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| Bos grunniens |
What sheep and goats are to the Mediterranean and much of Western Asia, yaks are to Tibet. The ubiquitous mowers of the countryside, nibbling almost everything to the nubbins...
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| Yak statues on Mi La Pass today (July 9, 2019) in the snow at 5000 m. |
That said, they are a large part of the economy and food chain of the Tibetan people, who simply can't have enough of them! They are celebrated in almost every large town with monumental statues (including a string of golden yaks in the river flowing through Lhasa I didn't have time to photograph).
For miles and miles we drove through virtually flowerless fields that were cropped low...until Hans noticed bright color: in between cultivated fields, a little strip of ungrazed riparian meadow persisted: literally dozens of plants that likely grew elsewhere once were here in profusion!
There were several species of
Pedicularis,
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| Pedicularis longiflora |
I am especially fond of the little single flowered species like this yellow one we saw again and again elsewhere.
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This enchanting
Aster, probably allied to
Aster alpinus.
The queen of the meadow was an orchid that resembles
Dactylorhiza, but doesn't seem to match up with any in our references. Dozens of these were scattered hither and yon..
There were several species of gentian, and many kinds of Fabaceae--too many to show right here and now...
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Delphinium kamaonense and Harry Jans, leader of the wonderful trip to Tibet. More on HIM later...
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This delphinium is what first caught our eye and made us stop--and this would likely survive the yaks since it's poisonous...
One little strip of heaven after untold miles of overgrazing. This isn't a story of Tibet--the same can be said of the American Midwest, most of lowland Europe and much of the so-called civilized world where cities, farms and disturbance have eliminated the rich bounty of wild flowers.
What cost progress? I say "too high a cost".
