"Ugly?" Not!

Ranunculus inamoenus, June 9, 2021

R. inamoenus, NY trail, 11,100’, June 27, 2021

Common & scientific name
Graceful buttercup, Ranunculus inamoenus

Family
Buttercup, Ranunculaceae

Location
Lower Lost Man, 10,500

Fun, weird, helpful, or little known fact

Wonderful that this flower’s common name, Graceful buttercup, has effectively, by popular vote, overruled its scientific name, which translates as “unattractive” or “ugly” buttercup.”  With its shiny, sunny flowers and interesting leaves—basal leaves rounded, stem leaves deeply cut—it definitely deserves better!

Scarious stuff

Cerastium strictum, June 8, 2020

C. strictum, Lackawanna ridge, 12,500’, June 18, 2021

Common & scientific name
Mouse-ear chickweed, Cerastium strictum

Family
Pink, Caryophyllaceae

Location
Mountain Boy basin, 11,250’

Fun, weird, helpful, or little known fact

This cheery chickweed is abundant in meadows and forest openings from the montane to the alpine.  It can be distinguished from its close cousin, C. beeringianum, by its scarious-margined bracts; that is, the green, reduced leaves surrounding the bottom of C. strictum’s flower have clear, thin, plastic-looking margins.

Roadside champ

Heterotheca villosa, June 9, 2021

Common & scientific name
Hairy golden aster, Heterotheca villosa

Family
Sunflower, Asteraceae

Location
Above winter gate, 8,550’

Fun, weird, helpful, or little known fact

While all guide books describe this plant as “highly variable” (in size, leaf shape, hairiness, etc.), it is easily identifiable by its strongly pungent smell, location (dry, exposed places, often roadside), and its numerous yellow flowers atop a mound of grayish-green leaves. 

The other family-less false lily

Maienthemum stellatum, June 9, 2021

M. stellatum close-up, June 9, 2021

Common & scientific name
Starry false lily of the valley, Maianthemum stellatum

Family
??? (see below)

Location
Between the winter gate and Weller, 8,750’

Fun, weird, helpful, or little known fact

Loves aspen groves above all, more delicate in its flower than its close relative, Maianthemum racemosum, False Solomon’s seal, and searching for a loving home.  Different authorities place it in no less than four families or subfamilies: (1) Liliaceae, Lily, (2) Convallariaceae, Mayflower, (3) Asparagaceae, Asparagus, and (4) Ruscaceae, also Asparagus. Confused yet?  Give it ten years and the experts will land on one!

Wondrous creation

Thalictrum fendleri, male, June 8, 2021

Common & scientific name
Fendler’s meadowrue, Thalictrum fendleri

Family
Buttercup, Ranunculaceae

Location
Difficult Campground, 8200’

Fun, weird, helpful, or little known fact

This is one of my favorite wildflowers.  First, unusually, its plants come in male and female versions.  The first flower shown at left, reminiscent of a tasseled lampshade, is male.  The female version below is star-like, akin to skinnier versions of False Solomon’s seal.  They love aspen groves, and their leaves look like columbines’. In their intricacy, they are wonders of nature!

T. fendleri, female, June 8, 2021

Goodbye, snow, hello, Marsh marigolds!

Caltha leptosepala, June 8, 2021

Common & scientific name
Marsh marigold, Caltha leptosepala

Family
Buttercup, Ranunculaceae

Location
Upper Lost Man trailhead, 11,500’

Fun, weird, helpful, or little known fact

As the snow melts and streams & springs emerge, Marsh marigolds follow suit. They often emerge alongside or at the same time as Globeflowers, Trollius albiflorous.  Marsh marigolds can be distinguished by the blue streaks on the back of their flowers, and by their leaves, which are entire, while Globeflowers’ are palmate and cut.

A marigold's best friend

Trollius albiflorus, June 8, 2021

Common & scientific name
Globeflower, Trollius albiflorus

Family
Buttercup, Ranunculaceae

Location
Upper Lost Man trailhead, 11,500’

Fun, weird, helpful, or little known fact

These newly-blooming flowers will morph from light yellow to white over the next several days.  In addition to Marsh marigolds, Globeflowers can be confused with Narcissus-flowered anemones, Anemone narcissiflora, which bloom a bit later and have hairy stems, where Globeflowers are hairless. 

Sufferin' saxifrage!

Saxifraga rhomboidea, June 8, 2021

S. rhomboidea, late in bloom, Champion, 12,700’, 7.27.21

Common & scientific name
Diamond-leaf saxifrage, Saxifraga rhomboidea

Family
Saxifrage, Saxifragaceae

Location
Mountain Boy basin, 11,250’

Fun, weird, helpful, or little known fact

Saxifrages are one of our most delightful families.  They’re mostly white (sometimes yellow), usually delicate, and always a treat to find.  This will be the first of over a dozen saxifrage species to come on the Pass.

S. rhomboidea, June 8, 2021

Yellow to the west, lavender to the east

Erysimum capitatum, June 8, 2021

E. capitatum, lavender version, Mt. Everett, 12,200’, July 2, 2021

Common & scientific name
Western wallflower, Erysimum capitatum

Family
Mustard, Brassicaceae

Location
Ghost town, 10,700’

Fun, weird, helpful, or little known fact

This big, cheery mustard is as at home on the summit of Independence Pass as it is in the deserts of Utah.  It is most commonly yellow, but on the east side of the Pass, especially up near treeline, it is a striking lavender-magenta—see photo bottom left!

E. capitatum, in fruit (with siliques/seed pods), ghost town, 10,800’, June 28, 2021

Never to be forgotten

Eritrichum aretioides, June 8, 2021

E. aretioides, summit, June 23, 2021

Common & scientific name
Alpine forget-me-nots, Eritrichum aretioides

Family
Borage, Boraginaceae

Location
Summit, 12,100’

Fun, weird, helpful, or little known fact

This ground-hugging alpine jewel is many people’s favorite wildflower, period.  Its Kodachrome-blue petals and golden eyes are unique in our region, and its favorite habitat—rocky, windswept, highly inhospitable mountain tops and ridges—makes its beauty and sheer existence all the more jaw-dropping.  Because this flower blooms early and won’t stick around too long, it is worth dropping everything to get up high and bow down to this wonder of creation.

E. aretioides, Twining 13,400’, June 30, 2021

Smelowskia--say it out loud!

Smelowskia calycina, June 8, 2021

Common & scientific name
Alpine smelowskia, Smelowskia calycina

Family
Mustard, Brassicaceae

Location
Summit, 12,100’

Fun, weird, helpful, or little known fact

I love this flower so very, very much.  In part because it is one of the first flowers of the season to emerge in the high alpine, so it is always a welcome sight.  In part because it can range dramatically in size depending on how protected it is—there is a bouquet on Treasure Mountain tucked into a large marble boulder that is three times the size of the plants, both stems and flowers, seen in these photos.  In part because its usually white petals sometimes emerge a lovely soft lavender.  But mostly because of its name, in honor of the 18th century Russian botanist T. Smelovskii.  This is one botanical name that is a joy to learn and say!

Big Daddy Dandelion

Tragapogon dubius, June 8, 2021

T. dubius seedhead, roadside, 9,500’, July 20, 2021

Common & scientific name
Yellow salsify, Tragapogon dubius

Family
Sunflower, Asteraceae

Location
Roadside, 8,300’

Fun, weird, helpful, or little known fact

A non-native known mostly for its huge, dandelion-like seed head, salsify was introduced from Europe owing to its edible roots.  The pointy phyllaries exceeding its ray florets distinguishTragapogon dubius (top) from T. pratensis (bottom).

T. pratensis, June 16, 2021

Patience pays

Ceanothus velutinus, June 8, 2021

Common & scientific name
Snowbrush, Ceanothus velutinus

Family
Buckthorn, Rhamnaceae

Location
Roadside, 8,300’

Fun, weird, helpful, or little known fact

A native evergreen shrub growing 2-9 feet tall with shiny, sticky leaves, its fruit is a capsule a few millimeters long which snaps open explosively to expel the three seeds onto the soil, where they may remain buried for well over 200 years before sprouting.

Carpe diem embodied

Linum lewisii, June 8, 2021

Common & scientific name
Blue flax, Linum lewisii

Family
Flax, Linaceae

Location
Weller curve, 9,400’

Fun, weird, helpful, or little known fact

“Pluck the day [for it is ripe], trusting as little as possible in tomorrow.”  This is the more accurate and complete translation of the oft-cited “carpe diem,” which is usually reduced to “seize the day” and leaves out “quam minimum credula postero.”  I prefer this translation because it captures perfectly, in botanical terms even, the lesson of the blue flax: it blooms for exactly one day.  Its petals open in the morning, and fall off by afternoon.  Blue flax knows no tomorrow.  Would that we all could live that way!

The chokes on you

Prunus virginiana, June 2, 2021

Common & scientific name
Chokecherry, Prunus virginiana

Family
Rose, Rosaceae

Location
Classy Cliffs, 8,300’

Fun, weird, helpful, or little known fact
So named because of its berries’ bitter flavor—and indeed their seeds contain cyanide—Chokecherry is popularly used to make jam, and was a staple of Native American diets, as cooking rids the fruit of its cyanide and bitter taste.

(Don't) call a medic!

Medicago lupulina, June 2, 2021

Common & scientific name
Black medick, Medicago lupulina

Family
Pea, Fabaceae

Location
Roadside, 8,300’

Fun, weird, helpful, or little known fact
Yes, this non-native from Eurasia is the same flower that invades your lawn. However, it is nutritious, loved by bees, and seen in just a handful of roadside locations on the Pass, so not an invasive of concern. The genus name Medicago refers to the region of Iran known as Media, where this plant was believed to have originated.

Exactly WHICH yellow daisy is this?

Microseris nutans, June 2, 2021

Common & scientific name
Nodding microseris, Microseris nutans

Family
Sunflower, Asteraceae

Location
Difficult Trail, 8,200’

Fun, weird, helpful, or little known fact
This short-lived, early-blooming sun lover can be distinguished from Taraxacum officinale, Dandelions, by its phyllaries—the bracts, or much-reduced leaves, subtending the flower head of members of the sunflower family. Nodding microseris’s phyllaries cup the flower head tightly, while Dandelion’s curl outward at the tips. Nodding microseris’s phyllaries also distinguish it from its lookalike, Agoseris glauca, the former having tiny black hairs on them.

Waiting for the wolves

Ribes wolfii, June 2, 2021

Common & scientific name
Wolf’s currant, Ribes wolfii

Family
Gooseberry, Grossulariaceae

Location
Difficult Campground, 8,200’

Fun, weird, helpful, or little known fact
This common currant is the only Ribes in our area without spines. Unfortunately, its berries are small, spiny-hairy, and bitter—no need for protection!

The current currant

Ribes inerme, June 2, 2021

Common & scientific name
Whitestem gooseberry, Ribes inerme

Family
Currant, Grossulariaceae

Location
Classy Cliffs, 8,300’

Fun, weird, helpful, or little known fact
The petals on this currant emerge greenish, as in this photo, but become whiter with age (photo to come). The long stalks coming out of the flower are the filaments, which support the anthers, the pollen-bearing organs of the flower.

Fireworks!

Ipomopsis aggregata, June 2, 2021

Common & scientific name
Scarlet gilia, Ipomopsis aggregata

Family
Phlox, Polemoniaceae

Location
Roadside near Difficult, 8,200’

Fun, weird, helpful, or little known fact
Scarlet gilia, also know as Fairy trumpet, is among our most flamboyant and unmistakeable wildflowers. Like Old Man of the Mountain, Green Gentian, and other of our well known wildflowers, these gleaming crimson trumpets are monocarpic—that is, they bloom once, after a half dozen or so years of storing up nutrients in their roots, then die.

I. aggregata, June 2, 2021