Let the Draba games begin!

Draba albertina, June 8, 2022

Common & scientific name
Slender draba, Draba albertina

Family
Mustard, Brassicaceae

Location
Lincoln Creek meadow, 10,250’

Fun, weird, helpful, or little known fact
With over a dozen species of Drabas—mostly small, yellow, and distinguishable only by the types of hairs on the plants and their siliques (seed pods)—Drabas present an excellent challenge for the aspiring botanist.

Most of this slender, meadow-loving draba’s leaves are basal and hairy with stiff, simple hairs, with a few sessile (unstalked) leaves along the stem. Its stems are hairy at the bottom, becoming glabrous (smooth/hairless) higher up. Its siliques are smooth and narrowly elliptic. This is a slender, almost weedy-looking draba found in open meadows usually below treeline.

Follow the sun and the flies will follow

Ranunculus adoneus, June 8, 2022

R. adoneus, June 8, 2022

Common & scientific name
Alpine buttercup, Ranunculus adoneus

Family
Buttercup, Ranunculaceae

Location
Green Mountain, 12,700’

Fun, weird, helpful, or little known fact
This beaming buttercup emerges along the edges of snowfields immediately after the snow melts, and sports fine, thread-like leaves (compared to its cousin, R. escholtzii).  The flowers of the Alpine buttercup display heliotropism; that is, they track the sun's movement from early morning until mid-afternoon.   Flowers aligned parallel to the sun's rays reach average internal temperatures several degrees Celsius above ambient air temperature, and attract more pollinators (in this case, flies) more often as a result.

First wild blueberry

Vaccinium cespitosum, June 8, 2022

V. cespitosum, in fruit, Linkins Lake Trail, 11,900’, August 28, 2022

Common & scientific name
Dwarf bilberry,  Vaccinium cespitosum

Family
Heath, Ericaceae

Location
Lincoln Creek, 10,250’

Fun, weird, helpful, or little known fact
Leaves widest above the middle, distinguishing it from its (sometimes) neighbor Vaccinium scoparium or V. myrtillus, but likes its neighbors, producing sweet little blueberries come August!

O-tay, Buckwheat

Eriogonum umbellatum var. majus, June 8, 2022

Common & scientific name
Subalpine buckwheat, Eriogonum umbellatum var. majus

Family
Buckwheat, Polygonaceae

Location
Lincoln Creek, 10,250’

Fun, weird, helpful, or little known fact
Widespread in habitat, elevation, and appearance, and according to Janis Huggins in Wild at Heart, its genus Eriogonum is “the largest genus endemic to North America, with more than 300 species, fifty of them occurring in the Rocky Mountains.”

My old man

Hymenoxis grandiflora, June 8, 2022

H. grandiflora, Blue Lake area, 12,350’, June 17, 2022

Bouquet, summit, 12,300’, June 27, 2022

Common & scientific name
Old-Man-of-the-Mountain, Hymenoxis grandiflora

Family
Sunflower, Asteraceae

Location
Green Mountain, 12,700’

Fun, weird, helpful, or little known fact

This common alpine resident stands out with its comparatively huge flower head and its wooly-hairy stem and leaves.  According to Dr. David Inouye, who for 4+ decades has studied alpine plants and their pollinators at the Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory, just over the Elk Range in Gothic, H. grandiflora grows for 12-15 years without flowering, flowers once, and then dies.  So treat every Old-Man-of-the-Mountain you see with reverence, and imagine (if you can) your own last summer . . . .

Field at summit, 12,300’, June 27, 2022

Smokin' soft

Geum triflorum, June 8, 2022

G. triflorum, Lower Lost Man, 10,600’, July 4, 2022

G. triflorum in fruit, lower Lost Man, 10,600’, July 14, 2022

Seedheads Portal Campground area, 10,600’, July 29, 2022

Common & scientific name
Prairie smoke, Geum triflorum

Family
Rose, Rosaceae

Location
Lincoln Creek TH, 10,250’

Fun, weird, helpful, or little known fact

This sublimely soft, rosy, nodding flower is always a delight to find, whether it’s a single plant or whether it fills a meadow.  Its seed heads are reminiscent of a Dr. Seuss hair style (see bottom left). Interestingly, it is the plant’s rosy bracts and sepals, not its small, pale petals just protruding at the tip of the flower, that give Prairie smoke its elegant color and shape.

G. triflorum, lower Lost Man, 10,600’, July 4, 2022

Seedheads, Portal Campground area, 10,600’, July 29, 2022

The elegant one

Potentilla bicrenata, June 7, 2022

Common & scientific name
Elegant cinquefoil, Potentilla bicrenata

Family
Rose, Rosaceae

Location
Twin Lakes, 9,200’

Fun, weird, helpful, or little known fact
This early bloomer’s leaves are toothed just at the apex, are fuzzy-white below and greener (but with appressed hairs under a microscope) on top. It goes in dry places like the sagebrush country of Twin Lakes.

Kinnikinnik spelled backwards

Arctostaphylos uva-ursi, June 7, 2022

Berries from the previous year, Blue Lake area, 12,350’, June 17, 2022

A. uva-ursi, in fruit, Peekaboo Gulch, 12,000’, August 31, 2022

Common & scientific name
Kinnikinnik, Arctostaphylos uva-ursi

Family
Heath, Ericaceae

Location
Twin Lakes, 9,200’

Fun, weird, helpful, or little known fact
Kinnikinnik, or Bearberry (see its scientific name), is a ground-hugging, evergreen shrub with thick, leathery, paddle-shaped leaves that are yellow-green in the spring, dark-green in the summer, and reddish-purple in the fall.  Its tiny, bell-shaped, pink-tipped, white flowers nod in clusters from red stems.  Bright-red berries succeed the flowers and persist into winter.  This wonderful alpine ground cover is equally at home at sea level back east.

A. uva-ursi, above Linkins Lake, 12,300’, July 7, 2022

The east side's favorite daisy

Erigeron vetensis, June 7, 2022

E. vetensis, June 7, 2022

Common & scientific names

Early bluetop daisy, Erigeron vetensis

Family

Sunflower, Asteraceae

Location

Twin Lakes, 9,200’

Fun, weird, helpful, or little known fact

With stiff hairs on its stem, phyllaries and basal leaves (with just a few reduced stem leaves), purple to white ray flowers, and glandular throughout, this daisy loves the dry meadows and roadside near Twin Lakes

Packing in the Packeras

Packera streptanthifollia, June 7, 2022

Pinnate basal leaves

Common & scientific names

Rocky Mountain groundsel, Packera streptanthifolia

Family

Sunflower, Asteraceae

Location

Winter gate, 8,500’

Fun, weird, helpful, or little known fact

This early-season groundsel is native to, widespread, and variable throughout the Western Cordillera. Its hairiness depends on the particular plant and its age. It can be distinguished from the other low-elevation Pass groundsel, Packera neomexicana x tridenticulata, by its height (taller), more extensively toothed leaves (usually: see variety of basal leaf forms below), and greener (less gray/hairy) appearance.

Shallowly-toothed leaves

Ugly? Not!

Ranunculus inaemonus, June 7, 2022

Common & scientific name
Graceful buttercup, Ranunculus inamoenus

Family
Buttercup, Ranunculaceae

Location
Mountain Boy, 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!

Fireworks on their way!

Phacelia sericea, June 7, 2022

P. sericea, North Fork Lake Creek, 10,900’ June 17, 2022

Common & scientific name
Silky phacelia, Phacelia sericea

Family
Waterleaf, Hydrophyllaceae

Location
Upper Lost Man, 12,300’

Fun, weird, helpful, or little known fact

The early-blooming plant at left isn’t yet showing off to full effect its luminescent purple flowers with long, gold-tipped anthers, as seen below. Silky phacelia is one of our handsomest alpine wildflowers, akin to miniature fireworks.  The genus Phacelia is found only in North and South America, primarily in desert areas.  Bees love Silky phacelia, as well!

P. sericea in elongated form, Top Cut 12,100’, July 14, 2022

Mama bear of parsleys

Podistera eastwoodiae, June 7, 2022

Common & scientific name
Eastwood’s woodroot, Podistera eastwoodiae

Family
Parsley, Apiaceae

Location
Linkins Lake, 12,000’

Fun, weird, helpful, or little known fact
Endemic and common in our subalpine and alpine meadows, it can at first glance be confused with the equally or more common Alpine parsley, Oreoxis alpina, or Mountain parsley, Pseudocympoterus montanus, but a careful inspection of its bright-green, tight, ladder-like leaves distinguish it, along with its size/stature, which is between the above two.

A rose is a rose is a . . . (?)

Sibbaldia procumbens, June 7, 2022

Common & scientific name

Sibbaldia, Sibbaldia procumbens

Family

Rose, Rosaceae

Location

Roadside, 11,700’

Fun, weird, helpful, or little known fact

At first glance Sibbaldia doesn’t look like it belongs in the Rose family: its three-part leaves are clover ( Pea)-like, and its tiny, greenish-yellow flowers hardly call to mind our showy Wild rose, Rosa woodsii.

Upon closer inspection, however, one finds they do indeed have 5 petals and 5 sepals (the green, leaf-like parts enclosing and protecting the bud/flower), and their leaves are reminiscent of Wild strawberries (in the Rose family). Indeed, upon further consideration, only Rosa woodsii REALLY looks like a rose proper—it’s a wonderfully variable family.

A social climber

Vicia americana, June 7, 2022

Common & scientific name
American vetch, Vicia americana

Family
Pea, Fabaceae

Location
Aspen grove, 8,300’

Fun, weird, helpful, or little known fact

Look for this small but vivid flower hiding among other shrubs and flowers—it is one of only a few members of the enormous Pea family that is a climbing vine, using tendrils to climb other plants and make its way to the sunlight

Pika produce

Geum rossii, June 7, 2022

Common & scientific name
Alpine avens, Geum rossii

Family
Rose, Rosaceae

Location
Upper Lost Man, 12,300’

Fun, weird, helpful, or little known fact

Alpine avens, one of our most common alpine plants, can often be seen in the mouth of the Pass’s mascot, the American pika.  This is surprising because Alpine avens contain tannins, bitter-tasting compounds that are intended to make them unpalatable to animals before their fruits or seeds are ripe. (Tannins cause that astringent, mouth-coating feeling you get from biting into an unripe pear—yuck).  However, those same tannins act as preservatives, which help the pika preserve the other plants they store in their winter “haypiles” so they don’t mold or rot during their long winter lock-down. And Alpine avens’ leaves turn a lovely red in late summer, blanketing the browning tundra. So we love Alpine avens!

Best name ever

Smelowskia calycina, June 7, 2022

S. calycina, lavender version, summit, June 9, 2022

S. calycina with fungus (and Fairy primrose), Halfmoon Lake, 12,300’, June 18, 2022

S. calycina in fruit, above Linkins Lake, 12,300’, July 7, 2022

Common & scientific name
Alpine smelowskia, Smelowskia calycina

Family
Mustard, Brassicaceae

Location
Upper Lost Man, 12,000’

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

S. calycina, Blue Lake area, 12,800’, June 17, 2022

Never to be forgotten

Eritrichium nanum, June 7, 2022

E. nanum, summit, June 9, 2022

E. nanum at their tall(est) stage, above Linkins Lake, 12,400’, 6.21.22

Common & scientific name
Alpine forget-me-nots, Eritrichium nanum

Family
Borage, Boraginaceae

Location
Upper Lost Man, 12,000’

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. nanum, unusual white version, Upper Lost Man, 12,350’ 6.21.22

E. nanum, Geissler saddle, 12,500’, July 7, 2022

Sufferin' saxifrage!

Saxifraga rhomboidea, June 7, 2022

Common & scientific name
Diamond-leaf saxifrage, Saxifraga rhomboidea

Family
Saxifrage, Saxifragaceae

Location
Mountain Boy basin, 11,100’

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.

Carpe diem!

Linum lewisii, June 7, 2022

Common & scientific name
Blue flax, Linum lewisii

Family
Flax, Linaceae

Location
Winter gate, 8,500’

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!