« Previous Day: Bolax gummifera |
Main
| Next Day: Polytrichum juniperinum »
Aug 26, 2008: Centropogon nigricans
Aug 28, 2007:
Verrucaria maura
Aug 28, 2006:
Cylindropuntia bigelovii
Aug 28, 2005:
Gentiana septemfida var. lagodechiana
November 29, 2005 : Alpine Meadows near Black Tusk
Interested in subscribing? Visit the main Botany Photo of the Day page and fill out the form in the upper right corner!
Keywords: Garibaldi Provincial Park | British Columbia | JDS.485
Today's image is another scan of a hand-painted lantern slide by John Davidson from the early 1900s.
British Columbia is famous for its stunning alpine meadows. They occur in a few select areas where the right combination of ecological factors such as water, sunlight, fire and (particularly) soils are not conducive to tree colonization. Instead of the trees which dominate most mountains up to the treeline, open vistas of brightly-coloured wildflowers explode for a few weeks every year. Two of the finest (and most easily accessible) examples are the Taylor and Black Tusk Meadows in Garibaldi Provincial Park.
Sadly, due to a policy of fire suppression and the result of global warming, it is likely by the lifetimes of your children's grandchildren (if not sooner) that most of alpine meadows of British Columbia will either be lost or mere remnants of their former glory. The trees will gain the upper hand and colonize these fragile areas. For some reading on the topic in the broad sense, see The State of Ecological and Earth Sciences in Mountain Areas, and particularly “Effect of Rising Treeline on Connectivity of Alpine Meadows for Butterfly Populations” by Roland, Keyghobadi and Matter.
If you'd like to learn more about Garibaldi Provincial Park and you live in the Vancouver area, please consider yourself invited to my talk on Thursday night at VanDusen Botanical Garden's Cedar Lecture Series (registration / tickets). The title of the presentation is “The Flora of Garibaldi Provincial Park - A Historical Retrospective”; the talk incorporates many of Davidson's lantern slides of the area he helped explore and map in the 1910s and 1920s.
Photography resource link: The Art of Photography by Michael Reichmann of The Luminous Landscape, with commentary on light, focal lengths, the zen of photography and cost. One point often made by many of the professional photographers (and reiterated in this article) is that they say that they only take one or two images worth sharing or exhibiting after an entire day of photography. I suppose I have a lower standard of what is worthy of sharing by necessity of the daily pace, because I certainly couldn't spend every single day taking the “one best” photograph to share the next day (well, I suppose I could, but I don't think I'd stay employed very long).
Posted by Daniel Mosquin at November 29, 2005 2:16 AM
Read recent comments on all BPotD Entries
Comments
Posted by: John Clagett at November 29, 2005 8:30 AM
Down here it has been publicly lamented by at least one local weather scientist that those pooh-poohing global warming are getting most of the media exposure, thus skewing the general perspective.
What do you suppose the flowers were that Davidson (or whomever) painted red in the above image? Indian paintbrush?
Posted by: Ron B at November 29, 2005 11:26 AM
Ron (and others): you might be interested in this article from Robson Fletcher, one of UBC's journalism students, in “The UBC Thunderbird”: Unbalanced Opinions.
Yes, I'd agree with your guess on Castilleja re: the red flowers.
Posted by: Daniel Mosquin 
at November 29, 2005 12:07 PM
Daniel, that's a great old photo of Black Tusk meadows - I'm sorry to hear about the loss of the meadows, whatever the cause -- Garibaldi has alot of significance for me. I spent many days hiking, camping, snowshoeing in the park when I was in highschool and college and remember it well. Garibaldi park's alpine meadows are one of my favorite places on Earth. I wish I could attend your lecture, but it's a bit far for me. I'm in Montana. Good luck and I hope you have a large appreciative audience.
Maureen
Posted by: Maureen at November 29, 2005 4:03 PM
Poem I just wrote after seeing this old photo:
(On viewing a John Davidson Hand Painted Lantern Slide
of an Alpine Valley in early 1900 in British Colombia—/
A FUTURE ABSENCE/
Where Carnations bled deep —/
un-flecked, and the white/
frilled blossoms and pink fragrance/
ran down through the gullies,//
where the soft sulfured insects/
with spotted wings/
and the straight arrow breeze/
grew bolder,//
in a tired undertow/
where fires were stifled/
and trees began the climb/
up warm hillside,//
where children will not/
know the difference/
standing on tangled roots —/
a muscle they believe to be their ancestry.
Posted by: Mary Wehner at November 30, 2005 4:10 PM
Mary, thanks for sharing. It is much appreciated.
Posted by: Daniel Mosquin at December 5, 2005 12:55 PM
Please share your comments about the photograph(s) and accompanying write-up. Telling a story about the subject of the photograph(s) is also much appreciated! If you have a gardening question, the best place to ask is on the UBC Botanical Garden Forums. Thank you!
Post a comment
XML Feeds: Atom | RSS 2.0 | RSS 1.0 | What is RSS? | RSS Tools
Botany Photo of the Day and all associated images are licensed under a Creative Commons License except when otherwise specified in the accompanying written entry.
About Botany Photo of the Day | Submit Your Photos via Flickr | Submit Your Photos via UBCBG's Discussion Forums
Botany Photo of the Day is a project of the UBC Botanical Garden and Centre for Plant Research, located in Vancouver, British Columbia Canada. UBC BGCPR is a department of the Faculty of Land and Food Systems within The University of British Columbia.
Your links to the "state of Ecological and Earth Sciences..." is certainly topical and timely. This link is very comprehensive in scope and really reveals the all encompassing complexity of global warming. This topic and all its ramifications needs much broader exposure in main stream media and educational institutions. I hope you can find a way to accomplish this.