A Gallery of Bromeliads

Last week I talked about the diversity of the bromeliads, plants in the family Bromeliaceae (link).  Here are photos of a bunch of them, although, alas, I don't have pictures of some of the most extreme species. And I have to confess that because I only encounter them when traveling--it is too cold and too dry for them outdoors in Colorado and normally too dry indoors--for the most part I cannot name them. So enjoy the pictures.

Brilliant foliage 

And it can be this red in the wild. This very old photo from Costa Rica shows red-leaved bromeliads in the tree

 

                                 

Bromeliads! The Plant Family Bromeliaceae

Bromeliad is the name of a plant family, Bromeliaceae,  turned into a common name. The family is almost entirely native to the New World and particularly, the New World tropics. There are 3,403 species in 69 genera. 

Bromeliads are all herbaceous, not woody, and most are easily recognize as bromeliads, and yet there is remarkable variation, since they range from pineapples (Ananas comosus) to rosettes of leaves with a water-collecting "tank" in the center which grow on the ground or high in trees, to "air plants" which take their water and nutrition out of the air, to strange shapes like Spanish moss (Tiliandsia usneoides).

bromeliads in tree

Ecosystem Recovery--River Edges Flooded in 2013

In September, 2013, the Big Thompson River flooded, sweeping down its channel from Estes Park to Loveland, Colorado and out onto the plains, overflowing its banks all the way. Small rivers seem placid, even when they are rushing down from the mountains. The power of those same rivers in flood was a revelation to those of us who had not seen it before. The water swept away all the river-side vegetation, leaving naked gravel and all sorts of debris. 

I spoke with people--a land owner along the river, a neighbor who regularly walked riverside paths--who wondered whether the riverside would ever recover.

Plant Story--Golden Banner, Thermopsis rhombifolia

It is a bright spot under the trees of the Rocky Mountains, that patch of yellow flowers of golden banner, Thermopsis rhombifolia. This is a plant of the pea family, Fabaceae, with rather typical compound leaves of three to five leaflets, flower like a garden pea and, ultimately, pods. The flower is a dramatic yellow.