The Blackfoot Valley's News Source Since 1980
The Blackfoot Valley's News Source Since 1980
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"Ahead was an ocean of rabbit brush bursting with yellow blossoms. The prairie under hoof was lavender in the dimming light." – Sarah Bird, Daughter of a Daughter of a Queen The perennial rubber (or gray) rabbitbrush, or Ericameria nauseosa, is a native species to Montana and can be found locally in the Blackfoot Valley as well as throughout the state. Additionally, the species ranges as far south as Mexico and north into British Columbia. Montana is host to four variants o...
With sunshiny days and warm weather, it's difficult not to start thinking about spring. One of the first harbingers of spring in the Lincoln Valley is the sagebrush buttercup, or Ranunculus glaberrimus. Buttercups are one of the first flowers to bloom in the Rocky Mountain west and the flowers can be found locally by mid-to-late March. They prefer sunny damp slopes and, as the name suggests, are often found in sagebrush and grassland areas, particularly spaces with southern sl...
Fireweed, or Chamerion angustifolium, is a native species found throughout Canada and in the vast majority of the United States, except for southeastern states and Texas. A circumboreal plant, it can commonly be found in coniferous and mixed forests, in aspen parklands, and alongside snowberry, thimbleberry and juniper. The name fireweed comes from the plant's ability to quickly establish in areas burned by fire, appearing as soon as three months after a fire, according to...
The snowberry, or Symphoricarpos albus, is a shrub and member of the Honeysuckle family. Snowberry can be found in well over half of the fifty states as well as in many parts of Canada. In Lincoln, snowberry can be found around town and throughout Blackfoot Pathways: Sculpture in the Wild. Snowberry is a native plant and is a forage plant for livestock as well as bighorn sheep, according to the Forest Service Fire Effects Information System. Snowberry shrubs can be easily...
Shooting Stars "I'll toss my coins in the fountain, Look for clovers in grassy lawns Search for shooting stars in the night Cross my fingers and dream on." ~ Tracy Chapman Lincoln, Montana is lucky enough to see two varieties of shooting stars over the course of the year. Dodecatheon pulchellum, also called the darkthroat, pretty, or prairie shooting star, is native to Montana and shows up in early spring. The meteoric variety of shooting star is visible locally in the night...
