{"id":115686,"date":"2023-09-06T04:46:51","date_gmt":"2023-09-06T10:46:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/?p=115686"},"modified":"2023-09-06T05:20:13","modified_gmt":"2023-09-06T11:20:13","slug":"native-common-hops-in-the-wasatch-mountains","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2023\/09\/06\/native-common-hops-in-the-wasatch-mountains\/","title":{"rendered":"Native Common Hops In The Wasatch Mountains"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>On my last trip into the Wasatch Mountains, the first thing I photographed was Common Hops near a creek in East Canyon, Morgan County.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"lazyload aligncenter wp-image-115682 size-full\" title=\"Common Hops in the Wasatch Mountains\" src=\"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/Common-Hops-Morgan-County-mia-mcpherson-8938.jpg\" data-orig-src=\"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/Common-Hops-Morgan-County-mia-mcpherson-8938.jpg\" alt=\"Common Hops in the Wasatch Mountains, Morgan County, Utah\" width=\"900\" height=\"643\" srcset=\"data:image\/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20xmlns%3D%27http%3A%2F%2Fwww.w3.org%2F2000%2Fsvg%27%20width%3D%27900%27%20height%3D%27643%27%20viewBox%3D%270%200%20900%20643%27%3E%3Crect%20width%3D%27900%27%20height%3D%27643%27%20fill-opacity%3D%220%22%2F%3E%3C%2Fsvg%3E\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/Common-Hops-Morgan-County-mia-mcpherson-8938-200x143.jpg 200w, https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/Common-Hops-Morgan-County-mia-mcpherson-8938-250x179.jpg 250w, https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/Common-Hops-Morgan-County-mia-mcpherson-8938-300x214.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/Common-Hops-Morgan-County-mia-mcpherson-8938-400x286.jpg 400w, https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/Common-Hops-Morgan-County-mia-mcpherson-8938-600x429.jpg 600w, https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/Common-Hops-Morgan-County-mia-mcpherson-8938-768x549.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/Common-Hops-Morgan-County-mia-mcpherson-8938-800x572.jpg 800w, https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/Common-Hops-Morgan-County-mia-mcpherson-8938.jpg 900w\" data-sizes=\"auto\" data-orig-sizes=\"(max-width: 900px) 100vw, 900px\" \/><span style=\"color: #808080;\">Common Hops in the Wasatch Mountains \u2013 Nikon D500, f10, 1\/2000, ISO 640, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n<p>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.<\/p>\n<p>Common Hops, or hops in general, are used in the beer brewing process. This species of hops, <em>Humulus lupulus var. neomexicanus<\/em>, 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.<\/p>\n<p>Yes, as many of you can probably tell, I&#8217;ve been a nature geek pretty much my entire life.<\/p>\n<p>Common Hops are climbing, perennial herbaceous plants that grow from rhizomes. I&#8217;ve always called hops a vine, but technically, they are a <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Bine\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">bine<\/span><\/a> 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.<\/p>\n<p>What I didn&#8217;t know until I did more research on <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Humulus_lupulus\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Common Hops<\/span><\/a> is that hops are in the same family as hemp and marijuana and they diverged from Cannabis sativa over 20 million years ago. I&#8217;m always learning something new about the subjects I photograph.<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;ve held the female flower cones of hops in my hand, and they were very light. Almost weightless, actually.<\/p>\n<p>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.<\/p>\n<p>Life<em> is<\/em> good. Hop to it!<\/p>\n<p>Mia<\/p>\n<p>Click <a href=\"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/flower-and-tree-images\/\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">here<\/span><\/a> to see more of my flower, shrub and tree photos.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>On my last trip into the Wasatch Mountains, the first thing I photographed was Common Hops near a creek in East Canyon, Morgan County.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":115682,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5921,4594,26,773],"tags":[14327,3940,5873,14323,14326,13260,14325,14324,14328,6583,4069,4302,2291,2315,11722,261],"class_list":["post-115686","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-east-canyon","category-morgan-county","category-utah","category-wasatch-mountains","tag-bine","tag-canyon","tag-climbing","tag-common-hops","tag-flowering-vine","tag-herbaceous","tag-hops","tag-humulus-lupulus","tag-humulus-lupulus-var-neomexicanus","tag-leaves","tag-mountains","tag-native","tag-perennial","tag-summer-3","tag-vine","tag-wild"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/Common-Hops-Morgan-County-mia-mcpherson-8938.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p11Mom-u5U","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":89095,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2021\/05\/26\/spring-male-american-goldfinch\/","url_meta":{"origin":115686,"position":0},"title":"Spring Male American Goldfinch","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"May 26, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"Yesterday I photographed this male American Goldfinch and thought about how he is as bright as the dandelions that are blooming now in the mountains.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;American Goldfinches&quot;","block_context":{"text":"American Goldfinches","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/finches-and-allies\/american-goldfinches\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Spring male American Goldfinch, Wasatch Mountains, Summit County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/american-goldfinch-male-spring-mia-mcpherson-0680.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/american-goldfinch-male-spring-mia-mcpherson-0680.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/american-goldfinch-male-spring-mia-mcpherson-0680.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/american-goldfinch-male-spring-mia-mcpherson-0680.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":92845,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2021\/08\/02\/blooming-common-mullein-images\/","url_meta":{"origin":115686,"position":1},"title":"Blooming Common Mullein Images","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"August 2, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"Two days ago in between taking Willow Flycatcher photos\u00a0 in the Wasatch Mountains I took blooming Common Mullein images because they were nearby.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Hunt's Bumble Bees&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Hunt's Bumble Bees","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/wildlife\/hunts-bumble-bees\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Common Mullein and two bumble bees, Wasatch Mountains, Morgan County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/common-mullein-bumble-bees-and-ant-mia-mcpherson-1689.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/common-mullein-bumble-bees-and-ant-mia-mcpherson-1689.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/common-mullein-bumble-bees-and-ant-mia-mcpherson-1689.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/common-mullein-bumble-bees-and-ant-mia-mcpherson-1689.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":94403,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2021\/09\/03\/western-honey-bee-and-common-mullein-photos\/","url_meta":{"origin":115686,"position":2},"title":"Western Honey Bee And Common Mullein Photos","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"September 3, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"Both Common Mullein and the Western Honey Bee are introduced, non-native species yet I can't resist photographing them when given the opportunity.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Honey Bees&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Honey Bees","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/wildlife\/honey-bees\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Western Honey Bee gathering pollen from a Common Mullein, Wasatch Mountains, Morgan County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/western-honeybee-mullein-mia-mcpherson-6423.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/western-honeybee-mullein-mia-mcpherson-6423.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/western-honeybee-mullein-mia-mcpherson-6423.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/western-honeybee-mullein-mia-mcpherson-6423.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":93236,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2021\/08\/13\/blooming-common-sunflower-with-an-ant\/","url_meta":{"origin":115686,"position":3},"title":"Blooming Common Sunflower With An Ant","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"August 13, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"I photographed some birds yesterday morning in the Wasatch Mountains but it was the blooming Common Sunflower with an ant that made me smile the most when I saw it on my screen.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Morgan County&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Morgan County","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/locations\/utah\/morgan-county\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Blooming Common Sunflower and an ant, Wasatch Mountains, Morgan County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/common-sunflower-and-ant-mia-mcpherson-4653.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/common-sunflower-and-ant-mia-mcpherson-4653.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/common-sunflower-and-ant-mia-mcpherson-4653.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/common-sunflower-and-ant-mia-mcpherson-4653.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":94136,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2021\/08\/28\/black-capped-chickadee-photos-foraging-in-common-mulleins\/","url_meta":{"origin":115686,"position":4},"title":"Black-capped Chickadee Photos &#8211; Foraging in Common Mulleins","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"August 28, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"Two days ago I was able to spend a few minutes taking Black-capped Chickadee photos as small flock of them foraged in Common Mulleins.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Birds&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Black-capped Chickadee and Common Mulleins, Wasatch Mountains, Morgan County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/black-capped-chickadee-mullein-mia-mcpherson-6519.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/black-capped-chickadee-mullein-mia-mcpherson-6519.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/black-capped-chickadee-mullein-mia-mcpherson-6519.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/black-capped-chickadee-mullein-mia-mcpherson-6519.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":53569,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2018\/08\/13\/black-capped-chickadees-photographed-in-a-mountain-canyon\/","url_meta":{"origin":115686,"position":5},"title":"Black-capped Chickadees Photographed In A Mountain Canyon","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"August 13, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"I spent some time yesterday morning observing, photographing and enjoying the songs and calls of Black-capped Chickadees in a high mountain canyon. Chickadees always bring a smile to my lips and yesterday was no exception.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Birds&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Black-capped Chickadee about to take flight, Wasatch Mountains, Morgan County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/black-capped-chickadee-taking-flight-mia-mcpherson-4428.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/black-capped-chickadee-taking-flight-mia-mcpherson-4428.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/black-capped-chickadee-taking-flight-mia-mcpherson-4428.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/black-capped-chickadee-taking-flight-mia-mcpherson-4428.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115686","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=115686"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115686\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/115682"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=115686"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=115686"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=115686"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}