Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Shrubs
These small woody plants may grow as heaths, form thickets or stand as single bushes on
slopes and in meadows. But for herbivores, they are one thing: the bulk food aisle. Know
your shrubs and you are one step closer to finding the wildlife.
Shrubby cinquefoil grows in meadows from the foothills to the tundra, sometimes in as-
sociation with sagebrush. All summer long this multibranched bush (up to 4ft high) is
covered in yellow, buttercuplike flowers with five petals. Deer and bighorn sheep browse
the foliage, but only when no other food is available.
Several dozen species of small willows are found in Greater Yellowstone, with fluffy,
silky flowers like small bottlebrushes. Shrub willows, including the common gray-leafed
willow, form thickets along subalpine and alpine stream basins. Moose eat willow year-
round.
The scrumptious blueberry genus includes species locally known as bilberry, cranberry,
grouseberry, huckleberry and whortleberry. Almost all produce small, round fruits of
bright red to deep purple that sustain bears and other wildlife throughout the Rockies. One
of the most common is the fragrant dwarf blueberry, which typically grows among lodge-
pole pines.
Junipers are aromatic, cedarlike conifers that generally thrive in dry, well-drained areas.
Rocky Mountain juniper can approach the size of a small tree, and older shrubs (which
may reach 1500 years) are gnarled and knotted. Birds feed on juniper 'berries,' allowing
the seed to sprout by removing its fleshy covering.
Strongly aromatic sagebrush thrives on foothills and drier montane meadows. Since
grazing mammals shun the bitter foliage, overgrazing results in the spread of sagebrush.
