Some deciduous trees forgo showy flowers, pollinate early
Buds are beginning to swell on some plants as the amount of daylight increases, such as the red twinberry. Some plants will wait longer to…
Category: Plants
Have you had tree bark for breakfast lately?
Visible everyday, all year long is tree bark. From the white birch bark slowly peeling away from the trunk to the fibrous reddish strips…
Nature’s seed dispersal inspiration for Velcro
From the cuffs of coats to children’s shoes, Velcro has made our lives easier but it has existed in nature longer than we can imagine.…
Conks begin recycling trees before they’re dead
High in a birch tree, a large conk grows on the trunk–a sure sign the birch is decaying from the inside out. Conks, also known…
Sign Posts of the Forest
Wandering through the woods, I found a tree with claw marks scratched in the bark at eye-level and black hair stuck to once oozing sap.…
Incredible, edible cattails
A common sight in any shallow water around the Kootenai Valley is stands of cattails. They line irrigation ditches, lake-shores, swamps and the majority of…
Lichens: Like’em or leave’em
I’ve noticed lichens before on rocks, trees and high alpine ridges before but didn’t look closely at them until recently. Peter Nelson, a lichenologist who…
Pondering the puzzle bark of ponderosa pine
One of the first conifers I learned to identify after moving to Boundary County was the majestic ponderosa pine, mainly because of the bark. I…
How can a weed smell so sweet?
Do you remember the first time you smelled the pleasant aroma of alpine fir, labrador tea or cottonwood sap? I won’t forgot the first time…
Orchids aren’t just tropical flowers, they also grow in Idaho and Alaska
Wandering through the woods looking for spring flowers a few years ago, I stumbled across a small pinkish-purple flower on a stem no more than…
Cactus: More than a prickly pincushion
The ability to survive and thrive in a sun-scorched land with little water has been perfected by the cactus. Located only in portions of the…
Palm trees more than a symbol of the tropics
Palm trees typically evoke images of tropical islands with white sandy beaches and turquoise blue water. However, palm trees grow in other places besides tropical…
Have you had tree bark for breakfast lately?
Visible everyday, all year long is tree bark. From the white birch bark slowly peeling away from the trunk to the fibrous reddish strips…
Nature’s seed dispersal inspiration for Velcro
From the cuffs of coats to children’s shoes, Velcro has made our lives easier but it has existed in nature longer than we can imagine.…
Conks begin recycling trees before they’re dead
High in a birch tree, a large conk grows on the trunk–a sure sign the birch is decaying from the inside out. Conks, also known…
Sign Posts of the Forest
Wandering through the woods, I found a tree with claw marks scratched in the bark at eye-level and black hair stuck to once oozing sap.…
Incredible, edible cattails
A common sight in any shallow water around the Kootenai Valley is stands of cattails. They line irrigation ditches, lake-shores, swamps and the majority of…
Lichens: Like’em or leave’em
I’ve noticed lichens before on rocks, trees and high alpine ridges before but didn’t look closely at them until recently. Peter Nelson, a lichenologist who…
Pondering the puzzle bark of ponderosa pine
One of the first conifers I learned to identify after moving to Boundary County was the majestic ponderosa pine, mainly because of the bark. I…
How can a weed smell so sweet?
Do you remember the first time you smelled the pleasant aroma of alpine fir, labrador tea or cottonwood sap? I won’t forgot the first time…
Orchids aren’t just tropical flowers, they also grow in Idaho and Alaska
Wandering through the woods looking for spring flowers a few years ago, I stumbled across a small pinkish-purple flower on a stem no more than…
Cactus: More than a prickly pincushion
The ability to survive and thrive in a sun-scorched land with little water has been perfected by the cactus. Located only in portions of the…
Palm trees more than a symbol of the tropics
Palm trees typically evoke images of tropical islands with white sandy beaches and turquoise blue water. However, palm trees grow in other places besides tropical…