G. calycosa does this is
unknown, but certainly something considering the
next time you encounter it!

4

Are Herbaria Still Relevant in the 21st Century?

[Adapted from: Sego Lily 39:1 [2016)

By Walter Fertig, Arizona State University Herbarium

If herbaria are to survive, those of us who care
about them need to do a better job of demonstrating
their value to society. Herbaria are increasingly
relevant in the fields of ecology, biogeography, and
conservation biology, on top of important
conventional taxonomic research. Specimens are
also valuable for building public appreciation of
plants and of botany in general. Rather than hiding
our specimens behind cabinet doors, we need to
make them more accessible, especially digitally.

In the past, users of specimen data had to either
visit herbaria in person or arrange to borrow
material. With the advent of digital databases,
herbarium records are now readily available around
the clock and from any home, office, or mobile device
that has internet access [even in the field). On-line
databases include standard label information
[species name, collector, date, locality, habitat) and
often have maps of collection sites and digital images
of the actual specimen. These data can be queried in
numerous ways to create local or rangewide
distribution maps or customized species lists, e.g., at
the Rocky Mountain Herbarium [RM) search page
[http://rmh.uwyo.edu/data/search.php]. Individual
herbaria are increasingly pooling their digital data
into regional and national networks, such as SEINet
[Southwest Environmental Information Network),
the Consortium of Intermountain Herbaria, or the
Consortium of Pacific Northwest Herbaria, allowing
users to access millions of records with ease. Other
digital products, such as image libraries and links to
original botanical literature, are greatly increasing
the utility and scope of herbarium information.

Brick-and-mortar herbaria [and the professional staff
needed to maintain them) are still vital for plant
identification services. Potential clients range from
farmers and ranchers, government biologists, and industry
consultants to home gardeners, amateur naturalists, and
school children: essentially anyone who might need
assistance identifying mystery plants. Sometimes
herbarium staff are asked to provide expertise on plant
fragments rather than whole specimens. Such "forensic
botany" can help archeologists interpret prehistoric sites,
paleoecologists infer past climates, and law enforcement
officers solve crimes.

Herbaria can also be thought of as vast genetic libraries.
Rather than having to travel around the world to gather
samples, researchers have millions of collections at their
disposal, already identified to species and with collection
dates and localities provided. In the case of extinct or
protected species, herbarium specimens may be the

Explorer's gentian
[Gentiana calycosa],
a specimen by David Scott,
from Grand Teton Natl. Park,
Coll. No. 4997,

For on-line viewing see
Rocky Mountain Herbarium
Homepage.

Each herbarium sheet has three main pieces of
information:

-The most obvious is the physical specimen itself:
stems, leaves, roots, flowers, and fruits. From these,
researchers can determine the identity of the
species and recognize the diversity among
individual plants within and between populations.
Measurements and observations of specimens is the
basis for species descriptions and identification
keys.

-Additional information can be gleaned from the
internal chemistry of the specimens, especially
genetic data from nuclear and organelle DNA. Such
data can be used to reconstruct phylogenetic
relationships among species, genera, and families.

-Perhaps the most useful information, however,
comes from the specimen label which records the
name of the species [and any subsequent changes or
corrections), the collector, the date of the collection,
locality, and other data on habitat, elevation,
associated species, or abundance. These three
datasets are the foundation of taxonomic research
and can be especially useful in studies of ecology
and conservation biology.

5

only material available for study. Older specimens
can offer a window into changes in genetic structure
in populations and evidence of ongoing evolution.

There have been challenges in utilizing herbarium
collections in molecular research. Initially
researchers had difficulty extracting sufficient
quantities of DNA from old collections. DNA can also
be altered if specimens were pickled or dried
improperly. Recent advances in molecular
techniques are resolving many of these problems. A
recent study (Choi et al. 2015) found no relationship
between the age of a specimen and the purity of DNA
that could be extracted and later amplified. Ames
and Spooner (2008) used DNA from 200-year old
herbarium specimens of Irish potato in Europe to
match unique genetic markers with their source
populations in the Andes and lowlands of Chile and
help determine the multiple points of origin of this
important crop plant.

Herbarium specimens can also be time capsules of
past environmental conditions. Atmospheric carbon
dioxide levels have been recorded in herbarium
specimens collected in the late 1700s and compared
with recently collected plants to document changes in
the concentration of greenhouse gases since the
industrial revolution (Bonal et al. 2011).

For taxonomists, the most important specimens
are the type collections, which provide the basis for
species names and taxonomic concepts. When a new
species is discovered, a holotype is designated and
deposited in an herbarium to serve as the standard
(or archetype) for which all other individuals of the
species are compared. A recent study found that
nearly one-quarter of all newly documented species
were already found within existing herbarium
collections but had been initially misidentified or
unidentified (Bebber et al. 2010). The authors even
suggested that as many as 70,000 undescribed plant
species might still be lurking within the world's
herbaria.

Herbarium specimens can also be a source for new
records of pathogens and parasites. In the 1990s, the
late John Baxter, a retired mycologist, discovered
over 30 state records of rust and smut fungi growing
on plant specimens in the Rocky Mountain
Herbarium at the University of Wyoming. One of
these was Puccinia yosemitana, a rust from California
and Colorado that was new to Wyoming. Baxter
found it growing on a specimen of Opal phlox [Phlox
opalensis] that I had collected in SW Wyoming a few
years earlier.

Specimen vouchers (deposited in herbaria) are
important for documenting new occurrences of rare
and unusual plants. Compared to observation
records or photographs, physical specimens are
easier to corroborate if there is any debate about a
report's authenticity. This can be especially
important in ecological studies or when developing
checklists for protected areas, such as national parks
or wildlife refuges.

Locality data from herbarium specimens is also
useful in studying the spread of invasive weeds on
one hand, and to identify gaps in the network of
protected areas, on the other. In Wyoming, 10.6% of
the state is “protected" (in national parks, wilderness
areas, special botanical areas, and Nature
Conservancy preserves), but these areas tend to be
concentrated nonrandomly in the northwest corner
of the state and at high elevations. Based on
herbarium records, I found that 18% of the state's
plant species were completely absent from these
protected areas (Fertig 2011).

Digital locality data from herbarium specimens can
be used in modeling the potential distribution of
weeds, rare plants, and other species of high
management interest. At the University of Wyoming,

I used more than 325,000 digital records in the Rocky
Mountain herbarium database to identify patterns in
the presence and inferred absence of 200 randomly
selected plant species with a mix of environmental
variables (average monthly temperature and
precipitation, bedrock geology, soil type, vegetation,
etc.).

References

Ames, M. and D.M. Spooner. 2008. DNA from herbarium
specimens settles a controversy about origins of the
European potato. American Journal of Botany
95(2):252-257.

Bebber, D.P. et al. 2010. Herbaria are a major frontier for
species discovery. PNAS 107(51):22169-22171.

Bonal, D. Etal. 2011. Leaf functional response to
increasing atmospheric CO 2 concentrations over the
last century in two northern Amazonian tree species: a
historical and 6^^ 0 approach using herbarium
samples. Plant, Cell & Environment 34(8):1332-1344.

Choi, J., et al. 2015. All that is gold does not glitter? Age,
taxonomy, and ancient plant DNA quality. Peer] 3
el087.

Deng, Boer. 2015. Plant collections get pruned back.
Nature 523:16.

Fertig, W.F. 2011. Strategies for plant conservation in
Wyoming: Distributional modeling, gap analysis, and
identifying species at risk. Ph.D., Dept, of Botany,
University of Wyoming.

6

Rocky Mountain Herbarium (U-WY)
- at the forefront

Yellowstone National Park would not be where
it is today without the Roeky Mountain Herbarium
(RM). Yellowstone National Park is the heart of
the Greater Yellowstone Eeosystem and straddles
three states. RM is invaluable for getting a
broader eeosystem perspeetive for nonnative
speeies as well as rare speeies. While
Yellowstone does have a herbarium of its own, our
reeords only represent the flora of Yellowstone
National Park, not the entire eeosystem. In
addition, our eolleetion is very young with most of
it more reeent than 1950; earlier speeimens were
sent off around the eountry and world. Herbaria
provide historieal distributions for the native flora
as well as the latest diseoveries and taxonomie
revisions. We rely heavily on this eontext from the
Roeky Mountain Herbarium to meet our mandates
for native plant eonservation.

Heidi Anderson, Wetland Ecologist and Botanist,
Yellowstone National Park; Mammoth, MT

Are you a fan of the Rocky Mountain Herbarium?

Become an official FRIEND at:

http : / /www.uwvo.edu /botanv/rm-friends / for

alumni, colleagues and public admirers at large!

The Roeky Mountain Herbarium (RM), and
the online availability of the information held
there, has been instrumental for understanding
the distribution, habitat, and threats to some of
our rarest plants and the plants that are
impaeted by Forest Serviee management.
Similarly, the information held at RM provides
eritieal information about the eeology of the
plants that are the foundation of the eeosystems
throughout the Roeky Mountains whieh the
Forest Serviee manages. The information from
RM is also used to determine whieh speeies are
to be used in restoration after natural and
artifieial disturbanee on national forests.

Tyler Johnson, Rocky Mountain Regional
Botanist, U.S. Forest Service; Golden, CO

The Roeky Mountain Herbarium (RM) is a truly invaluable resouree to the Bureau of Fand
Management in Wyoming. BLM WY regularly uses the RM resourees to learn or eonfirm the identity
of plants, whieh is a fundamental part of assessing resouree eonditions. RM provides important
information on the loeation and distribution of common desirable plant species throughout Wyoming
and this information is used to identify areas for the BFM Native Plant Materials Development Program
to target for seed collection. Using these targeted local seed collections increases the chances of
successful reclamation seeding efforts. The online herbarium database is extremely useful for the many
seasonal interns and employees who often come from other regions of the country and have little
familiarity with the plant communities of the Rocky Mountain region. And of course the BFM WY
relies heavily on the RM for understanding the distribution, and identifying potential habitat, for rare
and sensitive plant species. The RM is in the midst of digitizing all of the BFM Field Office herbaria
specimens as part of a cooperative agreement. This will be yet another extremely valuable resource
aiding the BFM WY resource protection efforts.

Tanya Skurski, BLM State Botanist, Cheyenne, WY

1

Growing Native Plants

Part 21. Trees

By Robert Dorn

In each of the previous parts we usually looked at
five examples of native plants. This has tallied to
around 100 species. There are many more native
plants that are desirable to grow. In the next parts of
this series I will present some of these additional
species. I will begin with trees since these take the
longest time to get to a desirable size.

Betula papyrifera, Paper Birch, is a fast growing
deciduous tree that can reach 60 feet tall and 20 feet
wide. It is usually less than half that tall. The root
system is shallow. The bark is cream colored to chalky
white marked with gray or black scars. The bark
continually peels to expose new bark. This is the tree
that the native peoples used to build their birchbark
canoes. The leaves are ovate with pointed tips and to
3 inches long. They turn yellow in the fall. The flowers
are inconspicuous and borne in catkins which appear
from April to June. They grow naturally in Wyoming
mostly in the Black Hills where they have persisted
since the glacial period after being pushed south from
the Northern Boreal Forest. They occur on cool, moist,
north-facing slopes. They prefer cool, moist areas in
well-drained soil with at least partial shade such as on
the north side of a building. They do not tolerate
drought nor excessive wind. They are generally short-
lived and may be subject to birch borers. It can be
grown from untreated seed. Surface sow to allow light
exposure. It is also in the nursery trade.

Pinus flexilis, Limber Pine, is a slow growing, long-
lived, evergreen tree that can reach 80 feet tall and 30
feet wide but is usually much smaller. The leaves are
needle-like in clusters of 5 and to 2.5 inches long. The
female cones are very resinous and to 8 inches long.
The plants occur naturally on dryish, often wind swept
and rocky ridges and slopes from rocky outcrops on
the plains to subalpine areas in the mountains. They
prefer moist to dry, open areas and are tolerant of
drought, wind, cold, and heat. They are a good
candidate for bonsai culture. It can be grown from
seed which is best cold stratified for 21 to 90 days
before planting. Barely cover with soil. Small trees
can be transplanted. The foothills ecotype will do best
at our lower elevations. There are many cultivars in
the nursery trade.

Betula papyrifera, Crook Co.

Betula papyrifera, Custer Co., SD

Pinus flexilis, Albany Co.

Pseudotsuga menziesii, Douglasfir, is a fast growing,
evergreen tree, cone-shaped when young but
becoming more irregular and open with age. They can
reach 70 feet or more high and 30 feet wide but are

8

usually much smaller. The leaves are linear, flattened,
blunt at the tip, to 1.5 inches long, and borne singly
along the branches similar to a fir tree. The female
cones are to 3 inches long with 3-lobed bracts
protruding from the cone scales. They occur naturally
on dry, often rocky slopes and ridges in the mountains.
They prefer a well-drained site in full sun or part
shade. They are drought and wind tolerant but are
best grown on a north-facing exposure. At lower
elevations they may be subject to winter sun burn and
pests like gall aphids, tussock moths, and needle scale.
It is an alternate host for spruce gall aphid so spruce
and Douglasfir should not be planted in close
proximity. It can be grown from fresh seed barely
covered with soil. For spring sowing, cold stratify the
seed for at least 60 days. There are many cultivars in
the nursery trade.

Quercus gambelii, Carbon Co.

Salix amygdaloides, Platte Co.

Salix amygdaloides, Goshen Co.

Pseudotsuga menziesii, Meagher Co., MT

Quercus gambelii, Gambel Oak, is a slow growing
deciduous tree [may be shrub-like) to 20 feet tall and
as wide. It tends to sucker and form thickets. The
leaves are lobed like typical oak leaves and to 6 inches
long. They turn yellow, orange, or red in the fall. The
flowers are inconspicuous appearing in March and
April. The fruit is an acorn about 0.5 inch across. The
plants occur naturally in Wyoming mostly on the west
slope of the Sierra Madre Mountains in Carbon County.
They prefer moist to dry, open or partly shaded areas.
They are tolerant of wind and some drought. It can be
grown from the acorn planted half an inch deep
outside in the fall. It is difficult to transplant. It is also
in the nursery trade.

[Continued, p. 10)

9

Growing Native Plants

[Continued from p. 9)

Salix amygdaloides, Peachleaf Willow, is a
fast growing deciduous tree to 40 feet tall and
30 feet wide. The leaves are ovate with long
pointed tips and to 3.5 inches long. They turn
light yellow in the fall. The flowers are
inconspicuous and borne in catkins from
April to June. The plants occur naturally on
flood plains, shores, and other wet places on
the plains and in the valleys and basins up to
about 7000 feet. They prefer moist to wet,
sandy, gravelly, or silty soils in full sun.

Ideally they should be planted along a pond
or stream but will do well in a regularly
irrigated lawn if the soil is not allowed to dry
out. It may be desirable to prune out multiple
trunks that it tends to develop. It is easy to
grow from cuttings of small branches taken in
late winter, treated with rooting hormone,
and rooted in water or a moist medium.

Fresh seeds germinate readily on a wet soil
surface in direct light. Salix amygdaloides is
commercially available.

Wyoming Native Plant Society is a non-profit organization established
in 1981 to encourage the appreciation and conservation of the native
plants and plant communities of Wyoming. The Society promotes
education and research through its newsletter, field trips, annual
student scholarships and small grants awards. Membership is open to
individuals, families, or organizations. To join or renew, you can do it on-
line f WWW. wynps.org ) or return this form to:

Wyoming Native Plant Society
P.O. Box 2449
Laramie, WY 82073

Name: _
Address:

Email :

Check one: [ ] New member [ ] Renewing member

[ ] Check here if this is an address change.

[ ] Check here if you prefer to receive the newsletter electronically.
Payment:

[ ] WYNPS annual membership: $10; or
[ ] WYNPS annual membership with scholarship support: $20
[$10 for membership and $10 for Scholarship fund)

[ ] WYNPS Lifetime membership: $300 [$150 for membership

and $150 for Scholarship fund)

In addition to the statewide organization, we have two chapters.
Membership in chapters is optional; chapter members must also be
members of the statewide organization.

[ ] Sublette Chapter annual membership: $5.00
[ ] Teton Plants Chapter annual membership: $5.00
Total enclosed: THANKYOU!

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