On the shelf in the cabin sits Hultén’s “Flora of Alaska.” It’s a nice book, but not exactly the sort of page turner which keeps you up late at night reading and, as with most dichotomous keys, it is perfectly useless when plants are not in bloom. Well plants are in bloom everywhere today so I went on a little expedition around the cabin in search of unknown plants. One in particular stood out, although judging from its number, I am probably the only person in Alaska that doesn’t recognize it on sight. I picked a specimen and set work in the key. Now I just need to know what a few words mean: caespitose, calyx, campanulate, filiform, and obovate to name a few. I’m joking of course; what kid grows up in an American city these days with the ubiquitously corrupting influence of Linnaeus and his Critica Botanica without knowing the meaning of caespitose. In fact, hardly a morning passes when my wife does not use the word to describe my hair. This particular plant turns out to be a primrose of the species Trientalis europaea, aka Starflower (pg 751). Whether it is subspecies europaea or arctica depends on the distinction between ‘pedicels glandular’ or ‘pedicels somewhat glandular,’ a distinction I am unable to make with any confidence. Either way, the flower is easy to overlook. From above it looks like any other white flower but when you lower yourself to its level you notice that the flowers sits atop the most delicate and impossibly thin pedicles. I also identified the pink flower mentioned a few days ago as Rubus arcticus, subs. Acaulis. Somebody has been kind enough to write ‘Nagoon Berry’ in the margin perhaps indicating a treat later this summer. There is also an interesting, deep brown/purple lily blooming on the path to the bear meadow. All this talk of flowers has me feeling a little girlish, so I think I’ll go clean the shotgun or maybe read a chapter or two of the Louise L’Amour book on the shelf.

Today was a busy day for visitation. The bear camp brought in some daytrippers as well as overnight guests and a private plane with three folks from Anchorage dropped by. The pilot said he has been coming to this area for years for clams, but only recently found out about the bear viewing. Also the sister of a former biotech for the park dropped in with her husband. They contemplated camping overnight, but changed their minds after they saw the number of bears in the vicinity. They said they were worried about bears chewing on the plane. I counted twenty-two bears on the meadow including the sow with new triplets.