A Plant Life Tour, mid-Summer version

The weather has been still just a touch warm for my taste, but with clear sun interspersed with rain knocking down the fires, I can't complain. Also, there are at least ten wildland fire crews that have arrived from all over the Lower 48, actively battling our fires and cutting fire breaks. Look at this photo from fighting fires North of town:

Photo credit: D. Maneely/Southwest Complex Incident Management Team 3

Here is one from the efforts near us. The caption read "Nodwell tracked engine patrol's the Bonanza Creek Fire looking for hot spots." (Photo courtesy of Sam Collison) That lab looks like a good Friend to have around. Hope he stays safe!

We have been walking the neighborhood trails, and Raven has been doing great at recall training!

"Raven, come!"

She'll be a great off-leash dog one day, but we aren't quite there yet. She still can't resist squirrels, which is a problem until she matures up.

Here are my girls with their friend Trout! Trout has perfect recall! But not only is she a malinois, but her mom is an actual expert dog trainer, so!

Our woods look very Mysterious! Over the past week or so, I decided I'd document some wildflowers.

First up are these wild irises. I think they are so pretty!

Closeup!

Wild clover!

The fireweed is only just starting to appear.

They bloom from bottom to top. It is said that when the top blossoms open, we are four weeks from the first frost of next winter.

Sweet-smelling yarrow:

Yarrow closeup:

Compare against the unrelated bedstraw, which is considered invasive in some areas, although Fairbanks folks focus our rage on the vetch.

Cottongrass:

Cottongrass closeup!

This is called a hawskbeard. Like a dandelion, it makes fluffy seed heads, but they don't detatch as easily from the plant.

Compare against an actual dandelion. (Raven contributes her pointy-eared shadow to a lot of my photos, haha.)

Such pretty little flowers!

The bright white ones are dwarf dogwood. They will turn into bunchberries.

The pink ones are nagoons. They will turn into the tastiest berries on earth.

This is a local variation on knotweed. It has important medicinal properties.

Here is a younger version of the same plant.

This is meadowsweet, also an important medicinal herb. It's amazing to me that plants that I think of as perennial bushes still make flowers.

Even the hardy perennial Labrador Tea makes flowers! This plant is drunk as a tea. It's resin-y like pine or spruce and good for clearing a stuffy nose.

This is Agoseris, yet another yellow dandelion lookalike:

This is marsh fleabane:

Compare against Daisy fleabane:

This is called a twinflower, because the flowers form pairs at the tops of the slender stalks. They look small and delicate, but they are also wild and come back by themselves every year:

This humble beauty is the Arctic wild potato, called Troth in Athabascan (latin name Hedysarum alpinum). This is the Troth for which UAF's Troth Yeddha' campus is named. The ridge on which UAF campus was built used to be a gathering place for local people to harvest these wild tubers. Do not confuse this plant with either vetch (which is invasive) or wild sweet pea (latin name Hedysarum mackenzii which is endemic, but toxic to eat).

Cinquefoil:

Wild rhubarb. As if we don't have enough rhubarb!

Valerian:

Starwort:

Pretty Jacob's Ladder:

Closeup of Jacob's Ladder:

Some wild roses are still lingering:

And so are some bluebells:

At this time of year, cottonwood seeds are blowing everywhere. Indigenous people say it's time for salmon, but the salmon stocks have been so severely depleted that harvests are limited. King harvests are now banned. :(

This pretty thing is a pink wintergreen.

Closeup for you: