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.

Siberian elm ( Ulmus pumila) - native to Central Asia, eastern Siberia, Mongolia, Xizang (Tibet), northern China, India (northern Kashmir) and Korea. The Siberian Elm is usually a small to medium-sized, often bushy, tree growing to 10–20 metres (33–66 ft) tall, with a trunk up to 80 centimetres (31 in) d.b.h. [4] The leaves are deciduous in cold areas, but semi-evergreen in warmer climates, < 7 cm long and < 3 cm broad, with an oblique base and a coarsely serrated margin, changing from dark green to yellow in autumn.treed.b.h[4]leavesdeciduoussemi-evergreen

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

Also called Scots pine, is an introduced species in North America, brought here from Europe probably in colonial days. Although it is used for both pulpwood and sawlogs, its principal value in the United States appears to be as a Christmas tree, as an ornamental, and for erosion control. Needles are blue-green, and in bundles of two and about 2.5 – 5 cm long. Scotch Pine (Pinus sylvestris)

Red Cedar, Eastern Juniper, Red Juniper -Juniperus virginiana Rocky Mountain Juniper is a very hardy, fast growing upright juniper with a very pyramidal, columnar growth habit. Withstands drought & windy conditions better than most upright junipers.

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.

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

Locust Gleditsia triacanthos

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.

sourberry, skunkbush, and three-leaf sumac - Rhus trilobata It is native to the western half of Canada and the Western United States, from the Great Plains to California and south through Arizona extending into northern Mexico. It can be found from deserts to mountain peaks up to about 7,000 feet (2,100 m) in elevation.Western United StatesGreat PlainsCaliforniaArizonaMexico

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

Butter-and-eggs (Linaria vulgaris) is a species of toadflax (Linaria), native to most of Europe and northern Asia, from the United Kingdom south to Spain in the west, and east to eastern Siberia and western China. [4][5] It has also been introduced and is now common in North America [4][5]

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

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

Prickly pear (Opuntia phaeacantha) - Prickly pears typically grow with flat, rounded cladodes (also called platyclades) armed with two kinds of spines; large, smooth,cladodesspines fixed spines and small, hairlike prickles called glochids, that easily penetrate skin and detachglochids from the plant. Many types of prickly pears grow into dense, tangled structures.

Barrel cactus (Echinocactus )

Brome Grass ( Bromus sp.) Bromus (means Oats) is a large genus of the grass family (Poaceae). Estimates in the scientific literature of the number of species have ranged from 100 to 400, but plant taxonomists currently recognize around 160–170 species. They are commonly known as bromes, brome grasses, cheat grasses or chess grasses.

Blue Grama Grass (Bouteloua gracilis) a long-lived, warm-season, C4 perennial grass, native to North America. It is most commonly found from Alberta, Canada, east to Manitoba and south across the Rocky Mountains, Great Plains, and U.S. Midwest states to Mexico. Blue grama accounts for most of the net primary productivity in the shortgrass prairie of the central and southern Great Plains. It is a green or greyish, low-growing, drought-tolerant grass with limited maintenance

Animals Red-tailed hawk – Buteo jamaicensis Crow - Corvus sp. Magpie – Pica hudsonia American robin – Turdus migratorius English Sparrow – Passer domesticus House Finch – Carpodacus mexicanus

Animals Mule Deer- Odecoileus hemionus Red Fox – Vulpes vulpes Field Mouse – Mus musculus Racoon – Procyon lotor Rabbit – Lepus curpaeums Honey Bee – Apis dorsata

Animals aphids Water strider Dragonfly