Anne Elliott's photos with the keyword: Liliaceae

This was taken two days ago, when we were doing a bio-blitz on the 40-acre property belonging to the Cartwright family, west of Waiporous, Alberta. Such a warm, bright splash of colour. Friends and I had such a great day the day before yesterday, 30 June 2018, travelling westward into the mountains for a bio-blitz on the land belonging to such a delightful family. I hardly know where to begin - and I won't do so until I have had (late) breakfast and a mug of coffee. Each of the adult brothers and sisters live elsewhere, but share this precious land and return whenever they want some good old nature therapy and family time. After spending a few hours strolling through their forest and exploring their wetland, I can completely understand why they love returning to this precious spot. Not only are all these siblings such friendly, welcoming people, the family has also generously placed this huge area into a trust, to make sure that it is forever left the way it is. "Property acquired by parents 50 years ago (1968?). An easement was placed on the land preventing any family member from disposing of their 'share', thus disallowing the fragmentation of this biologically rich area." Information from Gus Yaki. It is always puzzling to me how our Naturalist leader meets so many people who live on ranches or acreages. It was a very different story two days ago, when we learned that he had offered a free bio-blitz (mind you, our bio-blitzes are always free!) at a Silent Auction : ) This family had won this "prize", and we couldn't have asked for a more appreciative group of family members to offer our help to. As always, the landowners 'win' by being given a very detailed list of every plant, etc. that is growing on their land. We also 'win' because we get to meet so many great people and see so many places that we would otherwise never get the chance to see.

Not my best photo of a Western Wood Lily, but I needed to add it to my album on the Rusty Bucket Ranch bio-blitz. On 14 July 2017, it was a hot day, but our bio-blitz of the Rusty Bucket Ranch, west of Calgary, started at 8:00 am, to catch the coolest part of the day. This was the first time we had been there and we had such a great morning. What a beautiful place and area! Thirteen of us gathered to explore part of the land belonging to Liz and Alan Breakey - 160 acres, mostly wooded, with many streams feeding into Bragg Creek. The gorgeous garden itself was full of bright, healthy plants. Once we were in the forest, we came across all sorts of wildflower species and even a few fungi and slime molds. We all met the challenges of small, hidden logs along the trails, lying in wait to trip anyone who was not paying careful attention. One of the last areas was a bog, where the small, partly hidden pools of water were difficult or impossible to avoid - I nearly lost a shoe in there, lol! On the final stretch back to the house, we caught sight of a distant buck with its new growth of antlers; also, a few of the sheep that the Breakeys raise. A really fun walk for us all, with all sorts of things of interest. Many thanks to Liz and Alan for inviting us to the Rusty Bucket Ranch to explore and list all species seen! Thank you, too, for the very warm welcome you gave us, and for the muffins, delicious lemon drink, and coffee! After the morning's hike, we all returned to the city and thoroughly enjoyed a BBQ lunch put on by our botany/birding friends, Dorothy and Stephen. I hadn't had a burger in years - and this one was so good! Thanks so much, Dorothy and Stephen, for all the time and effort you put into this. What a lovely way to spend the afternoon, chatting with friends and eating all sorts of 'goodies'. Happy to see the tiny Hummingbird that has been visiting your garden, and lovely to see the bright yellow American Goldfinch. It was quite windy, too, which felt wonderful on a hot day.

This weekend is Canada's 150th birthday! Canada Day is tomorrow, 1 July 2017. Happy Birthday, Canada!!! Such a great country to live in and I am so thankful to be here and to have spent the last 39 years in Alberta. There will be celebrations all over the place and lots of people on the roads. Please drive carefully, everyone! To have the chance to visit Waterton Lakes National Park six days ago, on 24 June 2017, was such an absolute treat! This was an annual bus trip arranged by Nature Calgary, with the destination being different each year. To visit Waterton for just one day does make for a very long day, though - takes about 3 hours to drive each way, for a start. "With its merging landforms, connected ecoregions and its mild, moist, windy climate, Waterton Lakes National Park is an amazing meeting place for an abundant and diverse collection of vegetation. Despite it's small size (505 sq km) Waterton is graced with over 1000 species of vascular plants . Over half of Alberta's plant species are found in this tiny place. The park's four ecoregions - foothills parkland, montane, subalpine and alpine - embrace forty-five vegetation communities. Sixteen of these are considered significant because they are rare or fragile and threatened. Waterton also has an unusually high number of rare plants - over 175 are provincially rare (e.g. mountain lady's-slipper, pygmy poppy, mountain hollyhock), and over twenty of these are found only in the Waterton area (e.g. western wakerobin, Lewis' mock-orange, white-veined wintergreen). Over 50 species are rare in Canada (e.g. Bolander's quillwort, Lyall's scorpionweed, Brewer's monkeyflower.)" From Parks Canada website. www.pc.gc.ca/eng/pn-np/ab/waterton/natcul/natcul1/f.aspx We had two main stopping places in the park - the lookout at Maskinonge Lake and a longer stop at Cameron Lake, plus a bit of time in the tiny town itself before leaving for home. The views from all the places are spectacular. Luckily, we had beautiful weather all day. Actually, we weren't too sure if the road going through the mountains to Cameron Lake was going to be open. It was due to reopen the day before out trip and, fortunately, the gate was open. Once at Cameron Lake, we found an empty picnic table right near the beach, and ate our picnic lunch. We were able to walk along the forest trail that followed the shoreline on the right edge of the lake. This beautiful Glacier Lily was one of the plants we came across. At a certain point, one has to turn around and go back along the same trail. Cameron Lake is one of my favourite places in the park, with a beautiful view of the lake and a pleasant, flat walk through the forest. There didn't seem to be a lot of forest wildflower species in bloom - maybe we were just a bit too early for them. However, the huge, creamy white flowers of Bear Grass growing along the edge of the road up to the lake had everyone in absolute awe. The road is only narrow and our bus was huge, so on the drive there, all we could do was gasp in amazement, with no chance for taking photos. We asked our excellent driver if there was any chance he would be willing and able to stop at one of the very small pull-offs at the edge of the road on the return drive - and he did! He was expecting maybe five or six people would get off, but I think almost everyone wanted to get a close look at these amazing plants. Even the driver himself got out to look and take photos. He had apparently never been to Waterton before and had never seen Bear Grass. We noticed tiny Crab Spiders on two of the flowers; one was lying in wait and the other had caught an insect. These spiders don't construct webs, but camouflage themselves by changing their colour to that of the flower they are hiding in, and then they wait. We also saw several stems of Striped Coralroot orchid in the ditch by some of the Bear Grass. After spending a couple of hours at Cameron Lake, the driver took us back into town, as some people had said they wanted to eat there before the long drive back to Calgary. Others, including myself, would have preferred to have spent the time somewhere else, seeing nature and taking photos. However, we were able to walk to the lake's edge, from where we were able to take a few scenic photos - something I had been hoping for. On our way back to the bus, some of us called in at a very popular ice cream shop - we all agreed it was the best, tastiest ice cream we had ever had! A huge, single scoop of wild cherry in a waffle cone - what more could one want? Penny, you did a great job of organizing this wonderful trip for us all! I know a lot of work goes into setting up an outing like this, and we all appreciate the time and effort you put into planning this. Such a perfect destination for this year's annual bus trip! Pam, thanks for your company on this long drive - helped make it far more enjoyable!

This photo was taken on 19 June 2015, the first day of a three-day trip to Waterton Lakes National Park. Travelling south from Calgary was roughly a three-hour drive, giving us time to do some exploring in the park the rest of the day. This bright Wood Lily was growing near the edge of the Chief Mountain Parkway, photographed when we stopped to admire and take photos of some gorgeous white Mountain Lady's Slippers. All along this road (and in other parts of the park), there were millions of Tent Caterpillars (the blue ones and the orange/brown ones), all over the tree trunks and branches and on the ground. Made it most unpleasant, to say the least! I was so lucky to be invited to join friends Sandy and Heide on a three-day trip to Waterton Lakes National Park, from 19-21 (inclusive) June 2015. We met up with other members of the Alberta Native Plant Council for their annual Botany Alberta weekend. Most people who attended stayed at the Crooked Creek Campground, a 5.6 km drive east of the Waterton Park Gate on Highway 5, but my friends and I stayed at the Crandell Mountain Lodge on the edge of Waterton town. The ANPC people had a list of species that they hoped to find, and they were very successful. Our stay down south overlapped the annual Waterton Wildflower Festival, but we came across very few people on our various drives and hikes. Needless to say, I was extremely fortunate to spend three days with people who are very knowledgeable about plants and many other things. This meant that I got to see many wildflower species, including several that were new to me, such as the gorgeous Mariposa Lily. It was one of the flowers that was on my Wish List - and there were hundreds of them to be seen! I had also never seen the spectacular Bear Grass and I was so thrilled that there were still several plants in bloom. Absolutely made my day! Our two main hikes of the weekend were the Bertha Lake Trail as far as the Bertha Falls (on 20 June), and the Crandell Lake Trail (on 21 June). Makes me smile when a described "short, easy hike" in a book or on the Internet turns into a full day of exploration along the trail, taking hours to reach the destination, though returning to the cars in a much shorter time. Our walks/hikes are very slow-paced with endless stops to look at/for plants and to take photos. This makes it possible for me to go along. Crandell Lake from the Crandell Campground trailhead: Return distance 4.0 km (2.4 miles), elevation gain 150 metres (492'), hiking time 1.5 hours (we took all day!). Bertha Falls from the townsite trailhead: Return distance 5.6 km (3.4 miles), elevation gain 150 metres (492'), hiking time 1.5 hours (again, we took all day). For me, this hike felt much further than it was! The wind made photographing plants a real challenge, including the beautiful Mariposa Lilies in the meadow along the Hay Barn road. Trying to catch a quick shot when a flower is blowing in and out of the viewfinder is not easy! Unfortunately, I'm no longer able to get down and take macro shots (my lens needs to be about 4" away from the subject), so my photos have to be telemacro. I've been trying to find an online list of plant species in Waterton Park, but have so far been out of luck. I do have the book, "Wildflowers of Waterton Park" by Jacinthe Lavoie and Ian Wilson, which has an Index of Plant names, but I was hoping to find a list that I could print out. It's going to take me ages to type descriptions for the various photos I'll slowly be posting, and I will no doubt keep adding new bits and pieces over time. There is just so much information I want to add, but my descriptions are already way too long. Also, my photos of quite a few of the plants will be posted for the use of ANPC members and are, unfortunately, really poor images. Need them added to my Waterton Lakes album, so please bear with me : ) Luckily, you don't even need to look at them.

Yesterday was another hot day, and my computer room became unbearably uncomfortable. That meant only one thing - I would have to drive around in my car for some air-conditioning. Spent about four hours cruising the backroads SW of the city, not seeing a whole lot. Went as far as Brown-Lowery Provincial Park, with the intention of doing just a very short walk into the forest. Didn't get that far, though, as there were things to photograph around the edge of the tiny parking lot and just part way along the path that leads to the two short boardwalks. The first thing I saw and heard was a Tennessee Warbler and when I reached it, discovered that there were now several young ones, too. Talk about friendly little birds - not sure that they didn't think I was going to feed them. Interesting to see birds that acted rather like the Black-capped Chickadees - just as fast-moving, too, making it difficult to get even a half-decent photo. The next thing that welcomed me to the park was this beautiful Western Wood Lily. They always almost glow amongst all the greenery. A few other plants that I photographed included Sticky Purple Geranium and Richardson's Geranium, Purple Avens, One-flowered WIntergreen, One-sided Wintergreen, Pink Pyrola, Twin Flower, Creamy Peavine, Bishop's Cap (already in seed), and Round-leaved Orchid. On the way home from Brown-Lowery, I saw a couple of fun things. One was a Wilson's Snipe on a wooden post to which was attached a Bluebird/Tree Swallow nesting box. I've never seen one by a nesting box before. The other thing I saw was a Ruffed Grouse female walking along the side of the main road. Didn't realize what it was until I had driven past it. Did a quick U-turn and, rounding a bend, saw not just the adult standing on the road, but also a young one. I pulled over to the edge of the road and very slowly walked a little closer - then I noticed about four other youngsters in the grass. Mom walked very slowly to the middle of the road and one brave little soul took a few very hesitant steps towards her. It wasn't quite sure that it liked being that far out in the open, so started to return to its siblings. This was repeated a few times, with me becoming more anxious that a car was bound to come racing down the road at any minute. Another of the babies tried to take a few brave steps - which is when a vehicle appeared. With Mom and two of her babies on the road, where they'd been for maybe 10 minutes, I just had to signal to the driver, who slowed down, waited a moment, and then got out of her car and loudly clapped her hands. Off they all flew, into the long grass. I suspect she was a country girl - and not a photographer, lol! If only she had scared them off to the side of the road that they had been trying to get to! And so ended my fun experience ..... and I returned to my house, that felt like walking into an oven.

I'm beginning to wonder if I will ever get a decent photo of this very small wildflower, Wild Lily-of-the Valley! The tiny white flowers are always blown out and the plant usually tends to get lost amongst all the forest floor "treasure" in the background. This time, I placed something black behind the plant, but the flowers are still horribly blown. This plant has only been found in two places in Calgary, so I feel privileged to have seen it. The pale red berries are edible, but should not be eaten in large quantities.

The velvety berries of the Rough-fruited Fairybells plant are dotting the forest with bright red at the moment. These were growing on Erik Butters' ranchland, north west of Calgary, three days ago. "Fairybells produce velvety red berries 8-10 mm in diameter usually in groups of two or three. As the berries ripen, their colour varies from green, to yellow, orange and finally a bright red colour. They may also display a slightly warted appearance on the surface. They are edible, but mealy and tasteless - better to leave them for the grouse and rodents that find them tasty." From www.mountainnature.com .

It was a real treat yesterday to have the chance to go on the Ptarmigan Cirque Trail in Kananaskis, Rocky Mountains! The trail is quite steep, leading up to alpine meadows and amazing views over deep valleys, scree slopes, alpine meadows, and jagged, barren mountain peaks. We see different plants up here, of course; ones that we don't get in the city. The lovely yellow Glacier Lily, seen above, is just one of them. Today, I am letting my body recover before setting out on a day of botanizing tomorrow, returning to a lovely property near Millarville, south west of the city. We are so lucky being allowed to go back again, to record more of the plants, birds, insects, animals and fungi, etc..

Star-flowered Solomon's Seal is a common, native plant here in Alberta. This particular plant, however, was growing at the Reader Rock Garden, on 26 September 2012, so I don't know if it's exactly the same as the wild plant. The small, white, star-shaped flowers are so pretty, as are the colourful berries seen in my image.

After waiting about a year to get back to Bow Valley Provincial Park, to see the wonderful display of wildflowers, it turned out to be a very wet day for us. Everywhere was so green and clean and fresh and the flowers looked beautiful covered in raindrops. However, I completely forgot that water droplets cause blur in a photo - this is one of the only photos that came out that day, lol! "Many people find the wood lily irresistable and many a field of lilies has ended up in a vase on a kitchen table. Unfortunately, lilies do not respond well to being disturbed and once picked, the plant will not recover. In many areas, wood lily populations have been decimated by over-picking." From the link below. www.mountainnature.com/Plants/PlantsLatinNameResult.asp?I...

I ended up with about three almost identical photos of this particular flower - these were the only photos of Glacier Lilies that came out on our day of botanizing at Arethusa Cirque on July 30th, ha. Val, I'm so glad you took a step and partly blocked the sun - obviously made the difference! Other common names include Yellow Avalanche Lily and Dogtooth Fawn Lily. Grows in subalpine mountain meadows, slopes, and clearings. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erythronium_grandiflorum Somehow, I can't find the list of 400+ items that I had added values to, ready to give to Customs when my 12 boxes arrive from England. I have searched and searched but just cannot find the file, so now, of course, I have had to start again from scratch!! Arghh!!!! This new list doesn't seem to have saved, either, but now I think I know what I'm doing "wrong". I opened a Word Document attached to a friend's e-mail, added all the guessed values and saved the document. Maybe you can't change and save a document attached to someone's e-mail? So, now I have saved the list to a document in Word. Really don't feel like doing this a third time!! My apologies to those of you who have asked me all sorts of questions and I just haven't got back to you! Also, of course, to all those of you who think that maybe I have dropped off the edge of the planet. I really am still here, just finding it difficult to cope with all the things that have to be seen to as soon as possible - I'm not doing a very good job of getting any of them done, especially during this busiest time of the year.

I love seeing Chives growing in the wild. Also known as Purple Onion. Took this macro shot of a bursting bud during a botanizing hike on Plateau Mountain, Kananaskis, on July 17th. www.mountainnature.com/Plants/PlantsLatinNameResult.asp?I...

Macro shot of the beautiful Star-flowered Solomon's Seal flowers, taken in Weaselhead on 14th June. This beautiful, native wildflower belongs to the Lily Family (Liliaceae). Flowers, up to 6 mm wide, are white and star-shaped (have six petals). The flowers form a loose group at the end of a leafy stem. Berries are greenish with dark stripes, then turn red, then nearly black in early fall. Bears are very fond of these berries. Star-flowered Solomon's seal grows in woodlands, open meadows, and shores of sandy marshes. plantwatch.fanweb.ca/plant-information/star-flowered-solo...

This Nodding Onion bud was seen when we spent a very enjoyable day botanizing J. Edworthy's land, past Black Diamond on July 29th. I didn't notice the little green visitor (maybe a Shield Bug?) until I went to crop this supermacro image : )

Bronzebells, Stenanthium occidentale, sometimes called Western Featherbells, is a native wildflower that grows in moist, wooded areas. Stems are 30-50 cm tall and the flowers are purple green to brownish red, nodding, cup-shaped, 10-15 mm long. Three sepals, three petals, and bracts that are lance-shaped. Flowers June-July. Saw these ones growing on Plateau Mountain, way south of the city on 31st July. As often happens, this is a macro shot - these flowers really are just tiny. So pretty, I always think. Got home about half an hour ago after a long day east of the city, in the amazing Alberta Badlands area. Six of us climbed down into Horseshoe Canyon to do another botanizing day of the hillsides and canyon floor. This area is about an hour and forty-five minutes' drive from the city. A really pleasant day, warming up later on. I prefer the cooler temperatures, though, especially when walking/hiking. The smoke haze from BC wasn't really noticeable down in the canyon, but on the drive from and back to the city, visibility was greatly reduced. Thanks so much, Stephen, for driving today - I appreciate it so much. And now, as usual, I feel dead beat and oh, so tired, LOL.

We have been seeing lots of these plants recently, outside the city, on various botanizing trips. This particular plant was growing on the land around the Medicine River Wildlife Centre, north west of Calgary and west of Innisfail. We have seen this species in the city at Shannon Terrace, Fish Creek Park, but we don't usually see it in other places. It is called 'Wild Lily-of-the-valley' because its leaves resemble those of Lily-of-the-valley, Convallaria majalis, a European species.

I was so happy that I hadn't left it too late to photograph these gorgeous Fritillary flowers, as they are spring-flowering. These were growing at the Reader Rock Garden. Was out for our Snake Monitoring today (not a single snake to be seen inside the hibernaculm, but one did slither through the grass while we were walking in the nearby area afterwards), and then I went out for a short drive south west of the city to find me some Mountain Bluebirds : ) Found one very co-operative little female and her more distant mate. Three or four Tree Swallows made several attempts to take over the nesting box, but those Bluebirds were ready to defend it! Sorry I haven't been on Flickr much recently! I'm having some extremely long days of botanizing, which completely exhaust me. Spring and summer are such a contrast to our long, cold, endless winter, and I have to cram in as much exploring and recording as I possibly can (and more!) Not to mention that the lack of going for walks for about eight winter months made my body extremely painful, so I have to get in as much walking as I can before next winter arrives.

These dainty, little, native wildflowers belonging to the Lily family grow in moist deciduous and mixedwood forests. The bell-shaped flowers are greenish yellow and 1-2 cm long. These plants produce velvety, deep red berries.