Becka Downard

Now people I meet are most likely to tell me about their favorite wetland, plant, or bird! I get calls from people asking how to preserve neighborhood wetlands and I get to teach the next generation about plants. I LOVE IT! And I love working out in the mud!
#WorldWetlandsDay

Things have changed in the last 20 years: people like wetlands more! The most common response when I started in the wetland world was “ew.” Muddy, buggy places were disparaged as useless and stinky. The most common call I got as wetland coordinator was asking how to get rid of wetlands

Happy World Wetlands Day! Did you know that 75% of Utah’s wildlife relies on wetlands at some point in their life? Three-percent of our land area is responsible for so much food and sheltering! Wetlands also help improve water quality, sequester carbon, and reduce drought and flooding risks!

This is a post about animal excrement and the English language.

bull$#!% = nonsense/lies
chicken$#!% = petty or cowardly
horse$#!% = nonsense/lies
dog$#!%= low quality
ape$#!% = wild
bat$#!%= crazy

Ordered above from oldest to newest: bull$#!% (1914), bat$#!% (1971).

A purple flower with raindrops

Current events are real bad and everything feels awful. I’m trying to be like the lupine, working together with others in my biosphere to make the environment better for everyone. I sure wish I had some fungal help.

#PlantOTD #Lupinus #Fabaceae #BeExcellentToEachOther

Tall pink lupine flowers

With this nitrogen fixing skill, lupines can grow in disturbed places where resources are scarce.

Utah has at least 14 species of lupine and they are notorious for hybridizing with each other. I’m not 100% confident that I’ve got the right species, but I’m 1000% sure that they are beautiful.

Close shot of pink lupine flowers

L - Lupinus argenteus - silvery lupine. Linneaus assigned the name Lupinus (“wolf-like”) because he believed they degraded the land, but they actually improve it! Lupines are legumes which form symbioses with soil fungi that allow them to fix nitrogen from the atmosphere and add it to soils!

Glad You Asked: How is the UGS Helping Manage Invasive Phragmites? - Utah Geological Survey

Check out my latest thing on #Phragmites in UGS's Survey Notes: geology.utah.gov/map-pub/surv...

Utah has lots of milkvetches, which are a legume. Some of them are toxic to livestock and are called locoweed for their effects on cows. The genus name might come from the Greek word for ankle bone because of the shape of their fruits.

#PlantOTD #Astraglus #Milkvetch

This milkvetch grows mostly in southern Utah, very low to the ground, forming mats across the rocks. Traditional uses include ceremonial lotions, panaceas, and rabies treatments.

K is for Astragalus kentrophyta - spiny milkvetch. I had a helluva time finding a native Utah species that starts with K and that I had pics of. I'm bending my own arbitrary rules because one of the old genus names for this milkvetch is Kentrophyta. And it's adorbs.

The cones, branches, and bark have a ton of ethnobotanical uses, from disinfecting wounds to helping with childbirth. My favorite is using the boughs to cover your tracks so that death does not follow you.

#PlantOTD #Juniper #UtahJuniper #DesertPlants #DontCallItACedar

The seeds are inside of cones that look like blue berries. Juniper cones are traditionally used to make gin, but there are few opportunities to try Utah juniper gin because of the history of Mormon settlement.

J is for Juniperus osteosperma - Utah Juniper. Junipers are one of the most common, awesomest trees here, striking dramatic, twisting poses all over the desert. They grow slowly: 0.05 inches in diameter a year. But they live for a very long time; they don’t even make seeds until trees are 30 yrs old

Anyone else in a chronically foul mood? The government shutdown and misinformation around it (which popped up in my plant research) is infuriating. I'm going to sooth myself with more pictures of plants since it feels like there isn't much else I can do.

#PlantOTD #Iridaceae #Iris

The dose makes the poison and this is especially true for ethnobotany uses of Rocky Mountain Iris. Roots have been used to treat toothaches, sores and stomachaches. Stronger doses make people vomit, which was done for ceremonies, medical treatment, or as a hustle.

I is for Iris missouriensis - the Rocky Mountain Iris. This stunner grows in wet meadows across the West (pictured here in the La Sal mountains). It takes a few years to establish, but once it does the Iris can tolerate drought and flooding.

They also grow on limestone, sometimes just stone. There’s not very much water, because rocks don’t hold water like soil, & it’s very alkaline.

Please enjoy the excitement of dwarf gentian & visit some high elevation plants if you can.

#PlantOTD #Gentianella #Gentianaceae #LimestoneObligate

Alpine plants are v. drought tolerant, counterintuitive as that is. For most of the year, water is snow & ice, which plants cannot use. The season of liquid water is v short, but then they’re exposed to intense sun, so they need sun protection (just like people, to prevent cancer).

G is for Gentianella amarella - Autumn dwarf gentian. I was so excited to find this beauty on Heliotrope Mountain (11,132 ft) then so disappointed to find no fun facts about Gentianella on the interwebs. Actual facts are very cool.

Gentians grow at high elevation, living in the harshest elements.

Apache Plume branches have a long ethnobotanical history for use in broom handles, fishing poles, and cradleboards. However, the leaves have the most interesting uses, including a ceremonial emetic and a witchcraft spell to induce insanity.

#PlantOTD #Fallugia #Rosaceae #ethnobotany

F is for Fallugia paradoxa: Apache Plume, a gorgeous desert shrub in the Rose Family (Rosaceae). The enchanting feathery bits are styles that remain after the petals fall. When the ovaries mature into seeds, the styles catch on the wind and carry the seeds to a new location they can germinate in.

The Inuit people have the best names and uses for cottongrass. The flowers can be made into boot insoles or used to absorb gunk like gauze or cotton swabs do. Their common names include terms that mean "imitation mittens" and "looks like snow geese."

#PlantOTD #Eriophorum #CottonGrass #Cyperaceae

E is for Eriophorum scheuchzer: white cottongrass. This is in the same family as bulrushes and sedges, but has a look all it's own. Cottongrass grows most often in the northern latitudes of Alaska and Canada, but can be found in high elevation wetlands farther south, like the Uinta mountains.

Policies that prop up the already powerful while removing support for everyone else (the not-rich, not white, not straight, parents, old, disabled, neurodivergent etc) affect us all. We’re all connected.

We’ve learned this lesson before, both w humans & ecosystems. It sucks
#PlantOTD #Onagraceae

C. alpina thrives in a niche - shady, damp places - that other plants can’t grow in. The beauty of the forest is in the niches for many species to occupy, rather than one, homogenous block of land. Plants, animals, fungi & microbes all grow & decay. When diversity is lost, the ecosystem suffers.

I’m highlighting a species native to the Western US for each alphabet letter; light & fun. But current events are dark & ugly & I like to find try-hard metaphors in plants. It sure seems the powerful are shredding diversity by taking away the conditions that allow a variety of people to thrive.

C is for Circaea alpina: Small Enchanter’s Nightshade. This enchanting beauty grows in moist soils of the forest understory. One source calls it a “juicy perennial.” Despite its common name, it's not a member of the nightshade family (Solanaceae), it’s in the evening primrose family (Onagraceae)

Other common names for this family include Spanish needles, burr marigolds & tick seeds, all due to the tenacious grasp of the fruits. Technically called a cypsela, velcro fruit are an adaptation for plants that want to send the next generation of seedlings far from home
#PlantOTD #NoddingBeggartick

B is for Bidens cernua - Nodding beggarstick. The genus name Bidens is not affiliated with any American political parties, it’s a combination of ‘bi’ (two) and ‘den’ (tooth), named because of it’s toothy fruits.