New book details Glacier's flowers

"Daddy what are those white flowers?" my friend's daughter asked from the back seat of the car as we drove along the North Fork of the Flathead near Camas Creek.

"It's beargrass, honey," John said.

"Do the bears eat them?

"Hmm," came John's response.

Beargrass is a plant that remains a mystery to some botanists. These questions are often asked in Northwest Montana every year: How often does the plant bloom, and do bears actually eat it?

This member of the lily family is in abundance this year, with large blooming masses found alongside roads throughout Glacier National Park and nearby forests. Some people think the plant blooms every seven years, while other people say it's every three years.

The plant's unusual blooming cycle remains a mystery even to Shannon Kimball, a Bigfork botanist who, with Missoula photographer and botanist Peter Lesica, recently released a new book called "Wildflowers of Glacier National Park."

The book was released last month by Riverbend Publishing in Helena.

The book was three years in the making for Kimball. The book is not meant to replace the park's original flora book by Danny On and David Shaw, "The Plants of Waterton-Glacier National Park."

"That book will probably be around forever," said Kimball. "But I felt we needed to be something more user-friendly and up-to-date."

The new book details more than 300 of Glacier's wildflowers and plants. Kimball, former president of the local chapter of the Montana Native Plant Society, provides interesting notes on each of the plants, such as their medicinal uses by native Americans.

Kimball grew up in Columbia Falls and spent many of her younger years exploring Glacier Park. She graduated from Carroll College in Helena with a degree in biology, then picked up her master's degree at Oregon State University. Upon returning to Northwest Montana she studied under park botanist Jen Asebrook and worked as a seasonal botanist in the park.

While raising her first daughter, she thought writing a book would be "a great way to stay in touch with my field and I thought there was a need for something like this," she said.

She collaborated with Lesica, whom she calls "probably the best botanist in Montana."

He had previously published "Flora of Glacier National Park," a scientific reference guide to every plant in the park. Kimball distilled that scientific book into a laymen's version that is easily categorized by colors of plants and trees. There also is an index that provides easy reference to plants, trees and flowers.

With spring blooming season still

under way in parts of Glacier, the book is a handy guide to go out and identify Glacier's trees and flowers. Kimball recommends hiking the trail to Avalanche Lake, where the glacier lilies are still blooming.

The grasslands on the east side of the park are also good spots to explore and identify wildflowers, including the bitterroot, Montana's state flower. Look for this small pink flower in the area around Marias Pass.

Although you'll find answers in Kimball's book about most plants in Glacier National Park, the book doesn't unlock the mystery behind beargrass, a robust perennial that grows in subalpine zones along with subalpine fir and huckleberries.

Kimball knows that new beargrass plants take three to seven years to produce a flowering stock - something that is becoming more popular with commercial florists throughout the Northwest. Another fact: The plant is a food source for deer and elk, which eat the large white flowers, according to Kimball.

Bears eat the roots of beargrass, but it's not a major food source for bruins, she said.

The last big flowering display of beargrass was in 1996. "That was the best year I can ever remember," Kimball said. "This year is good, but not as good as that year."

Kimball has tried to correlate the blooming masses of beargrass to climate and drought, but to no avail.

"I wish I knew," she said.

"Wildflowers of Glacier National Park and Surrounding Areas" is available at local bookstores and outdoor shops in northwest Montana, or online at www.riverbendpublishing.com