Hollis
MY BLOGS
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In the Company of Plants and Rocks
http://plantsandrocks.blogspot.com/
Natural history blog focusing on botany, ecology and geology ... from the field as much as possible!
LATEST ARTICLES ( 431 )
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Blue-eyed Marys in the Forest
Blue-eyed Mary, Collinsia parviflora.The piñon forests of the Great Basin lie in a great rain shadow. Air traveling east from the Pacific coast gets sucked... Read more
Posted on 02 September 2022 OUTDOORS -
Ecology of Dakota Landscapes, a Book Review
Twenty five years ago, Carter Johnson and Dennis Knight were fishing together in eastern South Dakota, where both were born and raised. Read more
Posted on 17 August 2022 OUTDOORS -
August Tree Following—good News & a Mystery
Balsam poplars c. 0.5 mi west of the Happy Jack Trailhead, Laramie Mountains.Last month I didn't post a tree following report because when I got home from my... Read more
Posted on 06 August 2022 OUTDOORS -
Geology of Slim Buttes II—a Literary Perspective
[For geological detachment and unconformity at Slim Buttes, see previous post.]The Mystery of Slim Buttesby Danny RosenThe mystery of Slim Buttes is that,laid... Read more
Posted on 27 July 2022 OUTDOORS -
The Puzzling Geology of Northern Slim Buttes
Slip slidin' away?The Slim Buttes of northwest South Dakota are not your typical textbook buttes—not isolated hills with steep sides and flat tops. Read more
Posted on 20 July 2022 OUTDOORS -
Wildflowers at Slim Buttes
There are flowers in the grass among the Castles in the Gap in the Buttes on the prairie.In Harding County in northwest South Dakota, roughly 40 miles east of... Read more
Posted on 08 July 2022 OUTDOORS -
The Charm of Northwest South Dakota
"... only the ground and sun and sky were left, and if one went a little farther there would only be sun and sky, and one would float off into them, like the... Read more
Posted on 19 June 2022 OUTDOORS -
Belated Tree-following at Fossil Lake
A lake in southwest Wyoming, lined with palm trees!This month there's little to report about the trees I'm following aside from a bit of green in the aspen... Read more
Posted on 08 June 2022 OUTDOORS -
Pioneering Botanist Frank Tweedy, from Boom to Bust
Tweedy's Pussypaws, Lewisiopsis tweedyi, is one of at least 35 species named for topographer and botanist Frank Tweedy. Thayne Tuason photo. Read more
Posted on 27 May 2022 OUTDOORS -
Return to the Great Paleozoic Sea
Tiktaalik, what were you thinking?! Zina Deretsky, NSF.In the midst of planning a tour of Paleozoic time in the Great Basin—a way to escape from this confusing... Read more
Posted on 10 May 2022 OUTDOORS -
Spring Has Arrived in the Laramie Mountains :)
I have good news! When I visited the trees I'm following this year—a balsam poplar and a quaking aspen in the Laramie Mountains—I found persistent snow but... Read more
Posted on 08 May 2022 OUTDOORS -
Plants of South Dakota: the Chaste Slender Lip Fern
Slender lip fern, Cheilanthes feei, on limestone.As some readers already know, I'm part of a group of botanists revising Vascular Plants of South Dakota. When... Read more
Posted on 21 April 2022 OUTDOORS -
Tree-following: Today's Topic is BARK
For those in cooler climates who follow deciduous trees, this time year is often spent searching for alternative news. Our trees still show no evidence of... Read more
Posted on 10 April 2022 OUTDOORS -
Holy Hoppin' Horsetail Spores!
Equisetum hyemale is an able colonizer in spite of its lazy sporangia. Nevada roadcut, Matt Lavin photo.Do you know the horsetails, also known as scouring... Read more
Posted on 31 March 2022 OUTDOORS -
Fern Seeds?
Woodsia (left) and Polystichum; from "A popular history of the British ferns" 1862, BHL.Today we start with a quiz with one question:TRUE or FALSE? Spores are... Read more
Posted on 23 March 2022 OUTDOORS -
Tree-following in the Footsteps of Wyoming Botanists
Balsam poplar in Montana in August. Photo by Matt Lavin who writes: "Balsam popular is the most common poplar in montane riparian settings in western... Read more
Posted on 13 March 2022 OUTDOORS -
Ruby Mountains: Island in a Paleozoic Sea Or Metamorphic Core Complex?
Deformed lower crustal rocks high in the Ruby Mountains. How did this happen?!In August of 1868, Clarence King's Survey of the Fortieth Parallel arrived in the... Read more
Posted on 01 March 2022 OUTDOORS -
So Long Jerry Hansen, It's Been Good to Know Yuh
Never too old to play with trains.I didn't know Jerry Hansen well. But I knew him well enough to know that he loved railroads. Read more
Posted on 23 February 2022 OUTDOORS -
Tree-following: Late Start, Dim Light
Always prepared.My visit to the trees I'm following this year didn't go as planned. There was too much snow to drive the road to the old campground where they... Read more
Posted on 14 February 2022 OUTDOORS -
South Dakota Plants: the Shaggy Borage Family
Common borage, Borago officinalis. Click to view the coarse hairs (Andrey Zharkikh).For the past two years, roughly contemporaneous with the pandemic, I've... Read more
Posted on 29 January 2022 OUTDOORS