April Showers Bring May Flowers (ha!)

Been a busy week, keeping up with TCF news, trying to figure out what's happening where on May Day, a tour of the under-construction Lebanese Garden and the Heritage Farm, Nature's Notebook on Monday, and a BioPark Conservation Committee meeting on Tuesday.  Today we spent our energy on planting out the veggies and herbs at our Community Garden, aka, Jane Foster's backyard.  

Hard work, but hopefully we'll get a handful of tasty things out of the ground.  Remember, photosynthesis is your friend.  

Earth Day

On this Earth Day 2025, I find myself rather well off despite all of the administration's evil machinations.  The courts are pushing back on Trump and Doge.  Thank you, ACLU and others.  Glad to learn that Harvard and many other Universities are standing up to TCF.  

The freezing-rain-trying-to-turn-into-snow managed to scare us off from the "No Kings" march on Saturday.  Instead, we had Greek takeout for lunch with friends.  Easter was another Greek feast with Cousin Katia and Blake.  Not surprisingly, we had leftover Greek last night.   

Nature's Notebook continues on schedule.  For the moment Doge's efficiency Gestapo haven't found their funding stream.  Things are popping despite a couple chilly nights.  Daytime temps are heading back into the 80's.  With Saturday's 0.4" of precipitation, we expect even more rapid changes.  The big surprise for us this week was the foot-tall Asclepius speciosa, which has exploded out of the ground in the past two weeks.  

On the way out of the Botanic Garden, we took the usual shortcut through the Japanese Garden.  Peonies and Viburnum were blooming promiscuously.  In the planters along the Festival Green, we found Spanish bluebells, Hyacinthoides hispanica.

Now if we can just keep TCF from butchering the Endangered Species Act and gutting our National Monuments, things can calm down, at least locally.  Don't ask me about the stock market, tariffs, and the economic outlook.  

Precipitation

Rain, blessed rain.  After 151 days, Albuquerque finally picked up some rain.  It clocked in at 0.3", which is piddling little after a 5 month dry spell, the longest on record.  But I'll take what I can get.  

The clouds rolled in Friday afternoon, conveniently after I finished General Grounds at the Heritage Farm opening.  I was pleasantly surprised by how many people talked about their travels in Scotland while viewing the Highland Coos. 

Meanwhile, the weather quite literally dampened the "No Kings" rally at the Civic Plaza.  We drove by and saw a good number (a couple hundred?) of protesters.  We'll see how the next march goes. 
 

Rare Plants of BernCo

Here's my preliminary target list of plants to hunt this year:  

Astragalus feensis (Santa Fe Milkvetch) — April–June, 5100-6000 ft

Dalea scariosa (La Jolla Prairie Clover) — August–September, 4750-4900 ft (D*)

Delphinium sapellonis (Sapello Canyon Larkspur) — July–September, 8000-11,500 (D*)

Heuchera pulchella (Sandia Mountain Alum-Root) — July–September, 8000-10,700 

Mentzelia todiltoensis (Todilto Stickleaf) — June–September, 5600-5840 ft

Muhlenbergia arsenei (Navajo Muhly) — August–September, 4600-6500 ft (D*)

Physaria iveyana (Sandia Mountain Bladderpod) — May–June, North Sandia Crest

Sclerocactus papyracanthus (Grama Grass Cactus) — April–June, above Placitas (D*)

Silene plankii (Plank's Catchfly) — July–September, 5000-9200 ft

Spiranthes magnicamporum (Great Plains Lady's Tresses) — mid-July–August, 4560-6500 ft (D*)

Although a number have been dropped from the NMRPTC strategy list (D* above), they have been listed by at least one agency at one time.  

As for a schedule, Astragalus and Sclerocactus get going in April.  Physaria kicks in later in May.  Mentzelia begins blooming in June, followed by Delpinium, Heuchera, Silene, and Sprianthes in July.  Dalea and Muhlenbergia round out this list of ten species.  

While July looks to be the peak month for plant hunting, I'll also be chasing Aphyllon up in Rio Ariba County.  Busy times ahead!

The Conservation Committee

Today marks my first meeting with the BioPark's Conservation Committee.  Like the mayor's Biological Park Advisory Board, we'll be meeting in the library at the Zoo.  There are 16 people on the committee and they oversee the disbursement of funding for various conservation projects.  

As the only botanist in the group, I'll be interested in how to move them towards more plant-based habitat conservation.  Right now, they only fund our membership in the Botanic Gardens Conservation International program with North American plants.  They also support the IUCN Species Survival Commission, which is very general and includes plant species.  Otherwise, everything involves individual animal species.  

Graphical representation of conservation support

I'm also worried that federal dollars for various grants will have disappeared since Doge started making cuts.  I'm also concerned about Emilie and Clay, who recently left the BioPark for Applied Ecology, Inc.  

_______________

Late pm update:  Meeting was moved to Colores.  16 attendees and a good amount of administrivia was covered.  Looking forward to learning more as the group gets its feet under itself.  

Hanami

It's cherry blossom-viewing time.

Crab apple blossoms

The offset bridge with a path among the flowering crab apples

Cherry blossoms in the Sasebo Japanese Garden

Crab apple 'Prairie Fire'

Sakura 'Kwanzan' cherry behind the waterfall

Crab apple detail

Crab apple on the Woodland Path

Flowering almond

Sadly, Tuesday's predicted high winds will like move our trees from Mankai to Chirihajime in a single day.  Perhaps we will have a sakura fubuki, a cherry blossom storm.