Holodiscus discolor, July 20, 2022
Same
Common & scientific name
Oceanspray, Holodiscus discolor
Family
Rose, Rosaceae
Location
Weller Lake, 9,600’
Fun, weird, helpful, or little known fact
This drought-tolerant, quickly-growing shrub loves the Pass’s lower roadside and other areas. And if you guessed it was in the rose family, you are a better botanist than me!
Oreochrysum parryi, July 20, 2022
O. parryi, Linkins Lake trail, 11,800’, July 26, 2022
Common & scientific name
Parry’s goldenrod, Oreochrysum parryi
Family
Sunflower, Asteraceae
Location
Weller Lake, 9,600’
Fun, weird, helpful, or little known fact
For many years this flower was in the Solidago (goldenrod) genus, and it certainly looks a great deal like our Solidago multiradiata or S. simplex—just bigger. The flower heads are bigger, its leaves are wider and longer, and its phyllaries and bracts are leaf-like (aka bigger!)
Galium aparine, July 20, 2022
Common & scientific name
Cleavers, Galium aparine
Family
Madder, Rubiaceae
Location
Weller Trail, 9,500’
Fun, weird, helpful, or little known fact
The name cleavers means "to cling," in this case by hooked hairs on both this plant’s leaves and seeds. This is one of the rare annuals found on the Pass.
Pyrola chlorantha, July 20, 2022
P. chlorantha, Weller Lake area, 9,700’, July 20, 2022
Common & scientific name
Green-flowered wintergreen, Pyrola chlorantha
Family
Wintergreen, Pyrolaceae
Location
Weller Lake, 9,700’
Fun, weird, helpful, or little known fact
This circumboreal wntergreen is much less common in our woods than P. asarifolia or Orthilla secunda. Grows in drier places, and its style is slightly curved.
Senecio serra, July 20, 2022
S. serra, same
Common & scientific name
Tall ragwort, Senecio serra
Family
Sunflower, Asteraceae
Location
Weller, 9,500’
Fun, weird, helpful, or little known fact
Could be confused with Senecio triangularis, but its edges are much more finely serrated, its leaves aren’t widest at the base (creating a “triangle” shape in S. triangularis), and its much less common on the Pass than S. triangularis. It also doesn’t need as much water as the other, and grows mostly in the montane zone.
Conioselinum scopulorum, July 19, 2022
Common & scientific name
Hemlock parsley, Conioselinum scopulorum
Family
Parsley, Apiaceae
Location
Linkins Lake, 12,000’
Fun, weird, helpful, or little known fact
The sheath on the single stem leave midway up the plant is the defining feature of this uncommon, water-loving parsley. I PRESUME it’s poisonous owing to its name, but can’t find info one way or the other (?)
Solidago simplex, July 19, 2022
Common & scientific name
Dwarf goldenrod, Solidago simplex
Family
Sunflower, Asteraceae
Location
Linkins Lake, 12,000’
Fun, weird, helpful, or little known fact
The only sure-fire method of distinguishing this from the similar-looking Solidago multiradiata is to look at the petioles (the leaf stems) on its lower leaves to see if they are strongly ciliate-margined (have hairs sticking straight out on their edges, and if their outer phyllaries are shorter than the inner (imbricate: overlapping like shingles on a roof. The answer to the first is no, the second yes, differentiating it from S. multiradiata. It CAN hybridize with S. multiradiata, though . . .
Delphinium barbeyi, July 19, 2022
Common & scientific name
Subalpine larkspur, Delphinium barbeyi
Family
Buttercup, Ranunculaceae
Location
Linkins Lake Trail, 11,600’
Fun, weird, helpful, or little known fact
A giant of the subalpine, look for it growing over six feet tall near monkshood, bluebells, cow parsnip, and triangle-leaved senecio. “Delphinium” is from the Latin “delphinus” meaning dolphin. With a little imagination, its spike of purple flowers looks like a pod of swimming dolphins.
Bistorta vivipara, July 19, 2022
B. vivipara, post flowering, bulblets only, Linkins Lake, 12,000’, July 26, 2022
Common & scientific name
Alpine bistort, Bistorta vivipara
Family
Buckwheat, Polygonaceae
Location
Linkins Lake , 12,000’
Fun, weird, helpful, or little known fact
"Vivipara" is Latin for "brings forth alive.” A viviparous plant reproduces from buds that form plantlets while still attached to the parent plant. In the case of Bistorta vivipara, little red bulblets are produced below and next to its small, white flowers.
B. vivipara, Wet Gulch, 12,400’, August 5, 2022
Chamerion angustifolium, July 16, 2022
C. angustifolium, above Linkins Lake, 12,300’, August 23, 2022
Leaves turning, North Fork Lake Creek, 10,800’, September 3, 2022
Common & scientific name
Fireweed, Chamerion angustifolium
Family
Evening primrose, Onagraceae
Location
Roadside, 9,400’
Fun, weird, helpful, or little known fact
Fireweed, Chamerion angustifolium, is a native plant that grows head-high and produces dozens of lavish, magenta, four-petaled flowers. Each flower produces up to 500 seeds, resulting in tens of thousands of seeds per plant. Aided by a tuft of long hairs, each of those seeds can go airborne and establish rapidly.
One of the coolest things I learned about Fireweed from the US Forest Service’s fire studies is that Fireweed seed hairs, or “plumes,” respond to humidity. Increased humidity causes a decreased plume diameter, which results in reduced loft. This increases the chance that seeds get deposited in places with moisture adequate for germination—how smart is that?
By contrast, robustly-plumed seeds can stay airborne for 10 or more hours, allowing the seeds to travel over 100 miles during that time—even smarter!
In case that fails, Fireweed can reproduce not only by pollination, but by rhizomes, underground stems that put out lateral shoots. This is how it reproduces so well following major disturbance events like fires and avalanches. It can even survive volcanic eruptions: one year after the Mount St. Helens explosion, 81% of seeds collected in seed traps were Fireweed seeds.
Maybe, though, one of the loveliest things about fireweed is its modesty; its understanding of the role it plays. Namely, it tends to achieve peak dominance within a limited number of years after a disturbance. In spruce-fir forests like those in our area, Fireweed may be dominant for up to 10 years after a fire or avalanche, but it will decline in numbers in the face of competing vegetation, and as the forest canopy closes.
In other words, in time Fireweed will recede and allow the wildflowers you’ve grown to know and love in Grizzly, or on Basalt Mountain, or up Conundrum Creek, start to reemerge.
Gone to seed, Lincoln Gulch Campground, 9,500’, September 16, 2022
Senecio eremophilus, July 16, 2022
S. eremophilus, Grottos 9,700’, July 28, 2022
Common & scientific name
Cutleaf groundsel, Senecio eremophilus
Family
Sunflower, Asteraceae
Location
Weller Curve, 9,400’
Fun, weird, helpful, or little known fact
Owing to its tall size, much-branched and leafy appearance, and deeply cut leaves, this Senecio is easy to tell apart from its many cousins. It is rarely seen on the Pass, most commonly roadside.
Trifolium hybridum, July 16, 2022
Common & scientific name
Alsike clover, Trifolium hybridum
Family
Pea, Fabaceae
Location
Roadside, 10,500’
Fun, weird, helpful, or little known fact
Despite its scientific name, alsike clover is not a hybrid. Its common name comes from the town of Alsike in Sweden, where Carl Linnaeus thought it was a cross between white clover (T. repens) and red clover (T. pratense): in fact, it is its own species.
Senecio amplectens var. holmii, July 16, 2022
Common & scientific name
Holmes’ alpine ragwort, Senecio amplectens var. holmii
Family
Sunflower, Asteraceae
Location
Mountain Boy, 12,000’
Fun, weird, helpful, or little known fact
A smaller variation of the taller, scragglier alpine ragwort, with purple phyllaries, seen higher in the alpine on loose dirt or scree.
Draba uniflora, July 16, 2022
Common & scientific names
One-flowered cinquefoil, Potentilla uniflora
Family
Rose, Rosaceae
Location
Mountain Boy, 12,600’
Fun, weird, helpful, or little known facts
This exclusively alpine potentillas three-parted leaves white/hairy above and even more so below, and its flowers look large in comparison to its leaves. There is substantial confusion/flux around a number of potentillas, including this one—should it be included in P. nivea, for example?— and they do tend to hybridize. But for now most experts seem to agree this cinquefoil is properly classified. And to this observer, it appears quite distinct from the taller, more common, and differently-leaved P. nivea (whose leaves are distinctly greener on top).
Draba streptobrachia, July 16, 2022
Common & scientific name
Alpine tundra draba, Draba streptobrachia
Family
Mustard, Brassicaceae
Location
Mountain Boy, 12,600’
Fun, weird, helpful, or little known fact
This uncommon Draba’s names, common and scientific, say it all: found only on high peaks, and sporting twisted siliques (seed pods): see photos below. To tell this Draba apart from the others: leaves and stem have variable, star-shaped, dendritic, and/or pectinate hair, fairly sessile (not long stalked), not usually dense (but this, too is variable). Its siliques are largely glabrous but with some hairs on the edges. It can have 1-3 leaves on its stems. The stem is (more) densely hairy (generally) than the leaves.
Silene uralensis, July 16, 2022
Same as above
Common & scientific name
Apetalous campion, Silene uralensis
Family
Pink, Caryophyllaceae
Location
Mountain Boy, 12,600’
Fun, weird, helpful, or little known fact
Ackerman says this alpine plant is “uncommon,” and indeed I have never seen (or noticed) it before, and standing over 6” tall in rocky scree among much shorter-statured flowers, I would have thought I would have noticed it by now! Nonetheless, here it is, thrilling to see and undoubtedly now that I’m looking for it, I will see it again (and again).
As the photos show, it has a highly inflated calyx with 10 prominent purple veins and a barely-emerging (in this case white) flower. Very akin to its low-lying brethren, Silene hitchguirei/kingii, Alpine lanterns, which I’ve found on only a handful of occasions, as well. Indeed, according to the Flora of North America website, “some collections from the southern Rocky Mountains (Colorado and Utah) appear to intergrade with S. kingii in having a narrow wing to the seeds.”
Saxifraga chrysantha, July 16, 2022
Same as above
Common & scientific name
Golden saxifrage, Saxifraga chrysantha
Family
Saxifrage, Saxifragaceae
Location
Mountain Boy, 12,600’
Fun, weird, helpful, or little known fact
A single yellow flower with orange dots at the base of its petals sits atop a 2”-3” red stem covered with gland-tipped hairs (as can be seen in this photo) arising from a sweet little rosette of succulent leaves. Yet another jewel of the alpine! It does not have the red runners of its close cousin, Saxifraga flagellaris.
Chaenactis douglasii var. alpina, July 16, 2022
Common & scientific name
Alpine dusty maiden, Chaenactis douglasii var. alpina
Family
Aster, Asteraceae
Location
Mountain Boy, 11,500’
Fun, weird, helpful, or little known fact
Rayless, with pistils and stamens protruding around and beyond the white disk flowers, this decidedly odd, unmistakeable, and uncommon plant is always a delight to find.
Penstemon harbourii, July 16, 2022
Common & scientific name
Harbour’s penstemon, Penstemon harbourii
Family
Plantain, Plantaginaceae
Location
Mountain Boy, 12,600’
Fun, weird, helpful, or little known fact
This one must be earned! Found only in Colorado, only in high talus fields, and only in a few spots on the Pass, this beautiful beardtongue is worth the climb and the search.
Senecio soldanella, July 16, 2022
Same as above
Common & scientific name
Colorado ragwort, Senecio soldanella
Family
Sunflower, Asteraceae
Location
Mountain Boy, 12,900’
Fun, weird, helpful, or little known fact
One of our only flowers with (often) all-purple leaves, this unmistakeable oddity grows only in alpine scree and only in Colorado, save one high area of New Mexico near Taos. Take pride in this Colorado native!