Page 8 - Walks In The Black Range, Vol. 4

9. The stream bottom is quite wide at times, making for easy walking if you lose the trail.
10. Alligator Juniper, Juniperus deppenana, can contort into beautiful forms as it ages (photo- graph on following page). It can be especially tenacious, holding on to life when most of their bark has been ripped away by lightening, fire, or flood.
8. Ptelea trifoliata, Hoptree, grows along the trail by the stream (photos directly above and to the right). The white dots which are visible on the leaf, in the detail to the right, are called “pellucid dots”. They contain aromatic oils. Although Hoptree (a.k.a. Stinking Ash and Wafer Ash) can grow to 16’, most of the plants we saw were small shrubs. Its fruit is about the size of a thumbnail, flat (with the seed in the center), and “papery”, at times they have been used as a substitute for hops.