The Promiscuous Pome: Hybridization Erotica

Amelosorbus jackii (Amelanchier alnifolia x Sorbus scopulina)The herbarium entry for the Eagle Caps should be accessed later in the summer due to lingering snowSorbus x auricularis (Pyrus communis x Sorbus aria) 'Bowiller' produces rare viable seeds which have yielded 'Bulboformis', 'Tartarova' and Pyrus malifolia'Shipova' is another x auricularisSorbus aucuparia x Pyrus communis'Krasavitsa''Rubinovaja'Sorbus aucuparia x Pyrus'Zoltaja''Baciu …

Old Dirt: This is Your Biogeosphere on Time

Gregory Retallack and Sergey Zimov to the RESCUE!

Rhianthus minor is the Grass Killer

I gathered a bag of magic beans today. I think I'll use them to break up the monotonous pinegrass at home. Revenge of the Forbs This is a circumboreal native species. "It is hemiparasitic, notably on Poaceae (grasses) and Fabaceae (legumes), and farmers consider it to be a pest, as it reduces grass growth. Yellow …

Nettles, Gorillas, CO2, Canada

I'm making a blog post of these two articles because they touch on favorite paleoecology subjects. Take notes for the NeoEocene. Urticaceae leaves with stinging trichomes were already present in latest early Eocene Okanogan Highlands, British Columbia, CanadaEocene Tapir Forest, BCEocene Mammals, BC

Crataegus: Shrubberies of Speciation

When I learned to recognize Douglas hawthorn, I saw it everywhere and began to assume that any hawthorn I saw was this. Douglas hawthorn yields heavily. I enjoy eating a few of the black fruits fresh in the season, but have never bothered to process them in an serious way. In a Ray Mears Bushcraft …

The Cordilleran World and the Long View from Idaho

As the snow stacks high outside, I'm reminded that the land I live on was once buried beneath a sheet of ice nearly a mile thick. During the coldest part of the Pleistocene Epoch, the southern edge of this ice sheet reached to where the Okanogan Highlands meet the Columbia Basin. This mass of ice …