Columnist Susan Snyder: Book filled with outside information

Friday, March 30, 2001 | 9:04 a.m.

Susan Snyder's column appears Fridays, Sundays and Tuesdays. Reach her at snyder@lasvegassun.com or 259-4082.

Ah, spring.

The snuffling. The hacking. The wheezing.

And the wildflowers.

"This is going to be a good year for wildflowers," said Gail Marrs-Smith, a Bureau of Land Management botanist. "The eastern side of the county seems to be the best so far that I've seen."

And so we consider the options: Buy stock in Kleenex and succumb to what seems to be the worst year for allergies in recent memory. Or grab an extra hankie, pull on some hiking boots and frolic in the fluffgrass.

What's fluffgrass? Take a look at Page 12 of the new guidebook, "Red Rock Canyon Plants." There's a picture and a description of the "2- to 6-inch-tall, densely tufted bunchgrass" that "sometimes forms open mats on dry, rocky soils."

The 112-page book is packed with color photographs, succinct descriptions and interesting tidbits about the flora commonly found in Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area and the Mojave Desert region.

It's published by the Red Rock Canyon Interpretive Association and represents almost five years of research and filed work by its authors, Larry Clinesmith and Elsie Sellars.

Clinesmith is the nonprofit interpretive association's senior naturalist and a former Nevada state park ranger. Sellars is an expert from the Nevada Division of Fish and Wildlife. But she assures novice wildflower enthusiasts that this book is not for the experts.

"We were trying to target folks who don't have a lot of time outside," Sellars said.

The book costs $9.95 and is available in the gift shop out at Red Rock's visitor's center. From 2 to 4 p.m. Saturday, you can meet Clinesmith and Sellars and buy an autographed copy.

Marrs-Smith said this year's rainy winter made for a great spring to put this guide to work. The lower elevations of the Valley of Fire and around Lake Mead already are ablaze with wildflowers.

"There are whole hillsides of them out there," Marrs-Smith said of the open land around Mesquite. "It looks like the rolling hills of England out there."

The blooming will gradually ascend to higher elevations as the weather warms, she said. Areas over 4,000 feet should be in bloom by May, with Mount Charleston following suit in July and August, she added.

The new guide includes a glossary of plant words, a ruler printed inside the back cover and fits snugly in the back pocket of hiking shorts.

But most importantly, it arranges flowers and plants according to color. Finally, an answer for the age-old botanist's question, "What's that little red one?"

For that alone, Pat Williams is eternally grateful. Williams, of the interpretive association, says so many exchanges among Red Rock Canyon volunteers sound something like this:

"What's the name of that yellow flower?"

"Can you tell me more about it?"

"No. But it was yellow."

Trying to find the answer in those huge, nationally published plant tomes only further confuses the issue.

"The Mojave seems to get overlooked in some of the larger books," Sellars said.

But not anymore. Now you can get your fluffgrass and filaree, too (page 79. It's one of those little pink ones).