Denver EcoFlora Project's Journal

Let’s celebrate Earth Day and our Front Range biodiversity by participating in the City Nature Challenge. This is a yearly event for folks in cities all over the world to observe and document biodiversity in their own backyards. Any living organism is fair game for observation – plants, animals, birds, insects, fish – they all contribute to the City Nature Challenge! To participate, make observations of any organism on iNaturalist for a few days in late April. This is followed by an identification phase—where you can join a community of nerdy naturalists to identify the species observed.

City Nature Challenge 2024
Observations: April 26 – April 29
Upload and Identification Phase: April 30 – May 5

For last year’s global challenge, there were almost 1.9 million observations of over 57,000 species, with 2,570 species considered rare, endangered or threatened. These observations were made by more than 66,000 people from 482 cities in 46 countries around the world.

In the Denver-Boulder metro area, more than 3,500 observations were observed by 457 people of 666 species. The organisms observed were mostly plants, insects and birds. Fun species observed included black bear, bobcat, beaver and even northern spleenwort (Asplenium septentrionle), a vulnerable plant species in Colorado. Let’s see if we can increase our numbers this year!

It’s easy to participate – your iNaturalist observations will automatically be added to the City Nature Challenge 2024 Denver-Boulder metro project if they are made during the challenge event and occur in the greater metro area (see above link for map of included areas). Additionally, all plant and fungal observations will automatically be added to the Denver EcoFlora Project. Here at Denver Botanic Gardens, we select our favorite observations from the area and send out prizes! We can’t wait to see what you discover this year!

To learn more about this event, how to use iNaturalist, and to find details on local hikes and trainings check out our website.

Bobcat (Lynx rufus), observation by @donaldschaffer

northern spleenwort (Asplenium septentrionale) by @christian_nunes

Scarlet globemallow, known charmingly as cowboy’s delight, or scientifically as Sphaeralcea coccinea, is a beautiful prairie flower to look for this spring.

Cowboy’s delight is in the Malvaceae or mallow family—which is composed of plants like hibiscus, mallow, hollyhock, okra, and even cacao (where chocolate comes from)! The Malvaceae family is characterized as mucilaginous plants with flowers that have numerous stamens fused into a central column (a great example is the hibiscus flower).

The genus Sphaeralcea is composed of perennial herbs with star-shaped hairs, and flowers that are orange to red, sometimes pink, and are commonly found in the western half of the North America. Parts of the plant are mucilaginous and known for their use in soothing burns, especially sunburns. In Colorado there are seven species in this genus, but S. coccinea is the most common and widespread in Colorado—other Sphaeralcea species are less common or located primarily around the edges of the state.

Scarlet globemallow is a low-growing perennial herb with deep orange to pink flowers. It is often found on sandy or rocky soil on roadsides or the prairie around 3,500 – 9,000 feet and is found blooming from May to September. The leaves are alternate, palmately divided and lobed.

It is grazed by deep and pronghorn, but mostly inedible to domestic animals. There are many uses by the Lakota and Cheyenne, including as a salve for burns and a sweet-tasting medicinal tea from the ground roots, stems, and leaves.

Connect with your inner cowboy by finding this delightful flower on the prairie. Share to iNaturalist to contribute to our global understanding of this species!

@caseyae

@alissa_iverson