Hawkins Preserve, just 3 miles southwest of downtown Cortez, attracts a slew of outdoor enthusiasts: hikers, trail runners, bikers, climbers.
This time of year especially it’s teeming with life.
In fact, there are more than 200 documented plant species in the preserve, according to the Cortez Cultural Center’s website.
A lot of those plants are identified with markers, easily spotted from the trail, making it simple for visitors to identify what they see.
Shelby and Roberta Smith, two avid hikers at Hawkins Preserve, recently sent The Journal a few photos of the plants they saw there.
On a walk over Mother’s Day weekend, Shelby said the pair – plus their daughter, Annette – were on a walk at Hawkins when Annette noticed something “strange.”
“What are these?” she asked of the round brown plants that look like some kind of growth, like warts on a witch’s chin.
Shelby said they weren’t sure what it was, but were able to identify them as shingled hedgehog (Sarcodon imbricatus), a type of edible mushroom, thanks to their smartphone’s plant identifier.
“It can grow to 12 inches in diameter with grayish brittle teeth underneath,” said Shelby. “It takes on the color of the soil and hides within its surroundings very well.”
When cooked, some like the taste, he said, while “others say they’re terrible.”
“Two varieties?” he mused.
The sweet, sticky berries known as fragrant sumac (Rhus aromatica) are arguably more approachable than the camouflaged shingled hedgehog mushrooms.
“If you pluck a couple of these and plop them into your mouth, you will discover why many children call them lemonade berries,” said Shelby.
He encourages folks to pick “a half-cup of them, wash them, then crush them in a cup of water with a lot of sugar.” Strain the seeds out and you’ll have made “a remarkable lemon-flavored drink.”
“But go easy,” said Shelby.
Some people are allergic, and it’s slightly astringent, which means it can make the mouth feel dry and numb.
To the untrained eye, small mushrooms, berries and flowers might be hard to spot. But just about anyone can recognize – and appreciate – a grown piñon pine when they see one.
This “ small, drought-hardy, long-lived tree” is “widespread in the southwestern United States,” according to the United States Department of Agriculture.
Though long-lived, the trees grow slowly.
Saplings will grow just 4 to 6 inches in a year, “and mature trees grow even more slowly, averaging 5 to 10 cm (2 to 4 in) per year,” according to the USDA.
Shelby called the piñon pine he saw at the Preserve “healthy,” and that it “is about to produce an outburst of pine cones and piñon nuts.”
A few flowering cacti in the Preserve will have an outburst of their own, with the help of a little more rain, said Shelby.
He went on to say how most cacti are “one consistent color.”
“The pricklies, however, produce more than a dozen distinct colors,” he said, ranging from yellow to pink to orange to red.
Visitors at Hawkins Preserve in Cortez are reminded to leave no trace. Dogs are welcome if they are leashed and polite, and owners must pick up after them. To climb, contact the Cortez Cultural Center and secure a permit.
