Sometimes nature throws you a bone. Too much of the information coming to us these days deals with the troubling reality of climate and struggling ecosystems. But then nature comes around and reminds us of its wonderous beauty and why our efforts to conserve it are so worthwhile.</p> The mushrooms of 2021 were magnificent in the Southern Rockies. Many a lifelong mushroom hunter in Colorado have been saying this is the best year they have ever seen. And it seems fitting that after the year that was 2020, we were able to capture the fascination of mushrooms with two amazing events. In August, the North American Mycological Association</a> (NAMA) held their annual mycological foray at the YMCA Snow Mountain Ranch near Granby, Colorado. The following weekend many of those same NAMA members took the opportunity to attend the Telluride Mushroom Festival</a>. And like the many cooped up people of the past year, it was as if the mushrooms themselves were tired of isolating during the drought and made an appearance en masse.</p> For NAMA I have the pleasure of serving as the Voucher Collections Project Chair. This job requires coordinating participants at the event as they come back from their forays in the field. Upon their return, we cordon them off to specific tables where they unpack their bounty. There we guide them in filling out specimen labels with their name, when and where they collected their specimens. </p> Because there are over 200 participants in the foray, this is a big job. To help me with this, NAMA supports up to six student assistants to attend NAMA. This year we were joined by Annie Schauster (former Gardens volunteer) and Alex Smith who are graduate students in Dr. Sara Branco’s lab at CU Denver. Olivia Filialuna is a returning assistant who helped the project in 2019 when the NAMA Foray was held in Paul Smith’s, New York. Clarissa Arana is a local mycology enthusiast from Ward and was tremendously helpful. These four, along with my two students, Gary Olds and Justin Loucks, made a fantastic team. Altogether we preserved over 160 specimens, each representing a unique species collected over the weekend. No simple feat when these need to be sorted out of the thousands that come through the event on Friday and Saturday.</p> After Granby, we returned with our bounty to the ecology lab in the Freyer – Newman Center at Denver Botanic Gardens. There we unpacked, sorted and processed all of the specimens from the NAMA Foray. The previous chair, Dr. Patrick Leacock, began organizing and collating the data from the weekend. Olivia helped to track down iNaturalist observation data for these specimens. Drs. Else Vellinga and Nhu Nguyen helped make sure specimens were properly dried and preserved in boxes. </p> No sooner did we box up the specimens than Gary and I needed to pack up and head to the Telluride Mushroom Festival. Each year, I need to pinch myself when I visit that town and lovely Ophir in the next valley over. This state is just too painfully beautiful sometimes. At Telluride, Gary spent a lot of time on the mountain searching for mushrooms. I got to spend quite a bit of time getting to know the author and fabled adventurer Lawrence Millman. Between Telluride and Ophir, we did not need to venture far to find a beautiful assortment of mushrooms.</p> On Thursday of the Festival, I provided a seminar on the mushroom diversity of Colorado. This talk included my annual “Telluride’s Most Wanted” where I encourage people to search for rarely seen mushrooms in the area. I reprised this talk on Saturday for a public walk-in presentation at the Telluride Library. On Sunday, during one of the last events of the Festival, I led a discussion in the park on the evolutionary history of mushrooms. There I shared all the wild and wonderful stories that justify why I study mushrooms - organisms that have tremendously captivating ways of making people fall in love with nature. </p>
Break out of the boardroom and host your holiday party in a winter wonderland!</p> What better way to celebrate the end of the year with friends, family or colleagues than surrounded by beautiful holiday lights that make you feel merry and bright? With five unique spaces</a> to choose from, there are options for all sizes!</p> From intimate parties to cocktail receptions to large groups, our team can help you find the perfect location to delight your guests. We also feature spaces that are indoor, outdoor or both. Booking availability is from November 19 to December 18 and January 3 to 8, so reserve your space now and treat your guests to the most spectacular holiday party in Denver!</p> Bring your holiday cheer to our amazing gardens this holiday season – we would love to have you! Contact us for more information at private.events@botanicgardens.org</a> or call 720-865-3551.</p> </picture> </div> </article> Marnie's Pavilion balcony</p>
Succulents are incredible creatures. Their fleshy, spheroidal, animalistic forms reach to us. They are hairy, waxy, spiny, thick, weird and familiar. The same adaptations that make them champion survivors also attract us. These creature features break our tendency toward plant blindness through a dimensionality and existence in space that we understand. We judge them as separate from their floral brethren and honor them as other beings.</p> Plants with succulent adaptations occur in every climate and bioregion on earth, and steppe regions are no exception. The Steppe Garden is particularly rich in succulent life forms, and they’re easy to spot and commune with if you know how to notice them.</p> Begin your exploration by walking through the Shady Lane entrance on the northern side of the Steppe Garden and veer to the left. These crescent moon-shaped beds are part of our South African steppe collections. Take the gravel path and look down. You’ll notice a huge variety of different Delosperma</em>, including my personal favorite, Delosperma obtusum</em>, called the dwarf purple ice plant because of its purple flowers, but also because of the dark purple tint of its leaves in winter. Circle around the bed to get a clear view of our South African succulent outcropping, an entire bed dedicated to displaying the diversity of cold-hardy succulents from that region. See if you can spot our two cold-hardy aloes, Aloe aristata</em>, which forms a tight rosette of dark green leaves, and Aloe striatula</em>, which dies to the ground every year, only to shoot up new leaves with the warmth of spring.</li> In the next bed to the south, notice the spiny Ruschia intricata</em>, a small, almost shrubby succulent that creates huge thickets in the South African Karoo. Continue walking toward the Science Pyramid and look in the direction of the canal. There are several succulents that are very important to the North American steppe in this section; the ball cactus Escobaria vivipara</em>, the banana-leaved yucca, Yucca baccata</em>, and the Colorado state cactus, Echinocereus triglochidiatus</em>.</li> Now, walk across the bridge to Patagonia. Just through the entrance, on the southwestern face of the large stone formation, notice a pot full of different species of cacti that occur in the Patagonian steppe but aren’t cold-hardy enough for us to grow outside. Just behind that pot, you can inspect a crevice garden built for several species of Patagonian cacti, notably Gymnocalycium gibbosum</em> and several different species of Austrocactus</em>.</li> After leaving Patagonia, return to the center of the Steppe Garden. If you choose to, climb the turf-covered berm and look to the north. You should have a perfect view of the planting bed surrounding the amphitheater and a dozen different candy-colored Delosperma</em> cultivars spilling around the concrete bench. Otherwise, retrace your steps and find your way to the central planters. Peek between the cracks in the stones and you might see Orostachys spinosa</em>, a succulent from Middle Asia whose structure almost resembles a spiny green sunflower.</li> Approach the final planter, known as the living stones bed, and prepare yourself for a succulent explosion. Surrounding the planting bed is a collection of pots filled with South African succulent specimens that have to be brought into our greenhouses during the winter. The planting bed itself is full of succulents in the plant family Aizoaceae. These plants, commonly known as living stones and perhaps most famously represented by the genus Lithops</em>, have adaptations of color and form that help them avoid predation by blending into their surroundings. There are several dozen species of living stones in this bed, so be sure to slow down and really explore the space. Look around, through and under the grasses for hiding succulents. Calm your mind and attune your eyes.</li> </ul>
As summer is starting to wind down and field season is largely wrapping up, work in the alpine continues. The alpine field season, being higher in elevation, is delayed compared to the flowering season of our plains and montane areas. </p> Seed Conservation Research Associate Alex Seglias has been trekking to the alpine throughout the last several weeks scouting tiny alpine plants trying to time it just right in order to collect seed of some rare ones. While her work is part of a few different studies, it all contributes to the North American Botanic Garden Strategy for Alpine Plant Conservation</a>.</p> Born out of a continental desire to protect our rarest habitats, we have published the North American Botanic Garden Strategy for Alpine Plant Conservation in collaboration with the Betty Ford Alpine Gardens in Vail, Colorado. The strategy, modeled after the Global Strategy for Plant Conservation and the North American Botanic Garden Strategy for Plant Conservation, lays out a comprehensive framework for documenting and conserving alpine plants and their habitats. </p> Collectively we aim: </p> To understand and document alpine plant diversity </li> To conserve alpine plants both in situ and ex situ</li> To promote an understanding of the alpine and the protection efforts needed to conserve these fragile systems </li> To expand our capacity to take action </li> </ul> Alex’s work assessing how species will respond to warming temperatures</a> will improve our understanding of protection efforts needed in alpine systems. And the seed collection, while linked to a Center for Plant Conservation project funded through the IMLS (MG-245983-OMS-20), also contributes to our active ex situ conservation efforts for the alpine. Horticultural work linked to our Rock Alpine Garden and Mount Goliath also further our knowledge and conservation of alpine plants and their habitats. </p> </picture> </div> </div> </article> Photo by Alex Seglias. Townsendia rothrockii</em> thriving in a population not documented in more than 50 years. </p> Simply spending time in the alpine can lead to new discoveries. Just a few weeks ago our team stumbled upon a large population of the rare Townsendia rothrockii</em>, the Rothrock Townsend-daisy. After returning from the field, the team learned that this population had not been documented since 1970—that’s more than 50 years! We are now able to update these records furthering our knowledge of where this species lives. </p> Conservation strategies bring together diverse groups focused on a common goal. In 2022, we will focus efforts on expanding our partnerships to incorporate those working in alpine regions across North America. Through these expanded collaborations and focused work on achieving our targets, we can have a positive impact on conserving our fragile alpine ecosystems. </p> </picture> </div> </article> Photo by Alex Seglias. Boreas pass, Colorado, Townsendia rothrockii</em> habitat. </p>
