Rare Plants of Alberta's Journal

Hello everyone,

I’m pleased to announce registration for our July 20th Plant Walk is now open! 🏃‍♂️ 🌿 🚣

Saturday July 20th, 2024 at 1:00pm - 3:00pm at Writing-On-Stone Provincial Park.

We will meet at the Writing-on-Stone PP Visitor's center and walk West along the Hoodoo Trail, stopping to observe plants and look for milkweed and geranium. ❗ Very exciting: this area is one of the only places Green Comet Milkweed has been observed in Alberta on iNaturalist ❗ We will walk part of the trail, keeping an eye out for milkweed, taking photos of other 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.

Hope to see you there!

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

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,

Happy end-of-April and start of May. 🌻 🌿 🌱Along with the appearance of some wildflowers (keep an eye out for Prairie Crocus), May brings our first plant walk of the summer!

Our first walk will be this Saturday, May 4th from 1:00- 2:30pm at the Nature Reserve in Indian Battle Park, Lethbridge. We will be uploading photos of plants to iNaturalist, looking for Purple Geranium, and learning about the traditional uses of native plants. We are registered as part of Jane's Walk, a local event in the city. It looks like the weather will have cleared up by Saturday, but bring layers just in case.

If you haven't already registered, please do so here

Api’soomaahka and I look forward to seeing you there! 😃

Miigwech,

Tory

Saturday May 4th, 2024 at 1:00pm - 3:00pm at Lethbridge Indian Battle Park
We want to find out more about rare plants and their communities!

Register for the event here: https://forms.gle/DBRJurDminHA3sV68.

We will meet at the Lethbridge Nature Reserve and walk along the Coal Banks Trail for 1km, stopping to take photos of plants and learning about their ecological and cultural significance. We will then turn around after ~1km and return to the starting point.

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.

We look forward to seeing you there!