By Kate Wilson Silver buffaloberry (Shepherdia argentea) in fruit. Note the grey stems and thorns. Sandy Point Park, Alberta, 2007-08-19. Photo: P. Cotterill. Do buffaloberries elude notice by gardeners and native plant growers? A 2002 bulletin by the Cereal and Oilseed Research Centre of Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada may offer a clue, with its title Poorly Known Economic Plants of Canada (1). Yet buffaloberries are excellent nitrogen fixers, an important food source for w

By Kathleen Mpulubusi Photos by K. Mpulubusi and P. Cotterill What are Catkins? When the Spring Equinox arrived in Edmonton on March 21, winter still held its grip on the land. The first signs of spring are fleeting but slowly new life does start to re-appear. One of the first signs is the appearance of catkins on the branches of some deciduous trees and shrubs. From the soft, fuzzy catkins of “pussy willows" to the long, often woolly strings hanging from branches of poplars,

On March 25, 2026, Dr. Ashley Hillman, from the University of Alberta's Faculty of Agricultural, Life and Environmental Sciences - Renewable Resources Department, gave a presentation to the Alberta Native Plant Council's Central Alberta Plant Study Group. In this presentation, she gave an introductory lesson on identifying common sedges (Carex species) found in Alberta uplands, wetlands, and peatlands. With permission from the author, we have here reproduced the slides from t

By Patsy Cotterill Prairie crocus ( Pulsatilla nuttalliana ) and three-flowered avens ( Geum triflorum ) are both spring-flowering grassland plants with a number of features that make them welcome in the native plant garden. Although they belong in different families, prairie crocus in the buttercup family (Ranunculaceae) and three-flowered avens in the rose family (Rosacea), they have similar flowers with a simple, radially symmetrical arrangement of sepals and petals. They

By Patsy Cotterill The Binomial System Being able to name a plant or animal is the first step in getting to know it. One can observe and become familiar with an organism without knowing its identity, but knowing a name, especially if it is a scientific name, allows you not only to communicate about that organism but also gives you access to all the information, beyond your personal information, that has been accumulated about that organism. All living things that are known t

By Terra Albers My interest in native plants began with a simple observation in my own garden. I had plenty of beautiful (to me) non-native ornamental plants, but very few bees and birds, while mosquitos, ants, and wasps seemed to be thriving. That led me to start asking questions about what was missing. As I learned more, I began to see gardening differently. It wasn’t only about arranging plants to look a certain way; it was about participating in an ecosystem. When we work

By Liz Deleeuw Editor’s Note (by Patsy Cotterill): Fall is the time when ENPS members start cleaning and packaging the seeds that have been collected throughout the season. I was once asked “What is the best time to collect seeds?”, the questioner obviously looking for me to name a date, but I said “When they are ripe.” This isn’t entirely true. The seeds of some species can be taken off the parent plant before they are ripe and they will subsequently ripen. (Beaked hazelnut,

By Patrick Kyle My interest in native flowers started by taking photos of native flowers in the National Parks and then looking up the names of these flowers in the many books I have acquired over the years. I am an amateur photographer and amateur naturalist. I was born and raised on a southeast Saskatchewan farm where some native prairie surrounded the farm thanks to road allowances and some pasture land where native flowers grew. I worked for Environment Canada Weather Se

By Patsy Cotterill Understory: An Ecologist’s Memoir of Loss and Hope , by Kevin Van Tighem, 2025. Rocky Mountain Books Ltd. , rmbooks.com Albertan nature writer, Kevin Van Tighem, has published his latest book, Understory , a candid and self-reflective memoir of his life and career as an ecologist and administrator in the mountain national parks. It is probably his best exposé yet of what it is like to be a conservationist in present-day western Canada. Both background and

By Patsy Cotterill The genus Ribes The currants and gooseberries belong in the genus Ribes, the single genus that constitutes the family Grossulariaceae. It is primarily a Northern Hemisphere group, with some 150-200 species, of which we have 13 in Alberta. Of these, seven are common locally in the Parkland, and all prefer habitats with an adequate supply of water, from moist woodlands and meadows to the shores of wetlands and creeks. Ribes species are ecologically importan

By Patsy Cotterill On January 20, the City of Edmonton’s Administration requested City Council’s Urban Planning Committee to repeal both the Ribbon of Green Concept Plan, which had been in existence since 1990, and the Master Plan of 1992, and replace them with a new model, the Ribbon of Green Strategic Plan of 2025. The Committee councillors complied. Like the previous plan, the new one uses land management classifications that specify different levels of ecological protecti

The following short article appeared in the October 3, 2025 newsletter of the Edmonton River Valley Conservation Coalition (ERVCC) ( http://eepurl.com/joInYE) : Blackfoot knowledge-keeper Ryan First Diver has posted many videos on YouTube as part of his phenology course in Lethbridge. This past summer one of the videos he posted deals with " combative stewardship ." This is the term he has given to land conservation that labels plant or animal species “invasive” or “noxious

By Patsy Cotterill Our profiled shrub for this issue is twining honeysuckle ( Lonicera dioica ), chosen because it is the subject of some excellent photos by Patrick Kyle and Manna Parseyan, the colours of which will serve to brighten up our winter days. It is a member of the honeysuckle family, Caprifoliaceae, which is characterized by having everything in pairs: paired opposite leaves, flowers and fruits. In Alberta the family is represented by two genera of shrubs: Lonice

By Patsy Cotterill Persicaria (smartweeds) and Polygonum (knotweeds) are the other two genera in the buckwheat or dock family whose representatives we commonly encounter in the Parkland, apart from Rumex, the docks. ( See Part 1 ) Persicaria – the smartweeds Originally species of Persicaria and Polygonum were included in the single genus Polygonum , and the key characters used to separate the two are not distinctly different. However, the smartweeds tend to bear their flo

By Liz Deleeuw My inner-city upbringing in 1960s Edmonton was punctuated with trips to a hobby farm where my friends and I played in ditches complete with shrubs and wildflowers. This was a time before the systematic selective spraying of ditches to wipe out all broadleaf plants. Back then I did not know what a native plant was, and for many, many years I still would not know. A simple explanation of what a native plant is could have saved years of learning it the hard way.

By Patsy Cotterill Find the words in the puzzle. (The names are joined in the puzzle, and all letters are lowercase.) Words can go in any direction. Words can share letters as they cross over each other. common juniper Douglas-fir jackpine lodgepole pine subalpine fir western redcedar Photos from left: western redcedar; characteristic cone of Rocky Mountain Douglas-fir; whitebark pine (photo: D. Vujnovic); common juniper with “berries.” Other photos: P. Cotterill

Every year we collect more seeds (especially from species having a good harvest that year) than we have the capacity to grow or sell. We...

By Patsy Cotterill Judith Golub (June 14, 1949–October 28, 2022), a life-long Edmontonian, was an active and deeply committed member of...

By Patsy Cotterill My guess is that the buckwheat family (I prefer to call it the dock family) doesn’t score high in popularity stakes. There are a number of reasons for this: the flowers are small and although densely clustered are not particularly showy; several species are inconspicuous weeds of fields and gardens, and a few are plants confined to mountains, often at high altitudes. Included in this last group are androsace buckwheat ( Eriogonum androsaceum ), the rare, di

Lawn to Wildflower Meadow: Gardener Adam Bailey Sees the Light and Undergoes a Conversion By Adam Bailey Lawns are like an ugly heirloom...