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Rocky Mountain Bee Plant
Mountain wildflowers of the Southern Rockies and Central New Mexico
Rocky Mountain Beeplant
ROCKY MOUNTAIN BEEPLANT
(CLEOME SERRULATA PURSH)
Caper Family (Capparaceae)
Tall bushy plants bearing round three-inch clusters of delicate
lavender flowers grow along roadsides and in other disturbed places.
Long green-tipped stamens that protrude from each tiny four-petaled
flower give the clusters a feather-ball appearance. Slender long-stalked
seedpods dangle from the flowers. With three bluish-green leaflets,
beeplant leaves emit an unpleasant odor when crushed. Blooming throughout
the summer, Rocky Mountain beeplant is limited to the piñon-juniper
and ponderosa pine vegetation zones.
PERFECTLY NAMED
Beeplants are chiefly pollinated by bees attracted by the copious
nectar. In fact, beekeepers often cultivate beeplants to maintain
their honeybee hives. Capparaceae comes from the Latin word for
“billy goat,” alluding to the unpleasant goat-like odor
of many family members. Serrulata refers to the finely serrate or
saw-like leaf margins.
CAPER FAMILY
Principally composed of tropical trees, the caper family is represented
in our area by only a few herbaceous species. It resembles the mustards,
a closely-related family with four petals and six unequal stamens;
however, caper family leaves are compound with three to seven leaflets,
and the flowers bear four or many long stamens. Capers, enjoyed
in a salad or as fish seasoning, are the pickled flower buds of
a shrub in the Mediterranean region. The ornamental spider flower,
a close relative of beeplant, has a leggy, spidery look to its long
stamens and stalked petals.
A PLANT OF MANY USES
Beeplant seed and pollen found in coprolites (desiccated human
feces) at archaeological sites indicate that beeplants provided
a major source of food for prehistoric Native Americans. Calling
it “Indian spinach,” Pueblo Indians in New Mexico still
boil up the young, iron-laden plants, removing the bitter flavor
and bad smell in the process.
The most distinctive use—both prehistoric and modern—of
Rocky Mountain beeplant is the manufacture of black pigment for
painting pottery. A concentrate of boiled leaves is dried and formed
into little cakes that are reconstituted to yield a black pigment
that the designer paints upon an unfired pot. Today if you buy “traditional”
ware with black designs from a Puebloan potter, you are getting
a pot that has been handcrafted and patterned with beeplant paint.
Excerpted from Mountain
Wildflowers of the Southern Rockies, by Carolyn Dodson and
William W. Dunmire. Published by University of New Mexico Press.
Telephone book recycling bins ready
Dex, Waste Management, and Rio Rancho’s ‘Keep Rio Rancho
Beautiful’ (KRRB) division will be collecting outdated telephone
books beginning December 28, 2007 through February 18, 2008.
Residents are encouraged to bring old and unwanted telephone books
to the red bins which will be located at Rio Rancho City Hall (3200
Civic Center Circle NE), Loma Colorado Main Library (755 Loma Colorado
Drive), and the Meadowlark Senior Center (4300 Meadowlark Lane).
Also, Waste Management will place large green collection bins at
the Albertson’s grocery store near the Enchanted Hills subdivision
(NM 528 and Enchanted Hills Blvd.) and the Esther Bone Memorial
Library (950 Pinetree Road).
KRRB is a division of the city’s Parks, Recreation, and Community
Services Department. For more information, call 896-8729 or visit
the city’s website at www.ci.rio-rancho.nm.us
and look for KRRB’s ‘Kerby Coyote’ mascot link.
Christmas trees turned to mulch
After the holiday season, residents of Rio Rancho and surrounding
communities will be able to have cut Christmas trees recycled, courtesy
of PNM and Rio Rancho’s ‘Keep Rio Rancho Beautiful’
(KRRB) division, starting December 26, 2007 through January 14,
2008.
Cut trees that have had all decorations, tree spikes, and stands
removed can be brought to the Rio Rancho Sports Complex located
at 3501 High Resort Boulevard. PNM will mulch trees and will provide
free mulch to residents on a first-come, first-served basis while
supplies last.
PNM urges residents to return Christmas trees back to the environment
by recycling. Mulch generated from Christmas trees can be used to
provide a better growing environment for plants, city parks, and
home landscapes. Mulch helps retain moisture in soil, acts as an
insulating blanket to protect soil against temperature extremes,
and reduces weed growth. Recycling Christmas trees allows the tree
to complete its natural life-cycle by nurturing soil so other living
things can grow.
For the past fifteen years, PNM vegetation crews have donated their
time for this annual event. This is one of the many ways the company
demonstrates its support for the environment and works to improve
the quality of life in New Mexico’s communities.
KRRB is a division of the city’s Parks, Recreation, and Community
Services Department. For more information, call (505) 896-8729 or
visit the city’s website at www.ci.rio-rancho.nm.us
and look for KRRB’s ‘Kerby Coyote’ mascot icon
and link.
Falling timber
First, the housing collapse hit the suburbs of Las Vegas, Phoenix
and Denver. Now, it’s spreading to the forests of the West.
In recent weeks, hundreds of workers have been laid off at timber
mills in the Pacific Northwest, and some mills are closing down
altogether thanks to the nationwide residential construction slump,
which has resulted in timber prices crashing as much as 30 percent
since 2005.
Since 2002, the number of timber mills and mill employees has dropped
steadily in the West. And it appears that even tougher times are
ahead. A combination of increased mechanization and optimism over
the booming housing market of a few years ago put the industry on
the fast track to increased mill capacity even as demand and timber
prices have continued to fall. This mismatch means that the 44 Western
mills that shut their doors in the past five years are likely just
the beginning.
This article originally appeared on December 10,
2007, in High Country News (www.hcn.org),
which covers the West's communities and natural-resource issues.
Data: Carbon costs
• $89,000—Amount of taxpayer dollars spent to “offset”
the 30,000 tons of carbon dioxide emitted annually by the U.S. Capitol’s
coal-burning power plant.
• 116 million—Tons of carbon dioxide emitted by Western
wildfires each year.
• 2.8 billion—Tons of carbon emitted by U.S. power
plants each year.
• 100 million—Tons of carbon dioxide released by trees
killed by hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005.
• $504 million—Amount budgeted by the feds to replant
trees lost in hurricanes Katrina and Rita; $70 million has been
promised or dispensed so far.
• 551 million—Tons of carbon dioxide removed from the
atmosphere and stored in plants or soil in North America.
• 172 million—Tons of carbon dioxide emitted each year
by Southern Company’s power plants, making it the worst polluter
in the U.S.
• $217,057—Amount employees of Southern Company have
contributed to George W. Bush’s campaigns.
Sources: National Center for Atmospheric Research, Science, Center
for Global Development, Center for Responsive Politics, U.S. Climate
Change Science Program, Washington Post.
This article originally appeared on December 10,
2007, in High Country News (www.hcn.org),
which covers the West's communities and natural-resource issues
Two weeks in the West
—JONATHAN THOMPSON, High Country News
A few days before Thanksgiving, about five dozen employees of Vail
Resorts were hard at work. The Colorado ski resort had staffed up
for a mid-November opening, but these workers weren’t running
ski lifts or grooming the slopes. Instead, they were picking up
trash; the snow had not arrived, the opening was delayed and they
needed to keep busy during the sunny, fifty-degree days.
As winter solstice approaches, scenes like this are playing out
all over the West. The predominant color is not white but brown,
accented here and there by deep orange flames leaping across the
landscape. People were as likely to golf at mountain resorts over
Thanksgiving as they were to ski or snowboard, and ranchers, water
managers, and ski area operators are watching anxiously as their
livelihoods evaporate into the severe drought that covers most of
the region.
New Mexico dodged wildfires all summer—less than eighty thousand
acres burned in the state this year, compared to, say, Idaho, where
two million acres went up in flames. But in late November, the party
ended: the Ojo Peak fire scorched seventy-five-hundred acres in
what should, at this time of the year, be the snow-covered Manzano
Mountains. On the West Coast, news media reprised the stories of
a few weeks before as fires fueled by Santa Ana winds charred yet
more homes—fifty-plus Malibu mansions this time. The fact
that fire season and the holiday season are now synonymous no longer
seems surprising, so news outlets played up the fact that Flea,
the bassist for the Red Hot Chili Peppers, lost his home.
Scientists announced that fires in California released 7.9 million
metric tons of carbon dioxide during one week in October, and that
fires in California release 7,579 pounds of mercury each year, about
three times what one cement plant in Tehachapi, California emits.
Los Angeles is experiencing its driest year on record. The Sierra
Nevada snowpack is at three percent of average, and the snow cover
in the Colorado River Basin above Lake Powell is seventy percent
below average. Powell’s surface level is 101 feet below full
and Lake Mead is half empty. To cope with the drought, LA’s
water utility has hired six guys to drive around in hybrid vehicles,
asking people to turn off their sprinklers during the middle of
the day.
Bears, forced by drought and a late freeze to look for food in
towns, have sacrificed, too. Colorado wildlife officers killed fifty-nine
bruins—a record—over run-ins of one sort or another
with people. In mid-November, wildlife agency officials speculated
that even more bears might die: thanks to the balmy days, the animals
are still rummaging through trashcans rather than hibernating. Arizona
ranchers, squeezed between sparse water supplies and rising corn
prices (thanks to the ethanol boom) are thinning their herds so
they don’t have as many cattle to feed and water next summer.
Aspen Skiing Co. opened a soup kitchen to feed its idle, paycheck-less
employees, but emphasized it wasn’t meant to provide meals
to real estate agents moonlighting as ski instructors. Plans to
build a rock ’n’ roll-themed amusement park in Eloy,
Arizona, near Phoenix, dried up because of worries that it’s
too hot there for such a park.
Archaeologists in Montana found historic artifacts, including eighteen
unfired cartridges and an ax, in an area denuded by a wildfire this
summer. “In 1870, you don’t lose eighteen unfired cartridges,”
an archaeologist told the Associated Press. “We speculate
that maybe a grizzly bear ran the guy off, killed him, and ate him.”
A storm finally hit much of the West in the days before Thanksgiving.
Snowflakes doused the fire in New Mexico, and some ski areas were
able to meet their delayed opening dates. But don’t get used
to it. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s
Drought Outlook predicts that the Northern Rockies may get some
relief this winter, but drought will persist in the rest of the
West.
This article originally appeared on December 10,
2007, in High Country News (www.hcn.org),
which covers the West’s communities and natural-resource issues.
Book Review—Roots of Resistance: A History of Land Tenure
in New Mexico
—REVIEWED BY MARK SCHILLER AND KAY MATTHEWS
The University of Oklahoma Press recently published a new edition
of Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz’s Roots of Resistance: A History
of Land Tenure in New Mexico. This book, first published in
1980 and long out of print, is a seminal work that provides a penetrating
analysis of how a succession of conflicting land tenure patterns
and practices dispossessed and disenfranchised the indigenous people
of New Mexico. It is both a socioeconomic and legal study that attempts
to strip away the often romantic and condescending historical portrayals
of the Mexican villagers and Pueblo Indians by demonstrating that
“the history of land tenure in northern New Mexico provides
a case study of the processes of colonialism and the development
of capitalism.”
Dunbar-Ortiz begins with a discussion of pre-colonial pueblo land
tenure, which she suggests was predicated on intensive irrigation
farming. This practice provided a non-codified, customary system
of governance that engendered a democratic distribution of a scarce
resource. The pueblos were devastated by Spanish colonization that
imposed a feudal system, or encomienda (a royal grant to a Spanish
elite of Indian labor collectible in material tribute or personal
service), a form of serfdom upon the Pueblo people. “By 1643,
only forty-three pueblos remained inhabited, less than half as many
as at the time of colonization,” Dunbar-Ortiz notes.
After the Pueblo revolt in 1680, which was largely caused by resentment
against the enslavement of the encomiendas, the Spanish governors
realized they had to find a more workable system in which the pueblos,
genizaros (Christianized and Hispanicized Pueblo and Plains Indians)
and mestizos (people of mixed Spanish and Native American ancestry)
were granted a measure of autonomy in the form of community land
grants. The grants provided settlers with citizenship status and
arable land in settlements along the frontiers of the interior villas
of Santa Fe, Albuquerque, and Santa Cruz de la Cañada, in
exchange for providing protection from the incursions of nomadic
tribes such as the Comanches and the Utes.
This largely democratic land tenure practice was undermined by
what Dunbar-Ortiz terms “the conquest of merchants”
flowing into New Mexico along the Santa Fe Trail from 1821 to 1848:
“More than merely a port of entry, Santa Fe was an important
trade center; the effect of the trade on the New Mexico economy
was radical. Not only did the province turn away economically from
Chihuahua and central Mexico, but new values, most importantly exchange
values, were replacing use values. …The Santa Fe trade made
the province of New Mexico richer but it was the elite who benefitted,
while the villagers and Pueblos, who lived by subsistence agriculture
and barter, were increasingly impoverished by the introduction of
exchange values and money.” The introduction of money paved
the way for a mercantile system of credit and debt that in essence
consigned the villagers to a life of servitude.
Following closely on this economic transition, the U. S. government,
under the pretext of the expansionist policy of Manifest Destiny,
instigated a colonialist invasion of the northern half of Mexico.
As a territory of the United States, New Mexico experienced what
Dunbar-Ortiz describes as “a conquest of agriculture and subsistence
producers, with accompanying appropriation of their lands, resources,
and labor.” Resources such as water, grazing lands, timber,
and minerals that had been shared in common were commodified and
monopolized by the Anglo capitalists who flooded into the territory.
Rather than protecting the property rights of the Mexican communities
as outlined in the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, federal bureaucrats,
assigned the task of determining the legitimacy of Spanish and Mexican
land grants, actually colluded with the land speculators to misappropriate
them. Then, according to Dunbar-Ortiz, “When land monopolists
overreached themselves, the government stepped in not to protect
the property interests of the Spanish and Mexican land grantees
under the Treaty, but rather to protect its own interest in maintaining
control over the public domain. An integral part of the development
of capitalism is the role of the state in limiting the accessions
of individual monopolists that could hinder the flow and circulation
of capital necessary for its continued growth.”
In chapter six, “Land Tenure under Capitalism,” Dunbar-Ortiz
continues the story of capitalist expropriation of land in the twentieth
century. By the 1930s, none of the settlements of northern New Mexico
was self-subsistent. “By World War II, the average acre of
irrigable lands for the Anglo-American in the Middle Rio Grande
Valley was fifty to two-hundred acres compared with an average of
five to fifteen acres for the … Mexican farmer.” New
Mexico was further pushed into the capitalist economy by the establishment
of the nuclear industry, both through weapons production and uranium
mining.
Dunbar-Ortiz added an additional chapter to the new edition, “Land,
Indigenousness, Identity, and Self-Determination,” that attempts
to explain the lingering animosity between the Pueblos and the Indo-Hispano
community. While she notes that there are substantive reasons for
this enmity, she believes that theirs is a united cause and that
the focus must be on the “relationship of the former agricultural
producers to capital, not just on the cultural relationship of Mexicans
or Pueblo Indians to Anglo Americans.”
Roots of Resistance is available through the University
of Oklahoma Press (www.oupress.com)
and local bookstores.
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