Hollis

LATEST ARTICLES ( 468 )

• The Monthly Orchid: the Frog

  

  See any frogs? (MWI)Welcome back to The Monthly Orchid, a series about native orchids of South Dakota. This episode features Dactylorhiza viridis, the Frog... Read more

  Posted on 01 November 2026 OUTDOORS

• The Monthly Orchid—a Letter to the Earth

  

  … its broad extremity is folded over and backwards in a peculiar manner, so as to form a sort of shoe ... Hence arises the English name of Lady's Slipper. (phot... Read more

  Posted on 29 September 2026 OUTDOORS

• Mapping Lake Lahontan—with Contour Lines & Color

  

  Landscapes past and present emerge from a surveyor's lines, as if by magic.In 1881, Israel Cook Russell set out to map a lake that had been gone for 10,000... Read more

  Posted on 20 September 2026 OUTDOORS

• The Monthly Orchid: What Do You Get When You Cross a Coralroot & a Wasp?

  

  Answer: Capsules filled with seeds! (Striped Coralroot, Awinch1001)Welcome back to the The Monthly Orchid, a series about South Dakota's native orchids. Read more

  Posted on 31 August 2026 OUTDOORS

• Back to Lake Lahontan, with a Guy Who Knows It Well

  

  Lake Lahontan (pale gray) is "a large lake which flooded a number of the valleys of northwestern Nevada at a very recent geological date, but now has passed... Read more

  Posted on 14 August 2026 OUTDOORS

• The Monthly Orchid: Coralroots—parasitic Cheats Or Just Slackers?

  

  I walked right by these Coralroots! Fortunately I returned the same way and saw them.Welcome to the The Monthly Orchid, a series of blog posts about South Dakot... Read more

  Posted on 02 July 2026 OUTDOORS

• The Pouch-like Lips of Fairy Slippers (Calypso Bulbosa) a...

  

  The pouch-like lips of Fairy Slippers (Calypso bulbosa) are exquisite with their purple patterns and bright yellow hairs. No wonder fairies collect them at nigh... Read more

  Posted on 12 May 2026 OUTDOORS

• By the Shores of Lake Lahontan

  

  Camping on a different kind of beach.Beachcombing through tufa, not sand.Last fall, on my way home from California, I drove through northwest Nevada intending t... Read more

  Posted on 04 May 2026 OUTDOORS

• Plant Patterns

  

  PATTERN: A naturally-occurring or random arrangement of shapes, colors etc., which have a regular or decorative effect (source); for example, aloe leaves.Often... Read more

  Posted on 30 March 2026 OUTDOORS

• Strange Volcanic Sisters on California's Central Coast

  

  A geo gift for Christmas!One of my relatives has an eye for fun and fitting gifts. Most recently she gave me a tote bag featuring the Nine Sisters of northern... Read more

  Posted on 04 March 2026 OUTDOORS

• Monthly Fern Finale—Moonworts!

  

  "A very singular and very pretty plant ... [leaflets] are rounded and hollowed, and thence its name came of Moonwort" Sir John Hill, 1770. (image from Atlas... Read more

  Posted on 24 December 2025 OUTDOORS

• Geohopping Across Nevada

  

  Burners at incipient plate boundary in western Nevada. Are they waving California goodbye? (original unknown)Many times I've crossed Nevada in the company of... Read more

  Posted on 09 December 2025 OUTDOORS

• A Darkling Path Through the Ferny Ferns

  

  Be there dragons here?It's November and The Monthly Fern series is winding down. Looking back, I realized that most of the ferns I chose are... Read more

  Posted on 25 November 2025 OUTDOORS

• The Monthly Fern—More Quirks of Quillworts

  

  Jon Keeley with several of his beloved quillworts (date unknown).Once again The Monthly Fern series is featuring the Prairie Quillwort and its relatives—genus... Read more

  Posted on 21 October 2025 OUTDOORS

• Monthly Ferns—Prairie Quillwort & Scale Tree

  

  Prairie Quillwort is 50 centimeters tall (© 2015 Robbin Moran); Scale Tree is 50 meters tall (source). Both are lycophytes—formerly "Fern Allies".This episode o... Read more

  Posted on 16 September 2025 OUTDOORS

• Desert Mountain—Utah's Latest GeoSight

  

  "now a quiet, remote monument to that violent geological time." (Smith 2025)Desert Mountain's peaks and ridges lower right quarter of photo; white mark is high... Read more

  Posted on 07 September 2025 OUTDOORS

• The Monthly Fern??—Prairie Spikemoss

  

  Selaginella densa—moss, fern, fern ally, or none of the above? Coin is 19 mm across.This month the South Dakota fern series features another oddity—a... Read more

  Posted on 22 August 2025 OUTDOORS

• Those Birds Unknown, That Left Only Footprints

  

  Big toes! Huge bird!!Along the rim of Bull Canyon, on the north slope of the La Sal Mountains in southeast Utah, my field assistant and I followed footprints... Read more

  Posted on 23 July 2025 OUTDOORS

• The Monthly Fern: Water Clover & Its Odd Spores

  

  "It is worth clarifying that these plants are not clovers." (Photo by Bill Dodd).For July, South Dakota's fern-of-the-month is the Hairy Water Clover, Marsilea... Read more

  Posted on 07 July 2025 OUTDOORS

• A Restless Region on the Colorado Plateau

  

  Castle Valley, 20 miles east of Moab, UT; Round Mountain rises from the valley floor on the right.The Colorado Plateau is a thick block of crust in the Four... Read more

  Posted on 15 June 2025 OUTDOORS