Plains or Broadleaf Cottonwood Populus sargentii The Plains or broadleaf cottonwood is also the largest broadleaf tree of Colorado, New Mexico, and Wyoming. This tree grows from the eastern plains to 6500 feet in elevation, and possibly higher in canyons of the eastern slope of Colorado.

Narrowleaf Cottonwood The Narrowleaf can grow to 60 feet in height and 3 feet trunk diameter, but rarely is more than 2 feet in diameter. The branches tend to be more erect than the spreading thick limbs of the Plains cottonwood. The branches of the Narrowleaf cottonwood are more slender than those of Plains cottonwood, often with smooth pale bark, while the Plains cottonwood has gray furrowed bark right out to the twigs. Populus angustifolia

The Quaking Aspen of the Rocky Mountains Populus tremuloides Aspen is the distinctive slender broadleaf tree of the Rocky Mountain mountain forests, renowned for its golden autumn foliage. It grows in locations from 6500 to feet in elevation, usually in groves, often in moist sites, and can reach treeline. Aspen sprouts will shoot up from roots quickly and vigorously in cut or burned areas, and Aspen is one of the important pioneer species in the Rocky Mountains.

Ponderosa Pine Ponderosa pine is one of the best-known trees of the American West, and covers a more extensive area than any other American cone-bearing tree. Pinus ponderosa

Pinyon pine Pinus edulis Pinyon-juniper woodlands are one of the most common forests in the arid west. Widespread across parts of Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona, Utah, Nevada, and California, the pinyon - juniper woodlands cover 150,000 square miles, an area larger than the state of Colorado

Sandbar Willow It is a deciduous shrub reaching 4–7 meters in height, spreading by root sprouts to form dense clonal colonies. The leaves are narrow lanceolate, 4–12 cm long and 2–10 mm broad, green, to grayish with silky white hairs at least when young; the margin is entire or with a few irregular, widely spaced small teeth. Willows always occur near or in water and thus are an important riparian species.

Virginia Creeper Parthenocissus quinquefolia Virginia creeper or five-leaved ivy (Parthenocissus quinquefolia) is a woody vine native to eastern and central North America, in southeastern Canada, the eastern and central United States. It is an exotic species in Colorado.

Locust Gleditsia triacanthos

Asteraceae-the sunflower family Erigeron sp. Sunflower The structure commonly referred to as the flower head is a agglomeration of many small flowers.

Woolly or Common Mullein It is a hairy biennial plant that can grow to 2 m or more tall. Its small yellow flowers are densely grouped on the tall stem, which bolts from a large rosette of leaves. It grows in a wide variety of habitats, but prefers well-lit disturbed soils, where it can appear soon after the ground receives light, from long-lived seeds that persist in the soil seed bank. Verbascum thapsus

Russian Olive Elaeagnus angustifolia It is a usually thorny shrub or small tree growing to 5-7 m in height. Its stems, buds, and leaves have a dense covering of silvery to rusty scales. The leaves are alternate, lanceolate, 4-9 cm long and cm broad, with a smooth marginshrubtreeleaves

Thistle Thistle is the common name of a group of flowering plants characterised by leaves with sharp prickles on the margins, mostly in the plant family Asteraceaeflowering plantsleavesAsteraceae

Animals

aphids