Castilleja 
A Publication of the Wyoming Native Plant Society 
October 2000 
Volume 19, No. 3 
In this issue: 
WNPS News 2 
Field Trip Reports 2 
Some Late Cretaceous Conifers of Wyoming . . 4 
Noteworthy Discoveries 7 
Beating Around the Bush, Jr 8 
In Quotes 8 
Fossil Leaf from Late Cretaceous 
deposits at Big Cedar Ridge in the 
southeastern Bighorn Basin, south of Tensleep, 
Wyoming. This remarkable fossil site contains over 
80 species of ferns, monocots, dicots, and conifers 
(see article on page 4) and provides a window on a 
vastly different flora of Wyoming 65-75 million 
years ago. The identification of such fossils is 
made difficult by uncertainties about their 
relationship to modern families and genera. This 
leaf has been interpreted as an ancient maple (Acer 
cretaceum), or possibly a gooseberry, raspberry, or 
some other “rosaceous” species. Illustration by 
Gretchen Hurley. 
