Source material: 2017, May 06
I recently took a field trip with my plant identification course around Washington's cascades on both the west and east sides. Naturally, I had my eyes out for natural bonsai material the whole trip. One unexpected discovery (to me anyways) was Antelope bitterbrush - Purshia tridentata - a non-thorny member of the rose family with small leaves, small white or yellow flowers, and juniper-esque bark and deadwood (it seems to be one of the unusual broadleaf but hardwood exceptions, like olive or buttonwood). The location I found them was an eastern cascade rocky hillside that was ravaged by wildfire 20 years ago, however, the species exists widely in relatively dry, mountainous areas across the western United States.
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A nice mountain view of the dry, eastern Washington side of the Cascades. |
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The temperate rainforests of western Washington are too covered with greenery to see any rocks usually. The rainforest areas are not a probable place to find bonsai material. |
Below you will see my documentation of the unusual species. I hope in the future I can provide more updates on using the species, but that might be years away. If you have any knowledge to share on it, please let me know!
I was having difficulty with image layouts in blogger being both compatible for mobile and desktop viewing, so temporarily I will use imgur slideshows until I find a better solution. I'm certainly open to suggestions on the matter.
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The ponderosa pine on the top of the rocky cliff may be a good bonsai subject. I'll come back to inspect it with better hiking tools. |
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Meanwhile, the highest elevations of the cascades are still drowning in snow - I keep waiting for the melt to bring mountain spring so I can inspect new areas for collection. |
Amazing views. Wonderful pictures. I really liked the post and you wrote everything very fine. I really appreciate your work. Keep sharing more.
ReplyDeleteThanks for reading! Things have gotten busy while I apply for graduate school, but I definitely will be sharing more soon.
DeleteAmazing views indeed. Excellent post! You're doing a great job out there! Keep us posted with more exciting trips that you go on. Keep up the good work!
ReplyDeleteThank you!
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