Small and nondescript — about the size of a thimble, and muted shades of beige — she’s easy to miss, unless you know where to find her.
She’s worth the effort: the female yucca moth has been residing in the San Juans a lot longer than humans have, and her species is one half of an ancient, symbiotic relationship.
The moth can’t survive without the yucca plant.
The plant won’t make it without the moth.
Both plant, and pollinator, have been involved in an ancient, evolutionary dance — obligate mutualism, scientists call it — for 40 million years.
“It’s a very specific, fantastic relationship,” author Mary Menz said.
Next time you head out on a hike in these mountains, beguiled by large, local wildlife, you might want to remember the life forms less visible, and their extraordinary success at survival.
A guided walk can lead you to these moths, and other shockers of the natural world, such as the brilliant, ever-changing variety of wildflowers for which this region is famous. Native plants have one job, said Menz, author of “Common Wildflowers of the San Juans,” and that is to reproduce, or bloom. “A lot of different plants will flower,” she explained. “The ones that flower do so only for a brief time, and not all season.”
Wildflowers at lower elevations — say, on the Colorado National Monument, and in the Paradox Valley and Dominguez-Escalante National Conservation Area — emerge in April (just a few days away). Here you may see native species such as Townsend Daisy (Townsendia excapa), a fluffy-tufted member of the aster family, Cliff fendlerbush (Fenderla rupicola), whose creamy white petals can cause a sere ravine to appear dotted with snowflakes, and ubiquitous, blazing Desert Paintbrush (Castilleja chromosa).
And that is only the beginning: as the months progress, and you move up in elevation, the wildflower spectacle gets wilder. In May, in altitudes from 6,000-8,000 feet — at Billy Creek State Wildlife Area, say, or on the Uncompaghre Plateau — dusky purple, urn-shaped Sugar Bowls (Clematis hirsutissima), and spiky Western ‘Red’ Columbine (Aquilegia elegantula) appear.
From canyons to mesas to the high alpine, each geography has its flowers, and everyone has their favorites.
“There’s something at every part of the summer season to look forward to,” Menz said. One of her favorite blooms is the delicate, otherworldly-looking Fairy Slipper Orchid (Calypso bulbosa).
‘If you find one, you’re really lucky,” Menz said. “I saw so many last year. This year, we might not see so many. That’s what keeps us on our toes on the trail.”
On April 23, Menz and Montrose photographer Jim Pisarowicz will lead an early-season wildflower walk to Dominguez-Escalante National Conservation Area from 8 a.m. to noon. Along the way, they hope to catch “the oft-overlooked and colorful pallid milkweed, Aztec milkvetch, Fender’s cliffrose and Indian breadfruit, to name a few species,” but will be delighted — and, no doubt, surprised — by whatever they find. If you can’t make the trip that weekend, no worries: many more opportunities await this coming season.
“Some of the best wildflower viewing will be in Yankee Boy Basin in the middle of the summer,” Menz said. “There’s really fantastic viewing at Woods Lake, out of Placerville. There’s really no place you can go in the San Juan region that you won’t find spectacular species, at each elevation and in all the forests, every single week of summer.”
“Common Wildflowers of the San Juan Mountains” is available at Between the Covers bookstore in Telluride and the Ouray Bookshop. To register for the early season wildflower walk April 23, visit weehawkenarts.org.
The Link LonkMarch 27, 2021 at 06:02AM
https://www.telluridenews.com/news/article_5b452b90-8e87-11eb-9d24-73760b4038fc.html
A walk on the wild (flower) side | News | telluridenews.com - The Daily Planet
https://news.google.com/search?q=Flower&hl=en-US&gl=US&ceid=US:en
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