Trail Log 1995-1997 - Lamar at Colorado State University

Selaginella rupestris
Selaginella sanguinolenta
There is lots of Selaginella here.
Dicranum polysetum, a common ground cover in pine forests.
Hylocomnium splendens
Rhytidium rugosum, falcate leaves
Pedicularis verticillata
Cottoneaster melanocarpus, with whitish leaves. Common shrub here.
Cottoneaster lucidus, with shiny leaves.
Astragalus, sp.
Vicia cracca, Mouse vetch (this one is naturalized in U.S. from Eurasia)
Scrophularia
Polygonum divaricatum
Bromopsis inermis
Ambylynotus rupestris, a blue flower, like a forget me not.
Clausia aprica. purple mustard
Arenaria minuartia
Phlojodicarpus baicalensis, white umbellifer, on rare and endangered species list. Collected for
medicine.
3% of the Irkutsk region is strictly protected.
Brym argentum
granite of the middle-Proterozoic, 1.7 billion years old.
The group walked up to the gazebo overlook again, then returned and walked over a low saddle
to Babushka Bay, with a lecture of sorts from a "walking tree," a pine that had long roots stretched
out from the shifting sands.
In geological time, once this area was tropical and had rhinoceros, fossils have been found. It has
been affected by global warming with 3 o C rise over the last ten years. The annual precipitation here
is 12", somewhat dry, and much of it comes in July and August.
Neottianthe cuculata, an orchid
Maianthemum bifolium
Iris ruthenica, in the Red Data book for Irkutsk area.
Linnea borealis, twinflower, as in the Rockies
Vaccinium vitis-idaea (grape of Mt. Ida), mountain cranberry. Also across the northern U.S. I have
it from Mt. Katahdin.
Spiraea media
Returned from walk, back on board small ship, then to main ship. Lecture by Mikhail Kuzmin,
Director, Institute of Geochemistry of Russian Academy of Sciences, Irkutsk, on the sediments of
Lake Baikal. He was on board only a day.
There are 8 km. of sediments.
Video on the sediments, of which cores have been taken.
In 1,000 years there are about 17 cm. of sediments. In oceans there are typically 2 cm. of
sediments in 1,000 years.
Visit to Sagan-Zaba, in Pribaikalsky National Park, a steppe area.