The tundra's closing act

Gentiana algida, August 6, 2020

Common & scientific name
Arctic gentian, Gentiana algida

Family
Gentian, Gentianaceae

Location
Lost Man Lake, 12,500’

Fun, weird, helpful, or little known fact
One of our loveliest and latest-blooming alpine flowers. Its delicate, whitish, almost see-through petals are decorated with purple lines and tiny spots.  Its thick rosette of long, green leaves comes out a month or more before the flower.  It can be found on dry alpine ground where only a few hearty flowers remain.  See this jewel of a gentian and kiss summer on the tundra goodbye!

A first-time daisy!

Erigeron divergens, August 4, 2020

Common & scientific name
Spreading fleabane or daisy, Erigeron divergens

Family
Sunflower, Asteraceae

Location
Roadside, 9,300’

Fun, weird, helpful, or little known fact
A densely hairy, late-blooming, highly-branching (hence the name) Erigeron rarely seen on the Pass (this being my first time, actually!)   This plant was found just below the Lincoln Creek turnoff, roadside. 

Three families want this one

Parnassia fimbriata, August 4, 2020

P. fimbriata, August 4, 2020

Common & scientific name
Fringed Grass of Parnassus, Parnassia fimbriata

Family
Saxifrage, Saxifragaceae, Staff Tree, Celastraceae, or Parnassus, Parnassiaceae

Location
Roadside, 10,700’

Fun, weird, helpful, or little known fact
This bright white, late-blooming, water-loving flower is always a delight to find, often in roadside ditches where orchids and elephanthead bloomed earlier.  Its petals are fringed at the base, and its leaves heart-shaped.  While the family it belongs to is in dispute (or in transition may be a better way to put it), its delicate beauty is not!  

A world beater

Medicago sativa, August 4, 2020

Common & scientific name
Alfalfa, Medicago sativa

Family
Pea, Fabaceae

Location
Roadside, 8,200’

Fun, weird, helpful, or little known fact
A quick history of this common roadside, and agriculturally cultivated, plant: 

“Alfalfa originated in southwestern Asia, was first cultivated in Iran, and now has a worldwide distribution due to its popularity as an agricultural species.  It was introduced into the United States in 1736 in Georgia, but it was not until around 1850 that it began to be more widely planted.  It is planted in all 50 states and is widely planted in Canada.  It is naturalized in many areas.”

USFS, FEIS website

M. sativa, roadside, August 4, 2020

Ranunculus redux

Ranunculus alismifolius, July 30, 2020

Common & scientific name
Plantainleaf buttercup, Ranunculus alismifolius

Family
Buttercup, Ranunculaceae

Location
Linkins Lake, 12,000’

Fun, weird, helpful, or little known fact
This buttercup is—can I say it?—fairly non-descript, with long, skinny, hairless leaves and stems and small yellow flowers.  It grows primarily in wet meadows and on the edges of ponds and streams.

Lakeside hemlock

Conioselinum scopulorum, July 30, 2020

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—see photo below) is the defining feature of this uncommon, water-loving parsley. PRESUME it’s poisonous owing to its name, but can’t find info one way or the other (?)

C. scopulorum, July 23, 2020

Deep purple

Gentianopsis thermalis, July 30, 2020

Common & scientific name
Rocky Mountain fringed gentian, Gentianopsis thermalis

Family
Gentian, Gentianaceae

Location
Linkins Lake, 12,000’

Fun, weird, helpful, or little known fact
This delightful, widespread gentian (think roadside ditches) has four spiraling, delicately-fringed, deep-bluish-purple petals. “Thermalis” refers to the thermal pools of Yellowstone, where this gentian is particularly abundant and has been designated the park’s official flower.

G. thermalis, August 13, 2020

A ragwort never looked so good

Senecio fremontii, July 30, 2020

S. fremontii, August 6, 2020

Common & scientific name
Dwarf mountain ragwort, Senecio fremontii

Family
Sunflower, Asteraceae

Location
Geissler 3, 12,500’

Fun, weird, helpful, or little known fact
This mostly alpine plants grows up to a foot high in rounded clumps in and around rock fields and boulders. Its leaves are succulent and sharply toothed.  It is always a joy and an encouragement, somehow, to see dwarf mountain ragwort on a high mountain climb!

A summer star

Swertia perennis, August 7, 2020

Common & scientific name
Star gentian, Swertia perennis

Family
Gentian, Gentianaceae

Location
Tabor Creek, 11,800’

Fun, weird, helpful, or little known fact
After the oh-so-different green gentian, which grows 3-6’ tall and blooms midsummer, this is often the first purple gentian to bloom, and marks the beginning of the end of wildflower season.  Always found in wet meadows, star gentian, with its soft-purple coloring and pointed petals, can be found as a singular treat or in the company of dozens.  It is a poignant reminder of the nearing end of summer—enjoy it fully!

S. perennis, August 24, 2020

Bee kind

Melilotus officinalis, July 30, 2020

Common & scientific name
Yellow sweetclover, Melilotus officinalis

Family
Pea, Fabaceae

Location
Roadside up to 9,800’

Fun, weird, helpful, or little known fact
Yes, this is the same yellow-flowered plant you see growing 3 feet high by the side of the road seemingly everywhere.  It stabilizes soil, fixes nitrogen, doesn’t mind roadsides or other disturbed places, and is loved by bees.  These are its positive traits.  It is also, as you can tell by its abundance, invasive and can potentially crowd out (or at least hide) native species.  Thankfully I have not seen it creep up or downslope beyond roadside, where the bees have plenty to choose from!

Lupine at last!

Lupinus parviflorus, July 30, 2020

Common & scientific name
Lodgepole lupine, Lupinus parviflorus

Family
Pea, Fabaceae

Location
Independence ghost town, 10,800’

Fun, weird, helpful, or little known fact
I kind of can’t believe I’m just writing about lupine now, at the end of July, after it’s been abundant throughout the Roaring  Fork Valley for months.  I probably just haven’t been in the right place at the right time, but this is honestly the first lupine I’ve seen this year, roadside, across from the ghost town.  Lodgepole lupine (hey—it was right below the lodgepole plantation!) has a narrow, densely-packed spike of small purple flowers, and skinny leaves that curl in on each other and are smooth on top and hairy (straight and appressed) on the back.  

Telltale turions

Epilobium hornemannii, July 30, 2020

Common & scientific name
Hornemann’s and Rocky Mountain willowherb, Epilobium hornemannii & saximontanum

Family
Evening primrose, Onagraceae

Location
Linkins Lake Trail, 11,500’

Fun, weird, helpful, or little known fact
Willowherbs are notoriously difficult to identify, as they often interbreed, are individually variable, and just plain look alike.  The only way I could be certain that the two plants in this post were distinct was by uprooting them and checking for turions, little fleshy bulbs attached to the base of the stem.  Rocky Mountain willowherb has them, Hornemann’s doesn’t.  I have only done this once (sacrificed these willowherbs for ID purposes), and won’t again.  Narrowing it down to “willowherb” is close enough!

E. saximontanum, July 30, 2020

The end is nigh . . .

Heliomerus multiflora, July 28, 2020

Common & scientific name
Showy goldeneye, Heliomeris multiflora

Family
Sunflower, Asteraceae

Location
Roadside, 9,500’

Fun, weird, helpful, or little known fact
Grows from the foothills to the subalpine, and is most often seen roadside on the lower portion of Independence Pass.  The penultimate sunflower (“helios” means “sun”), it is a favorite of bees, both sweat and bumble.  It is considered a late summer flower—and is blooming in July!  (Hint: don’t wait to see the flower show this summer—it will end early.)

Name this flower and win!

Senecio/Ligularia pudica (maybe), July 28, 2020

Common & scientific name
Skinny little ragwort, Senecio/Ligularia pudica (?)

Family
Sunflower, Asteraceae

Location
Roadside, 9,800’

Fun, weird, helpful, or little known fact
I cannot find this flower ANYWHERE except, potentially, Weber and Wittmann’s Colorado Flora, Western Slope, Third Edition, the single most authoritative treatment of Colorado flowering plants.  Because Bill and Ron don’t stoop to photos, or common names, I’m unsure of my ID, and have chosen to name it, in the absence of contrary (or any other) information, "Skinny little ragwort.”

Greenland's national flower

Chamerion latifolium, July 28, 2020

Common & scientific name
Dwarf fireweed, Chamerion latifolium

Family
Evening primrose, Onagraceae

Location
Grottos, 9,700

Fun, weird, helpful, or little known fact
Smaller plant and larger flowers than its close cousin, Chamerion angustifolium, and won’t be found roadside but rather creekside.  It is the national flower of Greenland: good choice, Greenland!

Doh! (Descurainia duo)

Descurainia incisa, July 28, 2020

Descurainia incana, July 30, 2020

Common & scientific name
Mountain tansymustard, Descurainia incisa & D. incana

Family
Mustard, Brassicaceae

Location
Roadside, 9,600

Fun, weird, helpful, or little known fact
Tansymustards try the patience of even the most careful botanists.  They are all gangly, weedy-looking, tiny-yellow-flowered plants (leading to difficulty caring too much) that not only look alike but vary so much within their own species that you can’t count on certain attributes to distinguish them.  As Flora of North America says about D. incisa:

“Plants glandular or eglandular, not canescent. Basal leaves: lateral lobes (3-)5-9 pairs, margins usually coarsely dentate to incised, rarely crenate or pinnatifid. Cauline leaves: lobes oblong to lanceolate, margins dentate to denticulate. Racemes glandular or eglandular. Fruiting pedicels ascending to divaricate, (3-)5-10(-12) mm. Fruits straight or curved inward.”

Clear as mud?  So I’m calling the first photo Descurainia incisa, but honestly, your guess is as good as mine!

As for the second, I’m going with D. incana owing to its closely appressed siliques (the seed pods are resting tight up against the stem).

Bad (maybe the worst) thistle

Cirsium arvense, July 28, 2020

Common & scientific name
Canada thistle, Cirsium arvense

Family
Sunflower, Asteraceae

Location
Roadside, 9,500’

Fun, weird, helpful, or little known fact
Talk about a scourge!  Canada thistle is an A-1 noxious weed that will grow anywhere, including sadly on Indy Pass where it’s wet.  Canada thistle was accidentally introduced to North America in the 1600s, and has since been designated a noxious weed in almost every state in the country.  It can form dense stands that shade out and displace our beautiful native plants, changing the plant community structure and species composition and reducing biodiversity.  It spreads rapidly and is extremely difficult to remove.

I wish I could tell you to pull it when you see it, but pulling makes it come back twice as hardy.  Gah!!!

On the straight and narrow

Senecio serra, July 28, 2020

Common & scientific name
Tall ragwort, Senecio serra

Family
Sunflower, Asteraceae

Location
Weller aspen grove, 9,500’

Fun, weird, helpful, or little known fact

Senecio serra’s long, narrow, serrated leaves distinguish it from the equally tall Senecio triangularis, whose leaves, you guessed it, are more triangle-shaped and have bigger teeth.  The latter seems also to require more water, and is often seen in the company of bluebells, larkspur, and monkshood.

A bit of a stiff

Symphyotrichum ascendens, July 28, 2020

Common & scientific name
Western aster, Symphyotrichum ascendens

Family
Sunflower, Asteraceae

Location
Roadside, 8,700’

Fun, weird, helpful, or little known fact
Another common roadside aster, it grows tall and in abundance in late summer.  It can be distinguished from purple daisies, Erigerons, by its wider ray florets (petals), and from other purple asters by its several rows of overlapping, shingle-like, dark-green phyllaries that curl outward.  Owing to its hairiness and stiffness, it has a bit of a coarse look and feel.

The nerve (times three)

Solidago velutina, July 28, 2020

S. veluntina, August 4, 2020

Common & scientific name
Threenerve goldenrod, Solidago velutina

Family
Sunflower, Asteraceae

Location
Roadside, 8,600’

Fun, weird, helpful, or little known fact
As its name suggests, this Solidago’s leaves have three prominent veins, helping distinguish it from other goldenrods.  This plant grows primarily lower down and roadside on the Pass, brightening the drive with splashes of abundant color from its hundreds of flowers heads in late summer.