Things are heating up here in Lander, Wyoming!  One of the perks of being out in the field most every day is that you get an intimate view of the seasonal progression.  When I first got to Wyoming I was blown away by the wildflowers.  Fields dominated by Balsam Root littered with patches of dainty Sego Lily and scattered Larkspurs made me think I was living in a post card!  A wet fall was the cause of this forb-ilicious spring.  I consider this first half of my internship as my “reconnaissance” phase.  I spent most of my time driving around the field office on the hunt for my plants and then visiting them about once a week. A lot of my time in the office is spent keying out unknown plants supplied by myself and everyone else in the office.  I could not have been in Wyoming for a better spring.

As the spring showers slow down the dry summer heat amps up and my fields of flowers turn into fields of brown grass.  The month of July has been a race against time to collect all the seeds before they drop, and believe me, those seeds don’t collect themselves!  I’ve completed around 10 collections so far with more coming in every week!  It has been a great year for grasses too!  As the spring time flowers are seeding out, the grasses are getting ready to drop too.  Grasses are certainly not as glamorous as the showy forbes, but are equally as important.

As time marches on my list of favorite flowers grows and changes depending on their seed productivity.  Lately I’ve been a huge fan of the prolific Northwestern Indian Paintbrush (Castilleja angustifolia), while the increasingly unfriendly Miner’s Candle (Cryptantha celiosoides) has fallen a few notches down.

The seed flow has kept me busy but has not stopped me from going to a few rodeos, dancing a few two steps, visiting a couple of ghost towns and going to a TON of garage sales.

Things are chugging along here in the Cowboy State.

Emily Usher

Lander BLM