Reindeer pollination

Campanula uniflora, July 16, 2022

Common & scientific name
Arctic bellflower, Campanula uniflora

Family
Harebell, Campanulaceae

Location
Mountain Boy, 12,600’

Fun, weird, helpful, or little known fact
The following comes from a website called The Flora of Svalbard.  Svalbard (in case you didn’t know, like I didn’t) is a Norwegian archipelago between mainland Norway and the North Pole. One of the world’s northernmost inhabited areas, it's known for its rugged, remote terrain of glaciers and frozen tundra sheltering polar bears, Svalbard reindeer and Arctic foxes. The Northern Lights are visible during winter, and summer brings the “midnight sun”—sunlight 24 hours a day.

What I found fascinating is how this other-worldly place’s treatment of this plant we enjoy in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado applies here equally:

“The plant flowers from mid July to mid August. Flowers potentially pollinated by insects but self pollination is probably common. We have no information on germination rate of seeds of the Svalbard populations; however, the plant must recruit regularly as populations of this relatively short-lived plant sustain in the same locations for a long time. . . . Local seed dispersal is facilitated by the stiff stems and the capsules with apical pores, resulting in ballistic dispersal during strong winds or when touched by animals (reindeer).”

Presumably elk, mountain goats, marmots & pika would perform the same role here!

Senecio sunshine

Senecio amplectens var. amplectens, July 16, 2022

S. amplectens, Linkins Lake Trail 11,600’, July 19, 2022

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

Family
Sunflower, Asteraceae

Location
Mountain Boy, 11,800’

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 higher up near streams, makes this flower feel like a friend too rarely seen. Notice its dark purple, campanulate phyllaries (below).

Same as left, phyllaries

S. amplectens var. amplectens, backside, Ptarmigan Creek 10,800’, August 8,2022

Ah-choo!

Hymenoxis hoopesii, July 16, 2022

Summit, 12,100’, September 6, 2022

Common & scientific name
Sneezeweed, Hymenoxis hoopesii

Family
Sunflower, Asteraceae

Location
Mountain Boy, 11,500’

Fun, weird, helpful, or little known fact
This funky flower is always a surprise: in its characteristically droopy, bedraggled petals (ray florets), its orange-ish color, its tall stature, and its ability to grow at myriad elevations and times of year, like this plant which didn’t emerge until mid-late August.

Apparently its common name comes from the historic use of the crushed, dried leaves and flower heads to make a snuff that caused sneezing.  In any event, how can you not love a flower named “sneezeweed!”

A ragwort never looked so good

Senecio fremontii, July 14, 2022

Common & scientific name
Dwarf mountain ragwort, Senecio fremontii

Family
Sunflower, Asteraceae

Location
Top Cut, 12,100’

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!

Boggling Boecheras

Boechera fendleri, in fruit, July 13, 2022

Common & scientific name
Fendler’s rockcress, Boechera fendleri

Family
Mustard, Brassicaceae

Location
Roadside, 9,800’

Fun, weird, helpful, or little known fact
As I’ve stated before, the Boechera genus is notoriously difficult to narrow down to species. This rockcress commonly seen on the lower part of the Pass can be identified by its tall stature (60cm), long, drooping, double-seeded siliques, and the hairs on the lowest part of its stem and basal leaves.

Gangly Gayophytum

Gayophytum diffusum, July 13, 2022

G. diffusum, same

Common & scientific name
Spreading groundsmoke, Gayophytum diffusum

Family
Evening primrose, Onagraceae 

Location
Roadside, 9,800’

Fun, weird, helpful, or little known fact
Hard to spot amidst other flowers or grasses, gangly Spreading groundsmoke’s red stem and four-petaled flowers are diagnostic (aside from the mustards, they are one of the only four-petaled families).  Their tiny flowers open in the morning and close up by late afternoon—just the opposite of its easier to spot cousins in the Oenothera (Evening primrose) genus. 

A crowning achievement

Rhodiola rhodantha, July 13, 2022

R. rhodantha, Jack Lake, 12,300’, August 6, 2022

R. rhodantha, Independence Lake, 12,300’, August 23, 2022

Common & scientific name
Queen’s crown, Rhodiola rhodantha

Family
Stonecrop, Crassulaceae

Location
Summit, 12,200’

Fun, weird, helpful, or little known fact
This succulent beauty always grows in wet places and has a taller, rounder top of pinkish-red flowers than King’s crown, which has a flatter top of dark-wine, sometimes almost black flowers, and which can grow in dryer locations. 

R. rhodantha, Wet Gulch, in fall colors, 11,400’, August 5, 2022

R. rhodantha, post-bloom, upper Lost Man, 12,000', August 28, 2022

Yet another senecio

Senecio wootonii, July 13, 2022

Common & scientific name
Wooton’s ragwort, Senecio wootonii

Family
Sunflower, Asteraceae

Location
Green Mountain, 11,000’

Fun, weird, helpful, or little known fact
As Senecios go, this one is relatively easy to identify, owing to its  smooth, hairless, almost blueish leaves.  It is often found in dry meadows or forests (like lodgepoles).  Give yourself a round of applause for learning (yet another) Senecio!

Mickey #2

Cerastium beeringianum, July 13, 2022

Common & scientific name
Alpine chickweed, Cerastium beeringianum

Family
Pink, Caryophyllaceae

Location
Summit, 12,200

Fun, weird, helpful, or little known fact
How to tell this flower apart from the more common (but similarly situated—read “high”) C. arvense var. strictum: the edges of this chickweed’s bract are NOT “scarious,” aka translucent, and its sepals are glandular.