Geology

Stop 7 does not look like much from the ground, but photographs taken from the air show a different story. The Katepwa Fluting Field is composed of a series of parallel, curved ridges and grooves that were cut into the upper till of the Floral formation during the last ice age.

In the last ice age, as ice and water melted and flowed south, glaciers pushed along the field, leaving in their wake deep grooves that at some points measured 4 -5 metres deep. Since glaciation, about 3 metres of alluvium has been deposited in the grooves. Also, this area has been developed for farming and constant cultivation has changed the landscape, making the fluting less visible than it once was.

The plant species listed here were found near the Stop and from the roadside leading into the Qu'Appelle Valley, south of Stop 7.

Plant species found at stop 7:

Alfalfa	Long-headed coneflower	Spreading dogbane
Awned northern wheatgrass	Low goldenrod	Stiff goldenrod
Blue grama	Low prairie rose	Stinkweed
Blue lettuce	Manitoba maple	Trembling aspen
Bull thistle	Many-flowered aster	2-rowed barley
Canada thistle	Northern awnless brome	Water-parsnip
Common pepper-grass	Northern bedstraw	Western shining willlow
Crested wheatgrass	Northern wheatgrass	Western snowberry
Dandelion	Pasture sage	White sweet-clover
Flixweed	Pineappleweed	Wild bergamot
4-rowed barley	Prairie sage	Wild licorice
Foxtail barley	Purple prairie-clover	Wolfwillow or Silverberry
Graceful (Canada) goldenrod	Saskatoon	Wood's rose
Great-flowered gaillardia	Scarlet mallow	Yarrow
Gumweed	Silverleaf psoralea	Yellow goat's-beard
Hairy golden-aster	Smooth aster	Yellow sweet-clover
Harebell	Smooth brome
Lewis wild flax	Smooth fleabane