Rare Plants of Alberta's Journal

Our Rare plant walk at Indian Battle Park was a great success. Thank you to everyone who joined! We found a number of plants including Golden Bean, Plains Prickly Pear, Snowberry, Fireweed, and Cleavers. Congratulations again to the winners of our draw prizes. We gave out two packets of Sweet Grass, a packet of Showy Milkweed, and a pack of our First Edition Plants of Alberta Playing Cards (photo featured below)! We will be giving out seeds, including a set of playing cards at every walk (shown below), so if you are interested in learning about plant identification, as well as getting the opportunity to enter for fun prizes, come to our next plant walk at Naapi’s Garden (registration opens soon).

Visit are some photos from the event, including one of Cleavers (or bedstraw) growing around an old old bedspring.

Some things I learned on the walk: how to differentiate between Wood’s Rose, Plains Rose, and Prickly Rose. Wood’s rose is the smallest, and grows very close to the ground. Plains rose often has more than 7 pinnate leaflets to a stalk, and Prickly rose never has more than 7 pinnate leaflets to a stalk and has very prickly stems. Cool. The coulees in Indian Battle Park are slowly eroding, exposing items from the past, including old traditional tools.

Hope to see you June 1st!

Tory

Hello everyone,

Registration for our June 1st Plant Walk is now open! 🤸 🌼 🤠

Saturday June 1st, 2024 at 1:00pm - 3:00pm at Naapi's Garden

We will meet at Naapi's Garden, William's place of residence on Kainai First Nation. This land was previously cultivated, but after a controlled burn, treatment for invasive species, and wildflower seeding, it has been restored and now hosts many native wildflowers and pollinators! We will walk around, taking photos of plants, and learning their cultural significance.

All you will need is a smartphone with a camera and a good pair of shoes. The photos you take of any plants can be uploaded to iNaturalist to participate in the Rare Plants of Alberta Project. We suggest downloading iNaturalist, creating an account, and joining the Rare Plants of Alberta iNaturalist project ahead of time.

The data collected during community plant walks will be used in research at the University of Calgary to investigate the relationships between rare plants and their communities in Alberta.

Register through the form here.

I look forward to seeing you there!

Tory