Now people I meet are most likely to tell me about their favorite wetland, plant, or bird! I get calls from people asking how to preserve neighborhood wetlands and I get to teach the next generation about plants. I LOVE IT! And I love working out in the mud!
#WorldWetlandsDay

Things have changed in the last 20 years: people like wetlands more! The most common response when I started in the wetland world was “ew.” Muddy, buggy places were disparaged as useless and stinky. The most common call I got as wetland coordinator was asking how to get rid of wetlands

Current events are real bad and everything feels awful. I’m trying to be like the lupine, working together with others in my biosphere to make the environment better for everyone. I sure wish I had some fungal help.

#PlantOTD #Lupinus #Fabaceae #BeExcellentToEachOther

With this nitrogen fixing skill, lupines can grow in disturbed places where resources are scarce.

Utah has at least 14 species of lupine and they are notorious for hybridizing with each other. I’m not 100% confident that I’ve got the right species, but I’m 1000% sure that they are beautiful.

Utah has lots of milkvetches, which are a legume. Some of them are toxic to livestock and are called locoweed for their effects on cows. The genus name might come from the Greek word for ankle bone because of the shape of their fruits.

#PlantOTD #Astraglus #Milkvetch

This milkvetch grows mostly in southern Utah, very low to the ground, forming mats across the rocks. Traditional uses include ceremonial lotions, panaceas, and rabies treatments.

The cones, branches, and bark have a ton of ethnobotanical uses, from disinfecting wounds to helping with childbirth. My favorite is using the boughs to cover your tracks so that death does not follow you.

#PlantOTD #Juniper #UtahJuniper #DesertPlants #DontCallItACedar

The seeds are inside of cones that look like blue berries. Juniper cones are traditionally used to make gin, but there are few opportunities to try Utah juniper gin because of the history of Mormon settlement.

Anyone else in a chronically foul mood? The government shutdown and misinformation around it (which popped up in my plant research) is infuriating. I'm going to sooth myself with more pictures of plants since it feels like there isn't much else I can do.

#PlantOTD #Iridaceae #Iris

The dose makes the poison and this is especially true for ethnobotany uses of Rocky Mountain Iris. Roots have been used to treat toothaches, sores and stomachaches. Stronger doses make people vomit, which was done for ceremonies, medical treatment, or as a hustle.

They also grow on limestone, sometimes just stone. There’s not very much water, because rocks don’t hold water like soil, & it’s very alkaline.

Please enjoy the excitement of dwarf gentian & visit some high elevation plants if you can.

#PlantOTD #Gentianella #Gentianaceae #LimestoneObligate

Alpine plants are v. drought tolerant, counterintuitive as that is. For most of the year, water is snow & ice, which plants cannot use. The season of liquid water is v short, but then they’re exposed to intense sun, so they need sun protection (just like people, to prevent cancer).

Apache Plume branches have a long ethnobotanical history for use in broom handles, fishing poles, and cradleboards. However, the leaves have the most interesting uses, including a ceremonial emetic and a witchcraft spell to induce insanity.

#PlantOTD #Fallugia #Rosaceae #ethnobotany

The Inuit people have the best names and uses for cottongrass. The flowers can be made into boot insoles or used to absorb gunk like gauze or cotton swabs do. Their common names include terms that mean "imitation mittens" and "looks like snow geese."

#PlantOTD #Eriophorum #CottonGrass #Cyperaceae

Policies that prop up the already powerful while removing support for everyone else (the not-rich, not white, not straight, parents, old, disabled, neurodivergent etc) affect us all. We’re all connected.

We’ve learned this lesson before, both w humans & ecosystems. It sucks
#PlantOTD #Onagraceae