Quote:
Originally Posted by WJ Miller
True enough I suppose Bill, but the colour range also extends to the red as well and... it's a noxious weed (no matter how lovely it's still a weed). I think your original idea of the Prairie Crocus is more accurate. The ones that came up in our yard and nearby in Nose Creek this year were quite a dark purple at first, they then fade to pale lavender after a few days of hot sun exposure.
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Noxious? Weed? It is not! Purple loosestrife, yellow clematis and toadflax are noxious weeds -- poor old fireweed is a genuine native flower with an important ecological purpose:
"This herb is often abundant in wet calcareous to slightly acidic soils in open fields, pastures, and particularly burned-over lands; the name Fireweed derives from the species' abundance as a coloniser on burnt sites after forest fires. Its tendency to quickly colonize open areas with little competition, such as sites of forest fires and forest clearings, makes it a clear example of a pioneer species. Plants grow and flower as long as there is open space and plenty of light, as trees and brush grow larger the plants die out, but the seeds remain viable in the soil seed bank for many years, when a new fire or other disturbance occurs that opens up the ground to light again the seeds germinate. Some areas with heavy seed counts in the soil, after burning, can be covered with pure dense stands of this species and when in flower the landscape is turned into fields of color."
So there! If not for fireweed, our bare, wet, calcareous, slightly acid, burned out, clear-cut Alberta woodlands would be full of nothing at all.
Now Alan has to change the name of the forum to the British & Commonwealth Military Badge & Flowering Plants Forum.
BTW: how was the APCR reunion at the deli in TO?