When funny botanists become rhapsodic: a touching ode to another rare Utah plant, Caesalpinia repens. To quote a particularly poignant stretch of verse:
Oh Caesalpinia repens!
You are so beautiful, and so rare
With your little bird of paradise flowers.
And so imperiled at a G2 rating
Your pinnate leaves unfurl in only 5 Utah counties
So beautifully that Stan Welsh called you a
“striking plant in the light of early morning”
Oh Bureau of Land Management!
You are such a wonderful government agency.
A bureau so nice and careful and smart.
You treat your valuable little plants so well
Like when you closed the overused camping area
And moved it across the road
To where the rare little Caesalpinias are.
The blog at Pronghorns.net doesn’t seem to be posted to much anymore, and it is a bit academic, but it’s loaded with gems like this.