Botany Photo of the Day

It's all about overpopulation (even in Canada!)
Funny how that's never discussed anymore as it was when I was a young person in the 60's.

A field of flax in full bloom, is much prettier.

It's a shame that more of the Palouse wasn't saved from the conversion to agriculture. The patches that are left are really quite beautiful at this time of year when the all the wildflowers bloom. Steptoe Butte (about 15 miles north of Colfax on hwy. 195) is a good place to see a relatively intact native ecosystem and also get the best possible view of the landscape (outside a plane).

I'll disagree with you on this one, Bev. This is such prime farmland that it was almost entirely under the plow over a hundred years ago (I'll agree, though, that the farming of marginally productive land elsewhere is a result of such).

Eric - shall we debate pretty vs. beautiful? I think there's a difference, myself. I know what you're saying though. I grew up on the Canadian prairies and witnessed the “blue lakes in the distance” effect of flax in bloom on hot summer days.

I spent some time on Steptoe Butte (will share some of those photos this weekend), and it does have a nice assemblage of plants. I suspect, though, that a slightly different community of plants existed in the hills even directly adjacent to it – deeper soils with more capacity to hold water than the shallow soils of the rocky butte.

I should also add that I agree with Cody that it is a shame that more of it wasn't preserved. I'm not at all saying that the current agriculture industry in the area needs to shudder its doors – in fact, I was quite pleased to see commercial signs in the area advertising locally-grown products (grown under similar regimes, locally-produced food is less environmentally expensive than something shipped in, of course).

When I was a student without a car at WSU I borrowed a bicycle and pedaled to Kamiak Butte, visible north of Pullman. There I found quite a marvel of native plants, even some calypso orchids in the tiny conifer forest on the upper north side. (And a wood tick found me, but I immediately got rid of it). As elsewhere in the intermountain region, once you get enough elevation to catch a few clouds a completely different forest ecosystem can and often does occur.

Have never been to Steptoe Butte, looks markedly less well vegetated in pictures.

Daniel -- you have managed to shoot a couple of incredible photos of a place I've tried shooting several times without much success. What you captured is what I was always trying to capture: the sensual forms of the rolling Palouse -- accented by cultivated lines that follow the earth's natural contours (though not always) This time of year - spring, earth-still-evident, emerging seedlings like a pale dusting of green powder on the geometry of the hills. Oh, I love it so much!!! I'm so glad to see these photos and hope you don't mind me "borrowing" one for my desktop screensaver. It is utterly beautiful, and I agree with you wholeheartedly that it is the most beautiful cultivated landscape I have ever seen (in person. Some of the rice paddies in Asia or parts of Tuscany would rival the Idaho/Eastern Washington Palouse, but I have never been to those places)

We used to attend the Lionel Hampton Jazz festival at ISU every year -- late winter, early spring. The rolling palouse hills would take my breath away every time. I just didn't have a good camera back then and it's been a few years since I have been there.

I was going to disagree with Bev, too -- until you piped in with exactly what I was going to say: that this area was being cultivated so long ago because of it's ultra-fertile soils that overpopulation is a non-issue in this case. And I'd also debate Eric about what's prettier/more beautiful. One can always find beauty, no matter what, even in a bombed out vacant lot. One cannot always find something "pretty." though. Which is better? Anyone's guess. ;-)

thanks for an awesome posting today, Daniel. Does my heart good to see something "human-made" in nature, that is also so exquisitely beautiful!

Thanks Maureen. Interesting that you and I think of the same places when considering other cultivated landscapes that might match or exceed the Palouse (but like you, I haven't visited them).

I have to admit to being curious as to what the area would look like with a dusting of snow. Some of the backroads one can use to get these intimate landscapes, though, are closed then (permit-access only).

And in response to Ron - yes, Steptoe Butte has little in the way of forest cover, unlike Kamiak. Speaking of elevation and forest cover, the nearby Mary Minerva McCroskey State Park is a good example. Interesting place - on one side of the road (the shady side), I found a Calypso bulbosa and violets, while on the sunny side, I found Calochortus elegans and fritillaries.

Daniel, your remark on the way we both thought of the same "cultivated landscapes" in relation to the Palouse reminds me of something my father said when he brought our whole family to Vancouver from Virginia (we immigrated to Canada when I was in highschool -- my dad, mom and 7 siblings) ... Dad saw the world the way an artist does, though he was not an artist by profession. When we rolled into Vancouver, then through the park and across Lion's Gate Bridge to North Van -- I think we drove up to the top of Capilano Road and were looking back (south) to the city -- he said he believed the cities of Vancouver, North and West Van must be one of the rare improvements "Man" has made on Nature. The twinkling lights, various forms of buildings short and tall, the bridges, parks, harbor structures ... in his mind, all of that was vastly more interesting and appealing than the dense forested slopes would have been in pre-human days.

Of course, there are as many points of view and aesthetic tastes as there are people on this planet. And though I believe he was right about Vancouver, I don't think that same idea is applicable to all cities.

The same could be said for rural landscapes, cultivated landscapes ... some are jewels that sparkle amidst the surrounding "natural" lands ... others have somehow made what was there less attractive. The Palouse of Idaho and eastern Washington are, imo, examples of the former.