Bigger ain't alway better

Fragaria virginiana, May 24, 2021

F. virginiana, in fruit, July 15, 2021

Common & scientific name
Virginia strawberry, Fragaria virginiana

Family
Rose, Rosaceae

Location
Roadside, 8,400’

Fun, weird, helpful, or little known fact

This wild strawberry concentrates all the flavor of the much larger store-bought version into a tiny berry to produce an intense tasting experience. Indeed, it was this species that was originally crossed with F. chiloensis to create the strawberries you buy at the store today. Wild strawberries will likely be found in early July in 2021—early!

Berry yummy!

Ribes cereum, May 28, 2021

Common & scientific name
Wax currant, Ribes cereum

Family
Currant, Grossulariaceae

Location
Weller Curve, 9,400’

Fun, weird, helpful, or little known fact

Ribes is native to western North America.  R. cereum’s edible berries are soft and juicy, with a mild but fruity taste.  Unlike other area species of Ribes, its berries are smooth—try one later in the summer!

R. cereum, 5.28.21

What's in a weed?

Barberea orthoceras, May 24, 2021

Common & scientific name
American yellowrocket, Barberea orthoceras

Family
Mustard, Brassicaceae

Location
Winter gate, 8,500’

Fun, weird, helpful, or little known fact

This is a circumpolar species, meaning it is distributed around the world in the Northern Hemisphere.  If it looks like a “weed,” well . . . that brings up the interesting question of what a “weed” really is.  This plant is native and has evolved over many thousands of years to share space with other natives.  But it isn’t particularly attractive, and can grown in great numbers (not on the Pass, however).  Probably the best definition of a weed is a plant that grows where people don’t want it to grow!

A slender fella

Boechera gracilente, May 24, 2021

Common & scientific names
Selby’s Rockress, Boechera gracilenta

Family: Mustard, Brassicaceae

Location: Weller Curve, 9,400’

Fun, weird, helpful, or little known fact

”The taxonomic complexity of the Boechera genus is legendary,” proclaims the Flora of North America. Truer words have never been spoken. Telling the different species apart requires examining the plant’s hairs under a microscope, along with the shape and length of its silique (seed pod). “A rare confluence of hybridization, apomixis, and polyploidy makes Boechera one of the most difficult genera in the North American flora.” Having examined all parts of this delightful, delicate spring flower in all its stages of growth, I am putting my money on B. gracilenta (called by some B. selbyi). Don’t hold me to it, though!

A beary important berry

Amelanchier alnifolia, May 25, 2021

A. alnifolia in fruit, roadside 8,200’, August 17, 2021

Common & scientific name
Serviceberry, Amelanchier alnifolia

Family
Rose, Rosaceae

Location
Difficult, 8,200’

Fun, weird, helpful, or little known fact

Like all members of the Rose family, the flowers of Serviceberry shrubs have five petals.  Its berries are eaten by wildlife including birds, rodents, and bears, and the larva of the distinctive, yellow and black Swallowtail butterfly is frequently found here.

A. alnifolia, June 2, 2021

With a name like "ragwort" . . .

Senecio integerrimus, May 21, 2021

Common & scientific name
Lambstongue ragwort, Senecio integerrimus

Family
Sunflower, Asteraceae

Location
Difficult Trail, 8,200’

Fun, weird, helpful, or little known fact

This is one Senecio of a thousand throughout the world, and one of two dozen in our region.  They are all yellow, occasionally interbreed, and for all these reasons can be a bear to tell apart!  This Senecio is tall, has just a couple leaves on its stem, and its middle “flower”  has a shorter, thicker stalk than the flowers surrounding it. It loves the Pass!

First daisy of the year

Erigeron flagellaris, May 21, 2021

Common & scientific name
Whiplash daisy, Erigeron flagellaris

Family
Sunflower, Asteraceae

Location
Just above winter gate, 8,500’

Fun, weird, helpful, or little known fact

This delightful early-blooming daisy reproduces in part through runners (hence the name “whiplash”) that put down roots and enable it to spread along roadsides and in meadows throughout our valley.

A purple, white, sometimes lavender harlequin

Delphinium nuttallianum, May 21, 2021

D. nuttallianum, lavender, June 2, 2021

Common & scientific name

Nuttall’s larkspur, Delphinium nuttallianum

Family

Buttercup, Ranunculaceae

Location

Difficult Trail, 8,100’

Fun, weird, helpful, or little known fact

Nuttall’s larkspur often occurs in white form (see photo below), the result of a genetic mutation that forces the switching on and off of certain genes that cause parts of a plant to grow without pigmentation. In the case of Nuttall’s larkspur, it doesn’t appear to affect its survivability.

D. nuttallianum, albino, May 25, 2021

Frog-inspired

Ranunculus glaberrimus, May 12, 2021

Common & scientific name
Sage buttercup, Ranunculus glaberrimus

Family
Buttercup, Ranunculaceae

Location
Difficult Trail, 8,200’ and Grottos, 9,600’

Fun, weird, helpful, or little known fact
The genus “Ranunculus” comes from the Latin for “little frog,” since buttercups are often found in wet habitats (this one, not so much). Sage buttercup is one of the first flowers to bloom in the spring, and often has a scraggly, de-petaled appearance, possibly owing to foraging by hungry spring critters, possibly to every-changing spring weather, or . . . other theories welcome!

R. glaberrimus, May 27, 2021

A weed? Maybe not . . .

Erodium cicutarium, April 29, 2021

Common & scientific name
Filaree, Erodium cicutarium

Family
Geranium, Geraniaceae

Location
Weller Curve roadside, 9,000’

Fun, weird, helpful, or little known fact
While most people view (and treat) Filaree as a weed, according to the supremely excellent Southwest Colorado Wildflowers website, “The most eminent 19th century [botanist] John Torrey indicated in 1852, that this plant ‘is widely spread over the western part of North America, from the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific, and is doubtless indigenous.’”

I can’t recommend the above website enough. It is an amazing resource for all who love Colorado’s wildflowers: www.swcoloradowildflowers.com

A dandy, indeed

Taraxacum officinale, April 27, 2021

Common & scientific name
Dandelion, Taraxacum officinale

Family
Sunflower, Asteraceae

Location
Difficult Campground, 8,200’

Fun, weird, helpful, or little known fact

Of Eurasian origin and now virtually everywhere, owing in part to the fact that their seeds remain viable for nine years or more, with a single plant producing more than 5,000 seeds a year. The good news: Dandelions are an important early spring food source for deer, elk, bear, and (maybe) moose?

T. officinale, seedhead, roadside, 10,500’ July 20, 2021

Get low

Microsteris gracilis, May 14, 2021

Common & scientific name
Slender phlox, Microsteris gracilis

Family
Phlox, Polemoniaceae

Location
Difficult Trail, 8,200’

Fun, weird, helpful, or little known fact

Even easier to miss than Oregon boxwood, this tiny wildflower is often lost among other flowers and grasses in dry meadows and forest openings.  It has 5 petals, its leaves and stem are glandular and hairy, and it rarely grows more than a few inches high. It is frequently found growing beside another tiny beauty, Blue-eyed Mary, both of which will reward the hiker who is willing to stop and get low

An early evergreen

Mahonia repens, May 12, 2021

Common & scientific name
Creeping Oregon grape, Mahonia repens

Family
Barberry, Berberidaceae

Location
Difficult Campground, 8,200’

Fun, weird, helpful, or little known fact

This hardy plant is abundant throughout our area.  An evergreen, it is able to withstand many degrees of heat, cold, and drought, and its leaves turn a beautiful red in the fall (some of which remain red in the spring, as seen in this photo).  The berries are edible, but much more delicious to bears than people!

M. repens in fruit, Weller Lake, 9,800’, August 14, 2021

A hairy problem

Boechera stricta, May 13, 2021

B. stricta, siliques 9,200’, June 22, 2021

Common & scientific name
Drummond’s rockcress, Boechera stricta

Family
Mustard, Brassicaceae

Location
Weller Curve roadside, 9,200’

Fun, weird, helpful, or little known fact

The Boechera genus is notoriously difficult to narrow down to species.  They interbreed, they vary within species, and often it’s the microscopic hairs on their leaves and the angle of repose of their siliques (seed pods) that make the difference.  This rockcress, which is tall and common on the Pass, especially in forests and at higher elevations, can be identified by the pick-axe hairs on its basal (ground-level) leaves, and its erect, stem-hugging siliques.

How good are your eyes?

Collinsia parviflora, May 13, 2021

Common & scientific name
Blue-eyed Mary, Collinsia parviflora

Family
Snapdragon, Scrophulariaceae

Location
Weller Curve roadside, 9,000’

Fun, weird, helpful, or little known fact

This tiniest of flowers—“parviflora” is Latin for “small-flowered”—will test your eyes (or prescription), but will reward you with its intricate, unusual shape and lovely blue and white petals.

Dozens of flowers in one

Packera tridenticulata x neomexicana, April 29, 2021

Common & scientific names

Threetooth ragwort, Packera tridenticulata X New Mexico groundsel, P. neomexicana

Family

Sunflower, Asteraceae

Location

Weller Curve roadside, 9,400’

Fun, weird, helpful, or little known fact

This flower is most likely a cross, i.e, a hybrid, between the two species named above, with its basal leaves having three lobes (“teeth”) and the plant having a hairy, cobwebby appearance overall (like the neomexicana species). The Packera genus’s family, the Sunflower family, is considered the most highly evolved of all flowering plants: what appears to be one “flower” actually consists of many tiny flowers aggregated together in a flower head consisting most commonly of ray flowers (the “petals”) and disk flowers (the “button” in the middle). This aggregation strategy is thought to attract more pollinators.

Look for me low to high

Noccaea montana, April 27, 2021

Common & scientific name
Wild candytuft, Noccaea montana

Family
Mustard, Brassicaceae

Location
Difficult Trail, 8,200’

Fun, weird, helpful, or little known fact

This ubiquitous flower is one of our earliest bloomers.  It can be found from the valley floor in Glenwood Springs in early April to the highest peaks on the Pass in July.  Like all mustards, it is edible, but less bitter than most.

N. montana siliques (seed pods), June 2, 2021

Singin' the blues!

Mertenisa fusiformis, April 27, 2021

Common & scientific name
Spring bluebells, Mertensia fusiformis

Family
Forget-me-not, Boraginaceae

Location
Difficult Trail 8,200’

Fun, weird, helpful, or little known fact

This charming genus starts small in the spring at lower elevations with Mertensia fusiformis (pictured), shows up similarly small in the alpine in late June as M. lanceolate/virides, and goes big (like 6-feet big) in mid-summer as Mertensia ciliata.

White version, Difficult, May 14, 2021

First wildflower of 2021!

Claytonia lanceolata, April 27, 2021

Common & scientific name
Spring beauty, Claytonia lanceolata

Family
Purslane, Portulacaceae

Location
Difficult Trail, 8,200’

Fun, weird, helpful, or little known fact
Wherever you find this cheery, candy cane-striped, white flower, you’ll know the snow just melted there. Spring beauty is sometimes called “Indian potato” because its corm—the enlarged, bulb-like base of its stem under the soil—apparently tastes like potato when cooked. I say “apparently” because I haven’t personally tried them. I prefer ogling them to eating them (and I’m lazy).