Native Common Hops In The Wasatch Mountains

On my last trip into the Wasatch Mountains, the first thing I photographed was Common Hops near a creek in East Canyon, Morgan County.

Common Hops in the Wasatch Mountains – Nikon D500, f10, 1/2000, ISO 640, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light

I try to photograph Common Hops at least once a year; more often than not, I take images of them several times during the growing season.

Common Hops, or hops in general, are used in the beer brewing process. This species of hops, Humulus lupulus var. neomexicanus, is native to Utah and western North America. The hops I saw and learned to identify as a child growing up in Germany looked very much the same as these do.

Yes, as many of you can probably tell, I’ve been a nature geek pretty much my entire life.

Common Hops are climbing, perennial herbaceous plants that grow from rhizomes. I’ve always called hops a vine, but technically, they are a bine because of their downward-facing, stiff hairs that allow the hops to climb. The hops in my photograph were climbing on willows next to a creek.

What I didn’t know until I did more research on Common Hops is that hops are in the same family as hemp and marijuana and they diverged from Cannabis sativa over 20 million years ago. I’m always learning something new about the subjects I photograph.

I’ve held the female flower cones of hops in my hand, and they were very light. Almost weightless, actually.

Now that it has gotten cooler in the mountains, the hops will start to turn a burnt rusty color. I hope to photograph them again before I lose access to the hops because of snow closing my access to some of the roads.

Life is good. Hop to it!

Mia

Click here to see more of my flower, shrub and tree photos.