Misnomer valley: bigtooth maple in Colorado!

Certain plants have a certain "cachet" and Acer grandidentatum or bigtooth maple (with a host of other common names, usually alluding to some aspect of Utah where it is perhaps most abundant) is one of those plants. Imagine a petite Eastern sugar maple, only it tolerates alkaline soil and considerable heat and drought! That is a plant for all of us, I daresay! I heard it grew in Colorado near Mesa Verde, but several years ago a much larger colony was found by David and Pati Temple, who live south of Cortez.

This year I was extraordinarly lucky to be invited by David and Jeff Wagner (more about him anon!) to join them on a trek to find this new population in a place (I kid you not) called "Disappointment Valley." I hasten to tell you that this typically piquant Western place name is undoubtedly a ruse to keep the likes of you and me away. It is a splendid spot not far from the Utah line surrounded by magnificent wilderness and full of plant and animal treasure.

Here you can see one of the many picturesque buttes that form the backdrop to the valley. As far as I can tell, the substrate everywhere hereabouts is Mancos shale, a remarkably deep remnant of the Sea of Tethys from Mesozoic times. Mancos shale posses many properties: it is one of the slickest substances on earth when wet, and most remarkably it will turn people of middling height into towering giants (want to or not: I shall not tell you how long it took to clean our shoes off!). It grows plants well, as you can see.

Some of the maples we found were almost 40' or more tall, with trunks nearly a foot in diameter. The color was the most uniform crimson-pink I have ever seen on the species: I think this is definitely an area to explore further, and a place to get the hardiest, reddest of maples. In addition to bigtooth, there were gorgeous lemon yellow mountain maples thereabouts (Acer glabrum) and even some pretty massive box elders (Acer negundo). I kept looking to see if there might not be some intermediates around, but here I was truly disappointed!

A closeup of the man! David Temple and his wife Pati are two of  Colorado's state treasures. They own an exquisite 3,000 acre ranch, much of it with conservation easements, boasting the highest, largest waterfall in the four-corner area. They have restored various ranches they own or have owned to a remarkable pristine look by their careful land management and sensitive farming practices. David grows hundreds of remarkable and often unusual trees for sale. I have some pictures of these I can share if you clamor loud enough...much of what he grows is available nowhere else. And don't get me going about their house and guest house--they are beyond lovely!

Jeff is a nurseryman who owns Four Corners Natives, a specialty wholesale nursery featuring a terrfic assortment of unusual and otherwise unobtainable native plants. He and his wife, Lisa Hollenbeck, hosted me this past weekend for an extravaganza weekend with the Durango Botanical Society. I am planning a blog about this hospitable and wonderful group that is creating an extensive Plant Select garden, a small botanical garden really, alongside the impressive Durango Library. I would be sure to put this on your bucket list of regional gardens to visit. I know you will not be disappointed!