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Runway Lights, Hydraulic Lifts-We’re Talking Wildflowers
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Tuesday, June 12, 2018
 

STORY AND PHOTOS BY KAREN BOSSICK

Its Latin name literally means “out of the oven” or “out of the furnace.”

It’s fitting for the eriogonum ovalifolium focarium, better known as the Craters of the Moon cushion buckwheat. After all, you’ll find it growing among the cinders where there’s no visible soil.

This rare wildflower was only recognized as a distinct variety in 2014, and it is only found in the vicinity of Craters of the Moon National Monument east of Carey.

“It got its Latin name for ‘of the oven’ because the cinders are so hot,” said Lynn Kinter, a botanist with Idaho Fish and Game in Boise.

Kinter recently led a wildflower hike to Crater of the Moon as part of the 2018 Wildflower Walks series co-hosted by the Sawtooth Botanical Garden and Idaho Native Plant Society.

The series, which aims to give people a little more appreciation for their native surroundings, will feature walks near Ketchum led by Jeanne Cassell, Lisa Horton and Kristin Fletcher on Wednesdays, June 13 and 27.

More than 750 plants grow at the Craters despite the sometimes inhospitable conditions caused by the summer sun baking the cinder and lava, said Kinter. Idaho itself has more than 3,000 plants, just in case you’re wondering.

There are several types of buckwheat blooming from May to August. Ranging in color from cream colored to golden and maroon, they can grow as much as a foot wide.

“The Craters has been one of my favorite parks since I was a child,” said Kinter, who teaches botany at Boise State University in addition to working for fish and Game. “I grew up in West Virginia, but my parents brought me out here both summer and winter.”

In 35 years of getting up close and personal with wildflowers, Kinter has learned things not apparent to the average passerby:

  • She’s learned, for instance, that if you look at some flowers under infrared lights, you’ll see that they have something that looks like lights on an airport runway to attract pollinators. Contrasting patterns of flower shades and tints direct pollinators toward floral rewards.
  • The sound vibrations we call buzzing dislodges pollen from flowers.
  • The sagebrush is in the sunflower family. It’s extremely important in the landscape, Kinter said, acting as a snow fence in winter, providing cover for wildlife and shading the soil for moisture in summer. Its plant roots serve as conduits for water flow, bringing water up from moist soil a few feet below the surface to dry surface soil, much like a hydraulic lift.
  • The Wood River Valley sports seven species of lupine, including the multicolored longspur variety. The scent lupine exude depends on the pollinator that pollinated them. If bees, which like sweet things, pollinated them, they will smell sweet. If flies pollinated them, you probably won’t notice a scent.
  • The death camas with its six-petal flowers and grass-like leaves is actually in the lily family. It grows from a bulb like daffodils.
  • Yarrow has been used throughout the ages for love divination, with girls and boys putting it under their pillow in hopes of dreaming of their sweethearts.
  • The sagebrush buttercup is one of the first flowers to bloom, signaling that spring’s finally here.
  • The arrowleaf balsamroot’s taproot is covered in a hard bark and fairly resinous. It can reach several meters into the ground and weigh more than 30 pounds. Some roots are the size of a football, Kinter said.
  • Stoneseed was used by Indians for birth control.
  • The coyote tobacco flower found in Laidlaw Park near Carey is a relative of the tobacco that people smoke.
  • The fiber of hemp dogbane can be twisted into string.

    Kinter has delved into life at the Craters in a big way, inventorying the rare plants there, some of which are found only at Craters. Interns from the Chicago Botanic Garden helped her survey the park last year.

    Often, you find unique plants in unique soil and landscapes. And that’s certainly the case among cinder berms like those at Craters, she said.

    Kinter has studied a number of rare plants that are found only at Craters of the Moon National Monument or nearby. They include:

  • An onion that grows in April and May among the cinders. It’s similar to the rare Aase’s Onion, that grows in the Boise foothills.
  • Picabo Milkvetch with its triangular seed pods can be found in June in open sandy areas among the sagebrush and grasslands.
  • Inconspicuous Scorpionweed, a blue flower and member of the waterleaf family, can be found in June near aspen stands where there’s extra moisture. “It’s hard to find but we did spot it in 2010 so we know it exists,” said Kinter. “You have to spend a lot of your time crawling on your hands and knees looking for some of these flowers.”
  • Bug-Leg Goldenweed, found in July is a rare plant but locally common. It has, for instance, been found at Craters and it’s also found near the headwaters of the Salmon River near Smiley Creek.
  • Arching Pussytoes was first found at a meadow near the hot springs between Carey and the Craters’ Visitor Center in 1946. It is the only one known in the entire world, but botanists haven’t been able to document it for 15 years.
  • Horsetail Milkweed can be found amidst the Craters’ lava beds in late June, at nearby Huff Creek and in Bear Lake in southeast Idaho. It stands two feet tall with cream colored blossom clusters.

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