by hankinslawrenceimages | Dec 31, 2012 | Asteraceae Family, Flowers, North Dakota, Wildflowers
Last summer while photographing at Theodore Roosevelt National Park, I found bushes full of little yellow flowers. It took me a while to identify what it was – and once I found out it was called Rubber Rabbitbrush – I knew I’d be writing a blog post about it at some point. 🙂
© 2012 Patty Hankins
Rubber Rabbitbrush (Ericameria nauseosa) is a member of the Aster family found mainly in the western half of the United States. New York is the one eastern state that Rubber Rabbitbrush is native to. Rubber Rabbitbrush bushes can grow to 90 inches tall – the ones I photographed were about 30 inches tall. The little yellow unbrella shaped flowers bloom from June through September.
© 2012 Patty Hankins
Rubber Rabbitbrush has adapted to many growing conditions. It can be found from the deserts of the southwest to the subalpine areas further north. It has adapted to soils ranging from acidic to alkaline, sandy to clay, and is salt tolerant.
© 2012 Patty Hankins
Rubber Rabbitbrush has long been used medically and as a dye by Native Americans. During World War II, it was used as a substitute for commercial rubber. To this day, some rubber rabbitbrush is used as a rubber source.
© 2012 Patty Hankins
Rubber Rabbitbrush was a wonderful native plant to photograph – and fascinating to learn about.
More information about Butterfly Weed can be found at
Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center
Native American Ethnobotany
Range Plants of Utah from Utah State University
USDA Plant Fact Sheet
USDA Plant Profiles
If you enjoyed these photos, please feel free to share them on Facebook & Twitter.
by hankinslawrenceimages | Aug 20, 2012 | Flowers, North Dakota, Wildflowers
Here are a few more of my photos from Theodore Roosevelt National Park. This post has a few wildflowers and one abstract photo. You can see my landscape photos from the park in my August 6 blog post.
Rubber Rabbitbrush – Ericameria nauseosa – a member of the aster family
© 2012 Patty Hankins
Bergamot – Monarda fistulosa – a member of the mint family
© 2012 Patty Hankins
Prairie Coneflower – Ratibida columnifera – a member of the aster family
© 2012 Patty Hankins
And finally – some abstract patterns in sand. It was fascinating to see how water has carved some wonderful patterns into the landscape.
© 2012 Patty Hankins
by hankinslawrenceimages | Aug 8, 2012 | North Dakota
I’m just back from an amazing trip to several National Parks in the western United States. I drove just 6000 miles in 3 1/2 weeks – and took close to 5000 photos. So it’s going to take me a while to weed through everything, decide which are the best photos to edit, etc. But I didn’t want to make you wait that long to see some of the photos from my trip. I did post some photos to Facebook and Twitter while I was traveling – so I thought I’d post them here on the blog as well in a series of posts from the various National Parks.
My first stop was at Theodore Roosevelt National Park in Medora, North Dakota. Theodore Roosevelt first visited the Dakota Territory in 1883 – mainly to hunt bison. It was while he in the Dakotas that he developed his lifelong passion for conservation of the beautiful natural places of the world. His legacy includes establishing five National Parks during his presidency and passage of the 1908 Antiquities Act that has allow other presidents to declare historic sites as national landmarks.
Here are some of my landscape photos from Theodore Roosevelt National Park.
Views from Boicourt Overlook
© 2012 Patty Hankins
© 2012 Patty Hankins
Sunset at Wind Canyon
© 2012 Patty Hankins
© 2012 Patty Hankins
© 2012 Patty Hankins
As you can probably tell – one of the things I loved about photographing the landscapes of Theodore Roosevelt National Park was the amazing big beautiful skies!
by hankinslawrenceimages | Nov 28, 2011 | Flowers, Montana, North Dakota, Photo Locations, South Dakota, Wildflowers, Wyoming
Several people have asked me how I was able to identify all the different wildflowers I photographed on my trip west – especially since this was my first time seeing all these wildflowers. The answer is actually pretty straight forward – I bought several reference books before I headed west – and bought a few more while I was in the various parks. I’ve found that by searching amazon for the state or park name and wildflowers I can usually come up with at least some basic reference books before I visit a new area. And then I always visit park bookstores and other local bookstores to see what else I can find. I literally have a shelf full of wildflower identification books – and I’m always looking to add new ones to my collection.
Here’s what I added to my collection as a result of my trip west – and I’m sure I’ll add a few more next year . . . (links go to the books on Amazon – they are provided for your convenience – they’re not affiliate links).
Common Plants of Theodore Roosevelt National Park – Robert L. Sisk and Jan Tysdal-Sisk – includes grasses, trees, shrubs and exotic plants in addition to the native wildflowers. I bought it at the park – and it’s the best guide I found for that area.
Common Wildflowers of Grand Teton National Park – Charles Craighead – a handy little book I bought at Grand Teton. It is an official guidebook of Grand Teton National Park. There are several books in the series including Day Hikes and Short Walks of Grand Teton National Park, Wildlife of Grand Teton National Park and History of Grand Teton National Park. There may be others in the series – these are the ones I brought home with me. These books aren’t available on Amazon – you can order them directly from the Grand Teton Association website.
Tallgrass Prairie Wildflowers – Doug Ladd and Frank Oberle – includes wildflowers of the Prairie Midwest – so east of the parks I visited on this trip. It covers from eastern Manitoba – south to northeastern Oklahoma – east to western Tennessee and north to western Ohio. It’s my first book on wildflowers of this region – now I just need some parks to go visit so I can start finding these wildflowers to photograph.
Wildflowers of Glacier National Park and Surrounding Areas – Shannon Fitzpatrick Kimball and Peter Lesica – my favorite book for the wildflowers I found in Glacier National Park. The flowers are organized by color – which always makes it easier for me to identify wildflowers I find and have no clue what family they belong to.
Wildflowers of Grand Teton and Yellowstone National Parks – Richard J. Shaw – my favorite book for Grand Teton and Yellowstone. Organized by color, has the most common wildflowers and nice and light so easy to toss into my backpack.
Wildflowers of Montana – Donald Anthony Schiemann – includes 350 wildflowers in the mountains, plans and forests of Montana
Wildflowers of the Western Plains – Zoe Merriman Kirkpatrick – includes 186 species native to the western plains stretching from western Texas and eastern New Mexico in the south to Canada in the north.
Wildflowers of Wyoming – Diantha and Jack States – I got my copy for about $ 20 – no clue why the only copy listed on Amazon is on sale for over $ 900!!! It’s a good book – but I’m sure you can find a more reasonably priced copy elsewhere on the web is it’s still this overpriced on Amazon.
Since I’m planning on heading back to these areas again next year – do you have a favorite wildflower guide for the region that I should add to my collection before I go? If you know of any – please let me know. Thanks 🙂
by hankinslawrenceimages | Nov 14, 2011 | Flowers, North Dakota, Photo Locations, Wildflowers
My last stop on my trip west was at Theodore Roosevelt National Park in North Dakota. I spent part of a day in the South unit of the park near Medora. It’s definitely a park I want to revisit. By this point in the trip I”d been on the road for 2+ weeks and was getting rather tired. So when the weather wasn’t very good I spent more time than usual at my hotel curled up with a book rather than out exploring and photographing.
Theodore Roosevelt National Park has the wonderful combination of spectacular scenery and lots of history. Located in the badlands of North Dakota, this is the place that helped shape many of Theodore Roosevelt’s ideas about conservation and nature.
One of the great surprises for me at the park was the wild horses. Like the ponies at Chincoteague, these horses aren’t native to the area – instead they are descended from escaped domesticated horses. There is currently a herd of up to 110 feral horses in the park. I was lucky enough to see several of them in a fog bank early in the morning.
© 2011 Patty Hankins
I did find several wildflowers to photograph at Theodore Roosevelt National Park. Since the environment was so different in Roosevelt than in the other parks I visited, it was nice to see some more new-to-me wildflowers
Gumbo Lily – Oenothera caespitosa – a member of the evening primrose family
© 2011 Patty Hankins
Scarlet gaura – Gaura coccinea – another member of the Evening Primrose family
© 2011 Patty Hankins
Leafy spurge – Eupohrobia esula – a non-native member of the spurge family. Leafy spurge is native to Europe and Asia. It arrived in the US in the early 19th century and has since spread across much of the northern part of the country. The USDA has declared leafy spurge to be an invasive species. It is an aggressive toxic plant that once established very difficult to eliminate.
© 2011 Patty Hankins
My current plans for 2012 trip west have me visiting Theodore Roosevelt National Park on my way west – rather than on my way back home. So hopefully I’ll be more ready to do some serious photography there on my next visit! 🙂
by hankinslawrenceimages | Jul 17, 2011 | Montana, North Dakota, Photo Locations, South Dakota, Wyoming
| As you may know I spent most of the month of June on an incredible photography trip to some of the state and national parks in North & South Dakota, Wyoming and Montana. I put over 6400 miles on my car, explored wonderful places I’d only heard about before, and took thousands of photographs.
I’m just starting to seriously process my photos from the trip but I thought you might like to see some of my favorites that I edited while I was on the road. I was hoping to photograph some landscapes, wildlife and wildflowers on the trip. And fortunately I found wonderful opportunities to photograph all of them. |
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My first stop on the trip was at Custer State Park in Custer, South Dakota. Several photographer friends had recommended Custer State Park as a great place for wildlife. Their wildlife drives are amazing. I saw and photographed my first wild bison and antelope at Custer. I also discovered just how cute (and loud) prairie dogs are! |
| From Custer State Park I headed on to Yellowstone National Park – the oldest park in the National Park System. When you think of the grand parks of the west – Yellowstone immediately comes to mind. The landscapes were incredible and I photographed more wildflowers at Yellowstone than anywhere else on the trip. |
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After visiting Yellowstone, I headed south to Grand Teton National Park. This was one of the parks I totally fell in love with and can’t wait to return to. It had everything a photographer could hope to find – wildflowers, wildlife, and incredible landscapes. On one of my hikes I saw four pairs of mother and baby moose. It was at Grand Teton that I found two of the wildflowers I was really hoping to find – Pink Shooting Stars and a Fairy Slipper orchid. |
| Next up was Glacier National Park – where I learned just how late spring can arrive in the mountains of Montana. Going to the Sun Road which goes across the park was still buried under many many feet of snow while I was there in mid-June. The rangers were showing visitors recent photos of the Visitor Center at Logan Pass – where the snow was up to the roof line. I fell in love with the landscapes at Glacier – incredible mountains, glacial lakes and wonderful waterfalls. Next time I head to Glacier it will be later in the summer – in hopes that Going to the Sun Road will be open and I can see more of the park. |
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My last stop on the trip was at Theodore Roosevelt National Park. Located in the badlands of North Dakota – one of the highlights of the park was the wild horses roaming the landscapes. It was while visiting this part of North Dakota in the 1880s that Theodore Roosevelt began to become aware of issues such as conservation and the need to protect species from extinction. Later as President of the United States, Roosevelt oversaw the protection of close to 230 million acres of public lands. |
| I, for one, am very grateful to visionaries such as Theodore Roosevelt. The lands protected in our National Parks, Wildlife Refuges and Forests are a treasure for all of us to enjoy. Had earlier generations not preserved these lands for us – we would not be able to enjoy them today.
Photos in the article are
Avalanche Creek – Glacier National Park
Bison – Custer State Park
Prairie Smoke – Yellowstone National Park
Shooting Stars – Grand Teton National Park
Bear Grass – Glacier National Park
Wild Horse in the Fog – Theodore Roosevelt National Park
Barn on Mormon Row – Grand Teton National park |
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