A new orchid!

Spiranthes romanzoffiana, August 6, 2021

Common & scientific name
Hooded ladies-tresses, Spiranthes romanzoffiana

Family
Orchid, Orchidaceae

Location
Lost Man, 10,600’

Fun, weird, helpful, or little known fact
We don’t see this one very often on the Pass, so it is an exciting find. Its braid-like design of white flowers ascending in a geometric spiral distinguishes it from other orchids like white bog orchid. It grows in wet, often sheltered or shady places, and is a singular delight!

S. romanzoffiana, August 6, 2021

The tundra's final act

Gentiana algida, August 5, 2021

Common & scientific name
Arctic gentian, Gentiana algida

Family
Gentian, Gentianaceae

Location
Green Mountain, 11,800’

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 or green 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!

G. algida, August 5, 2021

The crazy-making daisy

Leucanthemum vulgare, August 3, 2021

L. vulgate’s diagnostic phyllaries, August 3, 2021

Common & scientific name
Oxeye daisy, Leucanthemum vulgare

Family
Sunflower, Asteraceae

Location
Roadside everywhere up to 11,800’

Fun, weird, helpful, or little known fact
YES, they’re pretty, YES, they’re cheery, YES, you may stop, look, and enjoy them.  Then do your part for our native wildflowers and pull them!  Oxeyes are a highly invasive perennial that LOVE disturbed places like roadsides—even a fresh layer of asphalt won’t dissuade them!  A single plant can produce up to 200 seeds per flowering head, sitting atop up to 40 flowering stems per plant—that leads to a ginormous seed bank.   Leucanthemum vulgare is native to Europe and was introduced into the United States as an ornamental in the 1800s. In the 2000s, it is the bane of Independence Pass.

Decorating our roadsides

Heterotheca pumila, August 3, 2021

Common & scientific name
Alpine goldenaster, Heterotheca pumila

Family
Sunflower, Asteraceae

Location
Roadside, 11,700’

Fun, weird, helpful, or little known fact
While all guide books describe this and its close cousin Heterotheca villosa as “highly variable” (in size, leaf shape, hairiness, etc.), it is easily identifiable by its strongly pungent smell, location (subalpine to alpine, in dry, exposed places like trailside or roadside), and its numerous yellow flowers atop a roundish mound of grayish-green leaves. 

Our smallest saxifrage

Saxifraga rivularis, July 29, 2021

S. rivularis, July 29, 2021

Common & scientific name
Alpine brook saxifrage, Saxifraga rivularis

Family
Saxifrage, Saxifragaceae

Location
North summit area, 12,500’

Fun, weird, helpful, or little known fact
This total jewel of a flower, also known as “pygmy saxifrage,” is almost always found tucked into wet caves and boulder-created crevasses. It stands just three inches high, is usually single-flowered, has adorably-lobed leaves, and is guaranteed to make your day. Never let rock gardens go unexplored: treasures await!

High arnica

Arnica latifolia, July 29, 2021

Common & scientific name
Broadleaf arnica, Arnica latifolia

Family
Sunflower, Asteraceae

Location
North summit, 12,500’

Fun, weird, helpful, or little known fact
This arnica has broad, slightly toothed leaves (unlike A. rydbergii), red-tipped phyllaries, is glandular, and is less common than the similar Arnica mollis (which is usually taller and often has three flowerheads). Perhaps the best distinguishing feature is its pappus which consists of white, barbellate (short-barbed) hairs, while A. mollis has a pappus that is tawny/tan and subplumose (feathery).

For your parking pleasure

Spergularia rubra, July 27, 2021

Common & scientific name
Red sandspurry, Spergularia rubra

Family
Pink, Caryophyllaceae

Location
North Fork Lake Creek TH, 10,500’

Fun, weird, helpful, or little known fact
This non-native from Eurasia has been in the US since at least the 1860s, according to Flora of North America, and seems limited in our area to trailhead parking lots. It is a glandular plant with pointed leaves and charming, five-petaled, lavender flowers. A fine parking lot addition!

Rorippin' mustard

Rorippa alpina, July 27, 2021

R. alpina, July 21, 2021

Common & scientific name
Alpine yellowcress, Rorippa alpina

Family
Mustard, Brassicaceae

Location
Linkins Lake TH, 11,500’

Fun, weird, helpful, or little known fact
Alpine yellowcress is a low-growing plant found in wet places, including roadside ditches here. It is weedy looking, but not a weed (it is native), and like all mustards, is edible.

Autumn arrives early in the high country

Gentianella amarella, July 27, 2021

Common & scientific name
Autumn gentian, Gentianella amarella

Family
Gentian, Gentianaceae

Location
Lower Mt. Champion, 11,250’

Fun, weird, helpful, or little known fact
Autumn gentian’s flowers are a lovely shade of lavender. They grow in small clusters from the tip of the stem and from most of the leaf axils. They have five petals that flare widely to reveal a circle of long white hairs, and small fringes at the base of their lobes. Autumn gentian can be tall like this plant, or much smaller depending on elevation and conditions. While July 27 hardly counts as “autumn,” it is like all gentians (save green gentian) a sign of the waning summer season.

G. amarella, July 27, 2021

To which kitten does this tail belong?

Besseya ritteriana/plantaganea, July 22, 2021

B. ritteriana/plantaginea, July 22, 2021

Common & scientific name
Ritter’s kittentails, Besseya ritteriana OR White River kittentails, Besseya plantiginea

Family
Plantain, Plantaginaceae

Location
Grizzly ridge, 12,500’

Fun, weird, helpful, or little known fact
I found this plant post-bloom, making certain ID difficult. Using Jennifer Ackerfield's Flora of Colorado, the latest, comprehensive treatment of Colorado plants, as a reference, her description of the two (B. plantginea & B. ritteriana) identifies the only significant differences between the two as (1) their elevational ranges (former up to 11,000', latter up to 12,500', which is where I found this plant), (2) their locations (former recorded in Pitkin County, where I found this plant, latter not), and (3) the color of their corollas (the former white or pinkish to purplish tinged, the latter pale yellow). The plants also have differently-colored filaments (the stalk of the stamen, the male pollen-bearing organ), purple and white, but by the time I saw it the filament was brown. Looks like I'll need to return earlier next summer to see it in bloom!

With a name like curlycup gumweed . . .

Grindelia squarrosa, July 23, 2021

Common & scientific name
Curlycup gumweed, Grindelia squarrosa

Family
Sunflower, Asteraceae

Location
Roadside, 8,700’

Fun, weird, helpful, or little known fact
According to the US Forest Service’s fantastic “Plant of the Week” site, the grindelias are most commonly known for their copious amount of gummy resin found on their flower heads. The common Grindelia squarrosa is often found along roadsides in late summer, often following disturbances created by humans. It may be an annual, biennial or perennial plant and is readily recognized by the recurved (squarrose) bracts on the involucres (cups) that enclose the flower heads.

Circumboreal

Pyrola chlorantha, July 23, 2021

Common & scientific name
Green-flowered wintergreen, Pyrola chlorantha

Family
Wintergreen, Pyrolaceae

Location
Roadside, 10,200’

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.

P. chlorantha, July 23, 2021

The Independence Pass mascot

Senecio atratus, July 23, 2021

Common & scientific name
Black-tipped senecio, Senecio atratus

Family
Sunflower, Asteraceae

Location
Roadside, 10,300’

Fun, weird, helpful, or little known fact
We LOVE this native flower at the Independence Pass Foundation because it doesn’t mind—maybe prefers—disturbed ground, like roadsides or rock retaining walls, where it stabilizes steep slopes where other flowers find it hard to grow. It is also tall, handsome, and an unusual shade of gray-green (owing to the thick hairs on its leaves), and grows in large colonies.  And it’s well-named and easy to remember: its phyllaries have distinct black tips!

S. atratus, roadside, 11,700’, August 3, 2021

Deep purple

Gentianopsis thermalis, July 23, 2021

G. thermalis, Green Mountain, 11,000’, August 4, 2021

Common & scientific name
Rocky Mountain fringed gentian, Gentianopsis thermalis

Family
Gentian, Gentianaceae

Location
Roadside, 10,700’

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, July 23, 2021

G. thermalis with Bombas, August 6, 2021

Your roadside companion

Erigeron formossisimus, July 23, 2021

E. formosssisimus, July 23, 2021

Common & scientific name
Beautiful fleabane, Erigeron formossisimus

Family
Sunflower, Asteraceae

Location
Lower Lost Man roaside, 10,400’

Fun, weird, helpful, or little known fact
THIS is the purple daisy you see roadside, everywhere, around the middle of the Pass (9,500-10,500), standing 6-10” high.  To distinguish if from other Erigerons—of which we have MANY—look for  glandular, hairy, purplish phyllaries; stems with straight hairs, that usually support a single flower; and stem leaves progressively reduced in size and number as you move up the stem.

Poisonous, especially when masting

Veratrum californicum, July 22, 2021

Common & scientific name
Corn lily, false hellebore, skunk cabbage, Veratrum californicum

Family
False hellebore, Melanthiaceae

Location
Lincoln Creek Roadl, 10,400’

Fun, weird, helpful, or little known fact
We’re masting! Enjoy this year’s incredible displays of hundreds to thousands of corn lilies, standing up to 6 feet tall with their hundreds of flowers, blooming in sync. Corn lilies bloom and seed little in most years—a few a year always, but usually just their elegant, swirling leaf rosetted are out— but in years like this they bloom and seed heavily, in synchrony. This improves their chances of cross-pollination (although they also reproduce through underground shoots, like aspen trees). Scientists at RMBL believe they mast two years after a “cool” summer. So . . . how was summer 2019, temp-wise? (I haven't yet had a chance to look at the data!)

A horny dude

Taraxacum ceratophorum, July 22, 2021

Common & scientific name
Horned dandelion, Taraxacum ceratophorum

Family
Sunflower, Asteraceae

Location
Grizzly ridge, 12,800’

Fun, weird, helpful, or little known fact
Standing less than 6 inches tall and with a hairy head of purple-tinged bracts, this native dandelion is purportedly the most widespread of our natives in North America.

As for the “horned” part . . . this description confused me for years: “horn-shaped swellings at the tips of the phyllaries,” Bill Weber says. What shape, exactly, is a “horn?” As it turns out, with a loop or better yet a microscope, you can make out a little curved, bulbous growth on the tip of the phyllary. Subtle, yes, horn-like, not hugely (or at all), but it does distinguish it from other native dandelions.

Senecio sunshine

S. amplectens, Lower Lost Man, 10,500’, July 14, 2021

Common & scientific name
Showy alpine ragwort, Senecio amplectens var. amplectens

Family
Sunflower, Asteraceae

Location
Grizzly Creek basin, 11,500’

Fun, weird, helpful, or little known fact
I so love this flower!  Something about the way its petals bend and fold in different directions, in sometimes scraggly ways, as seen below, and the fact that it appears only occasionally in spruce/fir forests, or below along a steep streambank, makes this flower feel like a friend too rarely seen. 

S. amplectens var. amplectens, North Fork Lake Creek, 11,000’, July 27, 2021

A ragwort never looked so good

Senecio fremontii, July 22, 2021

Common & scientific name
Dwarf mountain ragwort, Senecio fremontii

Family
Sunflower, Asteraceae

Location
Grizzly Ridge, 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!

Three families want this one

Parnassia fimbriata, July 22, 2021

P. fimbriata, August 6, 2021

Common & scientific name
Fringed Grass of Parnassus, Parnassia fimbriata

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

Location
Grizzly Creek valley, 12,000’

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!  

P. fimbriata, July 22, 2021