Category: Flora

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Chokecherries

Chokecherry Fruit Prunus virginiana Courtesy US National Park Service
Chokecherry Fruit
Prunus virginiana
Courtesy US National Park Service
Chokecherry in Bloom Prunus virginiana Courtesy US Fish & Wildlife Service
Chokecherry in Bloom
Prunus virginiana
Courtesy US Fish & Wildlife Service

Chokecherry Flowers Prunus virginiana Courtesy US Fish & Wildlife Service Chokecherry Flowers
Prunus virginiana
Courtesy US Fish & Wildlife Service

Certain plants were considered sacred by many native tribes. Chokecherry made the list. This versatile plant was highly prized for food, medicine, implements, and building material. And you could rightfully say it changed the history of our nation.

Legend has it that the young Shoshoni girl Sacajawea was gathering choke cherries when captured by the Hidatsa tribe and later traded to Lewis and Clark on their voyage of discovery. Without this very young mother, it is highly doubtful they would have completed their journey as she saved them from starvation, was a translator/mediator with many potentially hostile tribes and retrieved some of their precious journals from being lost to the Missouri River when their boat capsized in a rapid.

These stories ran through my mind as I gathered massive quantities of the fruit in preparation for the Stokes Nature Center “From Forest to Fork” wild foods banquet on August 24th of this month. It also channeled images of a black bear in the Tetons, gorging on choke cherries in preparation for its winter big sleep. Picking several pounds of these delectables, I decided to take a broader perspective looking for other virtues of this remarkable plant.

In addition to the above, chokecherry’s tough, springy wood was used for fabricating both bow and arrow, digging sticks, and fish spears. Native people across America routinely smashed the fruits, dried them thoroughly in the sun, and added them to rendered fat and dried meat to produce pemmican, which provided all essential nutrients in one’s diet.

Chokecherry makes a very useful natural dye. To make a dye, pulp the fruit and create a mashed mix of juice and berries. Placing fabric in this mixture will take on the beautiful pinkish red color of the dye. For lighter stains, leave the product in for shorter periods.
Due to their quick and abundant growth, chokecherries have been planted in tree rows for wind protection, for wildlife habitat and for erosion control. Today they grow in a variety of climates and regions around the country.

Nutritionally, the dark purple, red, or almost black berries are high in fiber, vitamins, and minerals. They can be used in vinegar, syrups, jams, juice, and make excellent wine. This small yet potent fruit provides an array of vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants, which contribute to its health benefits.

Chokecherry has a variety of medicinal uses. Dried berries were used to treat several bowel conditions, from diarrhea to loss of appetite, and those suffering from ulcers and other conditions. The bark is reported to be a remedy for respiratory ailments, such as a bad cough. The fruit’s high antioxidant content, particularly anthocyanins, is linked to a reduced risk of chronic diseases including cancer, heart disease, and age-related cognitive decline. Additionally, chokecherries have anti-inflammatory properties and are believed to have a positive effect on the immune system.

This is Jack Greene for Bridgerland Audubon Society, and I am Wild About Utah’s wild choke cherries!

Credits:

Picture: Courtesy US FWS and US NPS
Audio: Courtesy & © Anderson, Howe and Wakeman.
Text: Jack Greene, Bridgerland Audubon, https://bridgerlandaudubon.org/
Additional Reading: Lyle W Bingham, Webmaster, and Jack Greene, Author, Bridgerland Audubon, https://bridgerlandaudubon.org/

Additional Reading:

Jack’s Wild About Utah pieces.

Jack Greene writes: “Legend has it that the young Shoshoni girl Sacajawea was gathering choke cherries when captured by the Hidatsa tribe and later traded to
Lewis and Clark on their voyage of discovery.”
Sacagawea: The Shoshone Woman Who Guided Lewis and Clark
Full History Documentary | History Revealed @History_Revealed01
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xssko2bJfNM

 
Chokecherry Prunus virginiana, iNaturalist (Courtesy Wikipedia), https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/54835-Prunus-virginiana

Chokecherry Prunus virginiana, Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center, The University of Texas at Austin, https://www.wildflower.org/plants/result.php?id_plant=PRVI

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Apricots Feeding Families

Collecting the harvest Courtesy & Copyright Giselle Bandley
Collecting the harvest
Courtesy & Copyright Giselle Bandley

Picking the last apricots Courtesy & Copyright Mary Heers
Picking the last apricots
Courtesy & Copyright Mary Heers

Sparky Van Courtesy & Copyright Mary Heers Sparky the Harvest Master Van
Courtesy & Copyright Mary Heers

Sparky Van Courtesy & Copyright Giselle Bandley Sparky the Harvest Master Van
Courtesy & Copyright Giselle Bandley

We got there too late Courtesy & Copyright Mary Heers We got there too late
Courtesy & Copyright Mary Heers

One of several sharing locations, 'Take what you need. Leave what you can.' Courtesy & Copyright Mary Heers One of several sharing locations
“Take what you need.
Leave what you can.”
Courtesy & Copyright Mary Heers

The tree looked like it could also be 100 years old, with some missing limbs and some broken, brittle branches. But the apricots kept coming. Courtesy & Copyright Mary Heers The tree looked like it could also be 100 years old, with some missing limbs and some broken, brittle branches.
But the apricots kept coming.
Courtesy & Copyright Mary Heers

When I started writing for Wild About Utah, I made myself a promise that each piece would be a journey of learning. This meant I had to actually get in my car and go learn something. This month my journey led me to a venerable old apricot tree in a quiet neighborhood in SW Logan. I was tagging along with volunteers from Utah State University’s club Harvest Rescue.

Harvest Rescue is a community engagement club dedicated to harvesting fruits and vegetables that would otherwise go to waste, and then distributing to people in need.
So last week’s journey began with a phone call from owners of a house in Logan who had moved. The new owners had not yet moved in. The apricot tree next to the house was bursting with apricots ready to pick.

Harvest Rescue posted the address on its volunteer page and a note to be there at 7:30 am on July 24. Five pickers showed up. The tree hadn’t waited for us. Lots of the ripe apricots had fallen to the ground. “Not a problem,” said the lead volunteer. “We’ll pick them up and take them to USU’s compost bin.”

The owner of the house had told us the house was built in 1925. The tree looked like it could also be 100 years old, with some missing limbs and some broken, brittle branches. But the apricots kept coming. She had loved to look out her kitchen window at the bright orange fruit nestled up to the green leaves. “I took so many pictures!”

Just as we were finishing gathering the fallen apricots, the Harvest Master van showed up. This van is a real showstopper –bright green with bicycles and dancing vegetables painted on its sides. The van even had a name, “Sparky,” which was emblazoned on the front with the proud words, “I’m 100 % Electric.”

We unloaded ladders and buckets and got to work. In less than an hour we had that tree picked clean. We now had 113 pounds of apricots that we packaged into small paper lunch bags, about twenty to a bag.

It was now time for the second leg of the journey. We drove to a quiet residential street in North Logan and pulled up in front of what looked like an ordinary house. But a closer look revealed a sign saying, “Families Feeding Families.” It was explained to me that food insecurity in Utah is often hidden. Even people working more than one job can hit a rough patch and need a temporary helping hand. Families Feeding Families reaches out to these people by operating four porch pantries in Cache Valley. Their sign says “Take what you need. Leave what you can.” No questions asked.

This house had devoted the entire left side of its wrap around porch to shelves of donated canned goods and other items. Around the corner was a working refrigerator/freezer. We put the apricots in the refrigerator because they were ready to eat.

The next day I couldn’t resist going by the house and peeking into the fridge. Most of the apricots were gone. The Circle of Giving was complete. I felt a little overwhelmed to have been able to witness such kindness and concern for others on the part of the USU volunteers and the community residents.

Then I heard that someone had shared a recipe for apricot sauce on the Families Feeding Families website. This recipe had worked well for her. For me, it was one more reason to smile.

This is Mary Heers and I’m Wild About Living in Utah

Credits:
Photos: Courtesy and Copyright Mary Heers as well as Giselle Bandley
Featured Audio: Courtesy & © Anderson, Howe and Wakeman.
Text: Mary Heers, https://cca.usu.edu/files/awards/art-and-mary-heers-citation.pdf
Additional Reading: Lyle Bingham, https://bridgerlandaudubon.org/

Additional Reading

Wild About Utah, Mary Heers’ Wild About Utah Postings

Porch Pantry Locations Courtesy & Copyright Utah Families Feeding Families
Porch Pantry Locations
Courtesy & Copyright Utah Families Feeding Families
Utah Families Feeding Families, https://www.utahfamiliesfeedingfamilies.com/

How to Grow Apricots in Your Home Garden, Extension, Utah State University, https://extension.usu.edu/yardandgarden/research/apricots-in-the-home-garden

Harvest Rescue, Christensen Office of Service & Sustainability, https://www.usu.edu/service-sustainability/

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Whitebark Pines

Whitebark Pine Courtesy US National Park Service Jen Hooke, Photographer
Whitebark Pine
Courtesy US National Park Service
Jen Hooke, Photographer
Five needle pines- I love them! It was the stately eastern white pine that introduced me to these trees of the five needle clan in my early years in Wisconsin & Michigan. I marveled at their majesty, once the dominant pine of north central and north eastern states, until mostly logged off. Now, about 1% of old growth remains in the US and Canada.

Coming west, I was introduced to other members of the five needle clan- limber pine, whitebark pine, bristlecone pine, and the magnificent western white pine. I’ve found with the exception of the western white pine, the others are difficult to differentiate without examining the cone. The sneaky limber pine can be found at both mid and higher elevations which is a lookalike, sharing the same space as the others, making a fun 3- tree ID game.

It is the whitebark pine that has held my interest more than most for various reasons. First, much like the bristlecone pine, it’s found in high elevations which I’m attracted to for stunning alpine meadows and peak bagging. In Utah that means the Uintahs, high plateaus, and Wasatch mountains, generally found above 10,000 feet.

Secondly, whitebark pine has been struggling from a plethora of assaults, and has been placed on the threatened species list by the US Fish and Wildlife Service. Populations of whitebark pine are declining throughout most of the species range because of high levels of mortality from an exotic fungal pathogen that causes the disease white pine blister rust in five-needle pines, and periodic upsurges of the endemic mountain pine beetle. The absence of fire in some forests has also led to advanced succession of shade-tolerant spruce/fir species with subsequent reductions in whitebark pine. Finally, increased atmospheric warming and associated effects from altered precipitation patterns further threaten to reduce the geographic distribution of the species.

As a keystone species, precipitous declines in whitebark pine have cascading effects throughout the ecosystem primarily because of the subalpine and treeline positions the species occupies. When forest stands succumb to mortality, few if any other species exist to fill the structural and functional roles of whitebark pine. Notably, whitebark pine presence dampens snow melt, stabilizes soils, provides cover and birthing habitat, and its seeds are highly nutritious and consumed by a wide array of vertebrate species. For over thirty years researchers and managers have sought to understand whitebark pine ecology, and to devise and implement procedures to reduce population decline and restore these valuable high-elevation ecosystems.

Last, many of my favorite critters, including us humans, are dependent on this pine. Grizzlies and black bears feast on the cones, as do Clark’s Nutcrackers, Steller’s Jays, Pine Grosbeaks, and a host of small rodents. Many native tribes would harvest the highly nutritional cones, similar to the pinyon pine in food value.

This is Jack Green for Bridgerland Audubon Society, and I’m Wild About Utah and its vanishing Whitebark pines!

Credits:

Picture: Whitebark Pine, Courtesy US National Park Service, Jen Hooke, Photographer
Audio: Courtesy & © Kevin Colver https://wildstore.wildsanctuary.com/
Text: Jack Greene, Bridgerland Audubon, https://bridgerlandaudubon.org/
Additional Reading: Lyle W Bingham, Webmaster, and Jack Greene, Author, Bridgerland Audubon, https://bridgerlandaudubon.org/

Additional Reading:

Jack Greene’s Postings on Wild About Utah, https://wildaboututah.org/author/jack/

Whitebark Pine, National Park Service, https://www.nps.gov/articles/000/whitebark-pine-klamath-network.htm

Whitebark Pine (Pinus albicaulis), U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, https://www.fws.gov/species/whitebark-pine-pinus-albicaulis

Apodaca, Nicolas, The Future of White Pines in the West, Sustainability Education, University of Utah, March 20, 2019, https://sustainability.utah.edu/the-future-of-white-pines-in-the-west/

Whitebark Pine Ecosystem Foundation, https://whitebarkfound.org/

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May Day in Mendon

May Day in Mendon: Mendon May Pole Courtesy & © Mary Heers, Photographer
Mendon May Pole
Courtesy & © Mary Heers, Photographer

Mendon Glacier Lilly Courtesy & © Mary Heers, Photographer
Mendon Glacier Lilly
Courtesy & © Mary Heers, Photographer

Mendon Glacier Lilly Close Up Courtesy & © Mary Heers, PhotographerMendon Glacier Lilly Close Up
Courtesy & © Mary Heers, Photographer

Mary's Neighbor's May Queen Crown Courtesy & &copy' Mary Heers, PhotographerMary’s Neighbor’s May Queen Crown
Courtesy & &copy’ Mary Heers, Photographer

Never have I seen the coming of spring celebrated with more flair than Mendon’s May Day.

On the first Saturday in May, Maypoles with 20 foot long ribbons appear in the Mendon town square. By ten o’clock a couple hundred residents have gathered around the poles. A piano in the gazebo strikes the first chords and the May Queen and her entourage step around the corner of the church and onto the green. Suddenly everybody gathered in the square begins to sing. “Come to the woodlands, away, away”. Most people know the whole song by heart.

The queen is crowned and the real showstopper, the braiding of the Maypoles, begins. Mendon’s young girls, grades 1-5, pick up the ribbons. Braiding the poles is complicated. The girls have been practicing after school three times a week since the beginning of April. Last week I dropped in on one of the practices and counted: 3 Maypoles, 64 girls, and a little bit of chaos. There’s a march, a minuet. More songs. Stepping in, stepping out, kneeling, skipping. The girls bob up and down as they sing ”Apples blossoms swing and sway..”

Mendon is one of Cache Valley’s oldest pioneer towns, tucked up against the Wellsville Mountains. Winters were long and hard, and the coming of spring eagerly awaited. The beginnings of May Day can be traced back to the days when the young girls in the pioneer settlement raced up the hillsides to gather spring wildflowers to put in their hair.

The first May Queen, Seny Sorenson, was crowned with a hand woven wreath of flowers in 1863. Since then, every year, rain or shine, a queen has been crowned in the town square, and the maypoles have been braided with the same songs and dance steps. 160 years, with only a few changes.

The queen’s name is now drawn out of a hat from a pool of the town’s high school juniors. And this year, for the first time ever, the young girls will be getting store bought dresses. In the past, the mothers were expected to sew the matching dresses for their daughters. Not knowing about this tradition, you can imagine how bewildered I was when I had just moved to Mendon and answered a knock on my door. A woman I didn’t know handed me a dress pattern and proceed to say something about altering the interfacing. I was pretty sure she was speaking English, but I couldn’t understand a word she was saying. Luckily my good friend and neighbor quickly brought me up to speed. This wonderful neighbor had actually been Mendon’s May Queen over 50 years ago. “Do you want to see my crown?” she asked as she opened the door to her hall closet. And there it was, a tight ring of pink and white flowers, secured to a tiny satin pillow with a fading ribbon.

I had one more stop to make. I hopped in my car and drove up to the Deep Canyon trailhead high above Mendon. A short way up the trail I found it– a whole hillside covered with curly yellow Glacier Lilies, the “early blooming flowers” from the May Day song “Maying and Straying…” And believe me, this was a sight worth singing about.

This is Mary Heers, and I’m Wild about Springtime in Utah.

Credits:
Photos: Courtesy & Copyright © Mary Heers, Photographer
Featured Audio: Courtesy & Copyright Mary Heers AND Courtesy & Copyright © Kevin Colver, https://wildstore.wildsanctuary.com/collections/special-collections/kevin-colver
Text: Mary Heers, https://cca.usu.edu/files/awards/art-and-mary-heers-citation.pdf
Additional Reading: Lyle Bingham, https://bridgerlandaudubon.org/

Additional Reading

Wild About Utah, Mary Heers’ Postings

Mendon May Day, https://www.mendonutah.net/may_day.htm

May Day Celebration, Mendon City, Utah, https://mendoncity.org/may-day-celebration/