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Calochortus lyallii
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February 23, 2007 : Petrified Forest National Park
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Keywords: Araucariaceae | Araucarioxylon arizonicum Knowlton | Petrified Forest National Park, Arizona, USA
Apologies for the late entry today. I've been waiting for the university's email servers to return to operation before hitting the publish button, since there are nearly eight hundred subscribers of BPotD by email and I wasn't sure what affect the disruption in service might have.
To make up for it, though, I've a few goodies to share with you before getting to today's entry. First of all, visitors to BPotD are now tracked geographically via a Clustrmap. If you've ever wondered about where BPotD is being viewed and read, here's your opportunity to find out. To get continental subsets of the results, click on the continents in the map. I've also added icons linking to the Clustrmap from BPotD's main page and near the bottom of every entry page.
Secondly, I'm now not the only member of the garden staff blogging. Visit the UBC Botanical Garden Blog for a glimpse at what's happening in the garden, courtesy (for now) of Andy Hill. More staff members will be sharing their experiences very soon!
There are no immediately apparent plants in this photograph of Petrified Forest National Park. If you adjust the lens on your mind's eye to look over two hundred million years ago , however, the plain dotted by rocks of petrified wood transforms into an ancient river bed with submerged logs of Araucarioxylon arizonicum (a monkey-puzzle tree / Wollemi pine relative) covered by a thick blanket of sediment. The sediment had a high concentration of silica-rich volcanic ash, which permineralized the fallen logs. The presence of iron and manganese oxides helped to colour the substituting silica, causing the intriguingly-hued quartz one sees today.
To learn more about the park (and its problems with theft), visit the Wikipedia page about it: Petrified Forest National Park. If you've more time to read and learn, either browse through the US National Park Service's site for the park (linked above or specifically visit the page on petrified wood) or read “The Object At Hand”, an article from The Smithsonian Magazine.
Posted by Daniel Mosquin at February 23, 2007 6:21 AM
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Posted by: Michael F at February 23, 2007 1:24 PM
Accurate enough. I've seen the geographically-based IP address databases – somewhere around 95% accuracy (in fact, we use one for the ad banners). It's possible that your ISP reports its servers as being from a different area or that you didn't get recorded in the initial partial day of data – give it a few more days. Do you live in a city that starts with a W?
Posted by: Daniel Mosquin 
at February 23, 2007 1:35 PM
i went here summer of 2005 it is one of my favorite places ever!!! it is so insanely beautiful and surreal, it feels like another planet entirely.
Posted by: Petra at February 23, 2007 3:26 PM
Daniel, this is awesome!! I have often wondered where your "readers" come from, now I know! THANKS MUCH from a fan!
Posted by: Cyndy Henderson at February 23, 2007 5:38 PM
This is so beautiful! Really sets my imagination going.... I saw some carbonized trees ones and I thought that was great. This is way better and a beautiful picture too!
Posted by: fotrristi at February 23, 2007 5:58 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!
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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.
"First of all, visitors to BPotD are now tracked geographically via a Clustrmap"
Wonder how accurate it is . . . I'm not mapped by it