Colorado
Gardens - An Historical Vignette
When Edwin James's
expedition arrived in the territory of Colorado in July,
1820 knee high buffalo grass, grazing herds of buffalo,
mountains and
many strange and unknown varieties of wild flowers' met
their amazed eyes. The "James botany collection"
of plant specimens, a hundred-page pamphlet on the collection
of plant life made by Edwin James during his 1820 Colorado
expedition, was the first enumeration of plant life in
Colorado. It was presented on December 11, 1826, at a
meeting of the New York Lyceum of Natural History.
The May blooming mariposa or sego lily, Calochortus gunnisnnii,
was named in honor of Captain Gunnison, a guide who was
leading a party of botanist explorers in October, 1853,
when they were
attacked by Sevier River Indians and the entire party
was massacred.
The first book on the local flora of Colorado, (Popular
Flora of Denver), Colorado was written by Alice Eastwood,
a teacher in the East Denver High School in the early'
188o's. Ms Eastwood discovered and named many species
of wild flowers which were previously unknown.
Fruit trees were unknown in Colorado until some plantings
were made in Clear Creek in 1862. Although these were
washed away by a flood two years later, the first orchard
was established in Florence in 1867, by Jesse Frazier.
Bibliography
and Acknowledgments
Shown: Blue Columbine (Aquilegia
brevistyla).
