Tuesday, July 21, 2015

Pawnee Buttes

We set out this morning with Dan Johnson and Katy Wieczorek to explore the Pawnee Buttes area in the Pawnee National Grassland. The Buttes rise above short grass prairie and are part of the Central North American Steppe region. The area is very remote, but has become more developed in recent years due to oil and gas extraction.

Artemisia frigida, prairie sagewort, adds a lovely blue-gray color to the landscape.

Ouch! Argemone polyanthemos, prickly poppy, grows along the road.


Pawnee Buttes


A remnant population of limber pine, Pinus flexilis, grows on sheltered north-facing slopes.
 
Junipers grow in gullies in the flats.
 
Cushion plant forms show up on the top of the bluffs.
 
 Stemless four-nerve daisy, Tetraneuris acaulis

Dan, Inna, Katy, Mariel and Vladimir at the end of the day.
Posted by at

4 comments:

  1. JenJuly 23, 2015 at 10:45 AM

    Fabulous! Loving the blog! Senad loved your baby rabbit, he said bring us home a wild collected one! :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. MarielJuly 23, 2015 at 4:31 PM

    Haha, the rabbit was in their Japanese Garden, too!

    ReplyDelete
  3. SaraJuly 24, 2015 at 4:45 AM

    Pinus flexilis in the wild?!?!? And oh, the beautiful prairie.... thanks for sharing, Mariel!

    ReplyDelete

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)