Today's photograph was contributed by Justin of St. Paul, Minnesota (aka teerlinck@Flickr) through the BPotD Flickr Group Pool. The original image is slightly larger, if you'd like to check it out. Thanks for sharing, Justin!

Justin has titled this photograph, “Sego Lilies and Grass in the Badlands”. I think I recognize the grass, but I can't recall its name. There is a grass expert who reads BPotD, so maybe he'll chime in with an identification, unless someone else names it first. The resources I have available to me for grass ID aren't useful, since they don't document the grass at this development stage. As for the sego lilies, not enough details are given to positively identify them either, though I'm fairly certain they are one of Calochortus nuttallii or Calochortus gunnisonii.

As mentioned on the main page of the Badlands National Park web site, the region is extremely important in the understanding of mammalian evolution. It is rich in vertebrate fossils from the Oligocene, the epoch that saw the ancestors of modern mammals rise to dominance among vertebrates. Plant fossils are found, too, though the Denver Museum of Nature and Science suggests that locating plant fossils requires a bit more physical work: Follow a Plant Fossil.

On an opinionated note, I'm pleased to see that the Badland National Park's home page has not been subject to politicization (unlike the main page of a different well-known park famous in understanding geological history).

Environment resource link: Wetlands of International Importance via the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands site. The link contains photographs (of varying quality) and commentary from wetlands around the world – I particularly enjoyed the pages for Laguna Brava (Argentina) and Lac Tsimantampetsotsa, Madagascar.