The head waters of the Cache la Poudre River are in Rocky Mountain National Park and it winds its way along 126 miles of scenic beauty to join the South Platte River near Greeley, Colorado. You can climb the mountains along this river on a scenic drive out of Fort Collins along state highway 14.

The formation of what we call the Rocky Mountains is a long complex tale of mountain building, erosion, innundation, and subsequent mountain building (orogeny). The rocks that form the walls of the Cache La Poudre canyon are metamorphic gneiss made from Precambrian age granites of the Ancestral Rocky Mountains which were heated and compressed during the Laramide Orogeny between 80-55 million years ago.

The gneissic banding seen in this photo is not only beautiful but tells the story of heat an compression experienced by these ancient granites on their way to becoming the metamorphic gneiss seen here.

In this image the foliation or layering of the gneiss is visible. The immense pressure and high temperature experienced by the granite while metamorphosing into gneiss is what produced the sculpture you see.

From the size of the rocks in the Cache La Poudre river bed and along the bank in the foreground, you can tell that large amounts of water moving rapidly through this area in the past pushed these heavy monsters down stream.

Scenes like this are why the Cache La Poudre River has been designated a national scenic river.

This is and example of Bird’s Foot Trefoil Lotus corniculatus from the pea family Fabaceae. This plant is both a native and an introduced species to all parts of the US and Canada. It is widely used for hay to feed livestock and serves as a food source for deer, elk, geese, ducks, and pheasants.

This is an example of the Rubber Rabbit Brush (Ericameria nauseosa)
This plant reminds me of Prairie Broomweed (Amphiachyris dracunculoides) that grows all around where I live. Rubber Rabbit Brush will be eaten to a limited extent by livestock but it is valuable to wildlife during the winter.

This is a closeup of the flower head of the Rubber Rabbit Brush. This plant is part of the Daisy family (Asteraceae) but has flowers that do not make you think Daisy flower at all.

In the last image, you see an example of Western Aster (Symphyotrichum ascendens) another member of the Asteraceae family which produces beautiful, tiny lavender flowers with yellow disk florets. The USDA says that this plant is sometimes mixed in with other seed types to help stabilize disturbed or damaged soils. Beautiful as well as useful.

All these sights and creatures can be seen and enjoyed on a short day’s drive up the Cache La Poudre River Canyon just west of Fort Collins, Colorado on state 14. Worth the trip, and good for your soul.

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Pictured above is an example of Alfalfa, Medicago sativa. This member of the Pea family (Fabaceae) has been used as a forage crop since 490 BC. It is non-native to the US but it is widely planted to cut for hay and silage. It was most likely first domesticated in Iran and was introduced to the western world by the Greeks.

These plants are perennials and can live from 4 to 20 years. They may produce a taproot that extends up to 49 feet into the soil. This root stores food and its depth helps them resist drought.

In the second image, you can see the pea-like flowers with 5 petals, the awn, the two wings, and the two that form the keel. Their leaves alternate along the stem and are subdivided into 3 leaflets which are toothed along their margins near the tips. Alfalfa resembles native scurfpeas and clovers, but the toothed margins of the leaflets set them apart.

These images were taken in an uncultivated field where there was a mixed stand of wildflowers. The alfalfa was growing wild and seemed to be doing just fine without man’s interference.

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Featherplume, Dalea formosa, is an interesting woody shrub found in the dry, rocky country of the southwestern United States. It can grow between 3 and 6 feet tall. It thrives in limestone rich soils.

The flowers of Featherplume are produced in clusters of 2 to 10 at the tips of branches. Each flower has five petals; the uppermost is a wide, banner petal usually in yellow; it is flanked by two pink wing petals and two keel petals that enclose the single stigma of its pistil and 9 or 10 stamens. In the above image, left of center, you can see a fully opened flower with its keel projecting towards the camera. The yellow banner and the 2 pink wings are visible too.

In the third image, you can see an older flower that shows several orange tipped stamens projecting from the keel.

The last image is a closeup of the compound leaves of this shrub that are pinnately compound and have 5 to 9 tiny leaflets.

Featherplume is a member of the Legume or Pea family (Fabaceae). It gets its common name from the five feathery sepals that surround the base of each flower. They can be seen in the second and third images as the feathery silver structures.

When in bloom, these remarkable plants enliven the countryside with their colorful yellow and pink flowers. Nectar feeders, especially bees, benefit from them, and they are browsed by deer and rabbits.

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Springtime in Texas is one of the prettiest times of the year because of all the wildflowers that grace the countryside of our state. Bluebonnets are one of the most conspicuous wildflowers and can be seen all over the state. Lupinis texensis, the Texas Bluebonnet, is a member of the Fabaceae or Legume family. It is a cool season plant that spends the winter as a seedling to burst forth and flower as a springtime treat only to set seed and “disappear” until next spring. Bluebonnets are annuals, they complete their life cycle in a year and their offspring return the following year. As a result of mutations, you can see white-flowered and reddish-purple flowered varieties of bluebonnets. Four other species of Lupinis are recognized in Texas.

In the picture above, you can see a small portion of a much larger group of Texas Bluebonnets. These plants taste bad to livestock and consequently are not grazed which helps them cover large areas undisturbed. Our highway department and folks who love bluebonnets scatter their seed which helps this plant to produce large colonies all over the state. Lots of families have pictures of their children in the middle of a stand of bluebonnets. You can visit the Houston Chronicle Website  to learn how Texas Bluebonnets became the state flower.

In the picture above, it is possible to see the raceme, or flower stalk of the bluebonnet. Racemes consist of an unbranched stem or shoot from which multiple flowers are suspended by a short flower stalk called a pedicel. Lupinis texensis racemes contain 25 to 40 flowers. Each tiny flower on the raceme has five petals, a centrally located banner petal with a white or purple spot which is flanked by two wing petals. The two remaining petals form the “keel” which is the projection seen below the spot on the banner petal. (look at the flowers on the left side near the top to see this structure). Each tiny flower, or floret as botanists call them, on the raceme grows, opens, and maybe is pollinated before it dies. On the pictured raceme, the oldest flowers are lowest on the raceme. The banner spot on Bluebonnets turn purple with age, the white spots attract the pollinators while the purple spots do not. In this way, Bluebonnets help direct pollinators to fertile flowers of the right age.

Notice the leaves in the image, they are palmately compound and covered with fuzz. Palmate in botanical terms means the leaflets are arranged about a central attachment point like the veins in a palm leaf. Also, the number of leaflets is 5, the same number as petals in the flowers. When all the flowering is done, around May, all that remains of the Bluebonnets are the leafy basal portions of the plant and the remains of the florets that were fertilized which will grow into fuzzy bean pods or legumes containing 3 to 10 seeds for next year’s crop. Such is the life of an annual.

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Pictured here is Mimosa strigillosa which is a member of the Pea and Bean family (Fabaceae). Powderpuff is the common name most folks remember because the pretty pink blossoms look like a ball of fluff. In this picture, you can see various stages of the Powderpuff flower from the youngest in the bottom left to the oldest, top right. Also, this specimen has recently been rained on; so like anything frilly, water can ruin the image by clumping things together. In the bottom of the photograph just right of center, a nymphal stage of a Katydid is visible.

Powderpuffs are relatives of the mimosa and their compound leaves resemble those found on trees like Mimosa and Mesquite. Powderpuffs are sometimes called sensitive briar because the leaflets will fold together if you rub their surface. Beware, because their other name is Catsclaw and you can see the recurved thorns along the stems that will tear your flesh if you are not careful.

The second picture shows a drier portion of the same plant and a selection of flowers in various stages of  their lifecycle. Powderpuffs are perennial plants that stay green all year. Their compound leaves are bipinnate which means they have two leaflets at the tip of the leaf instead of one. These drought tolerant plants flower from March to August and will produce ground hugging stems that can be an annoyance because of the thorns. But, they make good ground cover for dry sandy areas and are low maintenance.

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The tree pictured is Cercis candensis, the Eastern Redbud.
In early spring when it is still cold enough for frosts, you will find these hot pink flowers on leafless, or nearly so, shrubby, greyish, smooth-barked trees. These trees favor stream sides or wooded bottom lands and produce seed pods in the fall that are fed upon by numerous bird species. This is a woody member of the Fabaceae or pea and bean family, and it is found throughout central and eastern Texas. Redbuds stick out like sore thumbs in woodlands where everything is leafless and gray. The burst of hot pink color lets everyone know that Spring is here.

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Crimson Clover, Trifolium incarnatum is a legume, family Fabaceae, that is a native of Europe which has been planted along Texas roadsides for its beauty and the nitrogen compounds produced by bacteria in nodules on its roots. This is an inexpensive way to naturally fertilize the grasses surrounding these plants and keep our roadsides stable as well as beautiful. The red plumes in a sea of green grass makes a striking contrast even at highway speeds.

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The Coastal Indigo (Indigofera miniata) is a member of the Pea Family, Fabaceae. It is edible by deer and livestock. Its salmon pink flowers are borne on a spike or raceme. The alternate pinnately compound leaves have 5 to 9 leaflets. Its 5 petaled blooms can be seen all spring and summer. In sandy soils and sunny locations in grasslands and open woodlands are where you will find this species. Note that the color of the five petaled flower can be deeper, more reddish, than the specimen pictured here. Scarlet Pea is another name used for this species.

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