Snowstorm in Colorado

We woke up to a white backyard with trees bent over, heavy with snow. My Bradford Pear in the far corner was doubled over so much that I had to look really hard to find it! It lost a branch despite being being frequently shaken.

Oh no! My aspen and my other tree with brown leaves, that I wishfully thought was a Japanese Maple.

My dogwood! Oh no! My favorite tree!

The aspens across the street were in worse shape...

The cottonwood, too. Much as I despise this tree, I didn't want it to lose any branches.

Across from the cottonwood, this tree stands tall and serene; almost as if to say "I told you to lose those leaves..."

...while my dogwood grows heavier...

Uh-oh! We have a bigger problem with the other dogwood. It's bent over and is hugging the neighbor's roof! A mature maple in the yard next door lost 4 branches.

A closer look at the heavy branches. Those could do some serious damage to the roofs when the winds kick in!

...and the other dogwood bends over further and loses its first branch. :-(

...and starts leaning over a young maple...

My neighbor climbed high into the tree and shook all the snow off the branches. We used a pole to shake the branches he couldn't get to.

There he is shaking the other dogwood. When the pole had next to no effect, he climbed up the tree and then onto the roof. If I hadn't been wearing gloves, my nails would have been chewed to the bone.

I do love my trees so it was a huge relief when the dogwoods sprang back to normal!

This is what my dogwood is like in winter. Gorgeous!

Flower Fest - C for Canada Thistle

C. Canada Thistle. Cirsium arvense. Creeping Thistle.

I was amazed by this delicate wildflower. It was only about an inch in height and even less in width. It was like a blur of color on the wet ground in Morrison, Colorado. Morrison is about 8000ft in altitude. As usual, I had no clue what I was taking a picture of. All I knew was that it was a small beautiful purple wildflower.



The roots of the Canada thistle can spread more than 15 feet horizontally and its roots may grow into the soil anywhere from 6 to 15 feet deep.

Unlike the Buffalo Bur which tosses its spiny seeds into the path of all that may trod that way, the Canada thistle a creeping perennial that reproduces from vegetative buds in its root system. Roots and shoots can give rise to new plants. That's not to say that it does not produce seeds.

I took the above picture towards the end of September on one of my walks in the Open Spaces of Louisville, Colorado. It looked like it was done flowering and already producing seed.

It can produce between 1000 to 1500 seeds per flowering shoot and seeds are responsible for long distance dispersal. The feathery pappus helps disperse the seeds. However it is known to fall off leaving the seed attached to the plant, requiring other modes of dispersal. Seedlings grow slower and are subject to competition from other weeds especially as they are not backed by an extensive root system. Nevertheless, its seed should not be underestimated as it can remain viable in the soil for 20 years. The deeper it is buried, the longer it is viable.

Canada thistle has spread throughout the US except the south-eastern region. In Colorado, it is found in the plains and foothills, flowering from July to September. And, yes, it is classified as a noxious weed.

References: Colorado State University Cooperative Extension, Guide to Colorado Wildflowers Vol 1 Plains & Foothills and Guide to Colorado Wildflowers Vol 2.

This is my entry for the letter C in the Flower Fest - the A - Z of Flowers.

Flower Fest is the brainchild of Nature & Me and Sree. Every two weeks, the focus will be on a letter of the English alphabet. The current letter is C. I am submitting photographs of flowers as my entries.

Tags: Flower Fest, Canada Thistle, Cirsium arvense, wildflower

Garage Graffiti

A walk in downtown Louisville, Colorado is always filled with surprises such as this garage graffiti!

Early Fall

September 2 and it was barely in the 50s (F) in Morrison, Colorado. Morrison is about 7800 ft in altitude. It was a sneak peek at the cold fall that lay ahead of us.

Flower Fest - B for Buffalo Bur

This is the Buffalo Bur from the Solanum rostratum genus. Beautiful and a rather unusual bloom, right? Maybe, but don't let it fool you! It's barely 1 inch across in width and is the bane of most off-road cyclists. Look at those blurry spiky things that are in sharper focus in my next picture; they're why.



Buffalo Bur is from the Nightshade family and apparently, the foliage and the unripe fruit of most nightshades contain dangerous levels of a steroid alkaloid, solanine. The ripe berries are the least toxic part of these plants. And if you haven't guessed it already, yes, it is classified as an weed.

Buffalo bur has long, yellow spines on stems, leaves, and flower heads as can be seen in the photo above. They grow up to 2 feet high and are drought resistant. The flowers bloom in summer so I guess I was rather lucky to find these on the trails towards the end of September. By fall, the spiny fruit or the berries, if you will, develop and are up to 1/2 inch in diameter. These are filled with black, wrinkled, flat pitted seeds. When the seeds mature, the stem breaks close to the ground and the plant rolls scattering the thousands of seeds it produces. (source: Colorado State University Cooperative Extension, Denver)

Apart from being a weed, its status in Colorado continues to be dubious. It's a host for the Colorado potato beetle and so control of this weed is strongly recommended. But given by the number of plants I saw just on our trail, it seems to flourish in the protected Open Spaces of Louisville, Colorado.

A huge thank you to Al Schneider of South West Colorado Wildflowers, Ferns and Trees for identifying this wildflower, I mean weed, for me!

This is my entry for the letter B in the Flower Fest - the A - Z of Flowers.

Flower Fest is the brainchild of Nature & Me and Sree. Every two weeks, the focus will be on a letter of the English alphabet. The current letter is B. I am submitting photographs of flowers as my entries.

Tags: Flower Fest, Buffalo Bur, Solanum rostratum