Flowers, Birds, and Trees 2023-07-04 (Fairbanks, AK, USA)

During a walk yesterday near the Tanana River, I spent some time studying this fireweed, to practice my plant identification skills:

fireweed flowers

fireweed stems and leaves

Using Greulach's book[1] I took a few notes, before I ran out of time:

- about 1.5 ft tall

- single main stem (caulis)

- stem green on one side and brown on the other

- leave gladiate (sword-like) with small veins coming off main vein, bending toward apex

- rounded base, with base right up against caulis

- mucronate apex (sharp point)

- alternate leaves — coming in a spiral up the caulis

Today, I took a bike ride and photographed these flowers along the path:

Common Yarrow

white flowers

blue/purple flowers

After I got home, I found this bird loitering in the garden:

bird exhibit A

bird exhibit B

And this scenery next to the apartment looked beautiful on a sunny, July 4th morning:

Trees in yard

The birds in the trees were singing beautifully. I tried to take an audio recording, but I ran out of battery charge and the file didn't get saved properly.

End Notes

[1] Plant Function and Structure, Victor A. Greulach, 1973