Dandelion lookalike

Agoseris glauca, July 29, 2022

Common & scientific name
Pale agoseris, Agoseris glauca

Family
Sunflower, Asteraceae

Location
Portal Campground area, 10,600’

Fun, weird, helpful, or little known fact
This flower can look at first glance like a dandelion, with its single yellow flower head on a leafless stalk.  The big differences lie in the phyllaries and the basal leaves: the phyllaries do not curl over backwards like a dandelion’s, and are green with purple stripes; and the leaves are simple, not cut.  It’s fruit, called a cypsela, has soft, white bristles resembling the puff ball of a dandelion (photo to come!) 

Same

Another fuzzy wuzzy

Erigeron elatior, July 29, 2022

Common & scientific name
Tall fleabane, Erigeron elatior

Family
Sunflower, Asteraceae

Location
Portal campground area, 10,600’

Fun, weird, helpful, or little known fact
Despite its common name, what sets this daisy apart is its extremely fuzzy, purple phyllaries.  Can be found in subalpine aspen forests and wet alpine areas.  

Same

Osha-light

Ligusticum tenuifolium, July 28, 2022

Common & scientific name
Slender-leaf lovage, Ligusticum tenuifolium

Family
Parsley, Apiaceae

Location
Old road, 9.700’

Fun, weird, helpful, or little known fact
This plant is smaller, has fernier/more feathery leaves, and is found in wetter places than its cousin, Ligusticum porteri, Porter’s lovage, also known as Osha. Osha is famous for its medicinal properties, as taught to Native Americans by grizzlies.

Leaf

Let's be blunt

Platanthera obtusata, July 28, 2022

Common & scientific name
Blunt-leaf orchid, Platanthera obtusata

Family
Orchid, Orchidaceae

Location
Old road, 9,700’

Fun, weird, helpful, or little known fact
From the US Forest Service’s wonderful “plant of the week” blog: “This is a true circumboreal or northern plant that ranges all across the arctic regions of Asia, Europe, and North America. . . . This species has a diminutive flower that is just 1/8 inch to 1/4 inch long with several flowers on a single stalk that is only a few inches tall. . . . Although this plant is not large or spectacular, it is worth taking a look at. Also, its wetland habitat is important to protect for many reasons and include the fact that it often grows together with several other orchids, plants, and at least one species of lichen which are under state and or federal protection.”

This one is easy to miss: keep your eyes open in forested, mossy areas near the Roaring Fork River.

Our most widespread orchid

Listera cordata, July 28, 2022

Same

Common & scientific name
Heart-leaved twayblade, Listera cordata

Family
Orchid, Orchidaceae

Location
Old road, 9,700’

Fun, weird, helpful, or little known fact
From the wonderful North American Orchid Conservation Center: This species “has the widest distribution of any species in its genus, growing throughout the western United States, across Canada, around the Great Lakes and on the East Coast from North Carolina to Maine. It produces two opposite heart-shaped leaves on its green or reddish purple stem, and bears up to 25 yellowish green or reddish purple flowers. The labellum splits and forms two elongated lobes. This orchid is known to form colonies of several hundred plants. It typically grows on peat-moss hummocks in forested swamps, as well as in moist woodlands and in coniferous or mixed forests.” This describes exactly where this plant was found!

Greenland's national flower

Chamerion latifolium, July 28, 2022

Common & scientific name
Dwarf fireweed, Chamerion latifolium

Family
Evening primrose, Onagraceae

Location
Roadside, 11,000’

Fun, weird, helpful, or little known fact
Smaller plant and larger flowers than its close cousin, Chamerion angustifolium, and won’t be found roadside but rather creekside or ditch-side!.  It is the national flower of Greenland: good choice, Greenland!

The end is nigh

Heliomeris multiflora, July 28, 2022

Common & scientific name
Showy goldeneye, Heliomeris multiflora

Family
Sunflower, Asteraceae

Location
Roadside, 8,200’

Fun, weird, helpful, or little known fact
Grows from the foothills to the subalpine, and is most often seen roadside on the lower portion of Independence Pass.  The penultimate sunflower (“helios” means “sun”), it is a favorite of bees, both sweat and bumble.  It is considered a late summer flower—and is blooming in July!  (Hint: don’t wait to see the flower show this summer—it will end early.)

A tall bedraggled fella

Eucephalus engelmannii, July 28, 2022

Common & scientific name
Engelmann’s aster, Eucephalus engelmannii

Family
Sunflower, Asteraceae

Location
Roadside, 8,400’

Fun, weird, helpful, or little known fact
The Aster genus continues to shrink!  This late-blooming, woods-loving aster is the tallest of all, up to five feet, with rather scraggly white, widely-spaced “petals” (ray florets).  

A slender fella

Hieraceum triste, July 28, 2022

Seedhead, Jack Lake area, 12,400’, August 6, 2022

Common & scientific name
Slender hawkweed, Hieracium triste

Family
Sunflower, Asteraceae

Location
Lincoln Creek area, 9,700’

Fun, weird, helpful, or little known fact
This strange, spindly flower is notable largely for the silver and black hairs covering its flower head, which consists solely of ray flowers (“petals”).  As with many sunflowers, after fertilization its flowers create a dandelion-like head of seed-carrying hairs that are disbursed by the wind. 

Three families want this one

Parnassia fimbriata, July 28, 2022

P. fimriata, Wet Gulch, 11,200’, August 5, 2022

Common & scientific name
Fringed Grass of Parnassus, Parnassia fimbriata

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

Location
Roadside, 10,600’

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!  

Your late July roadside companion

Erigeron formossisimus, July 28, 2022

Common & scientific name
Beautiful fleabane, Erigeron formossisimus

Family
Sunflower, Asteraceae

Location
Grottos, 9,600’

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.

Hostess with the leastest?

Pedicularis racemosa, July 14, 2022

Common & scientific name
Sickletop lousewort, Pedicularis racemosa 

Family
Broomrape, Orobanchaceae

Location
Lower Lost Man trail, 10,500’

Fun, weird, helpful, or little known fact
Look for this wonderfully-shaped wildflower en masse under spruce and fir trees in the subalpine zone. From the US Forest Service’s wonderful “Plant of the Week” post:  

“Traditionally, Pedicularis has been included in the figwort family (Scrophulariaceae). Louseworts have green leaves and produce their own food through photosynthesis but also have roots capable of capturing nutrients and water from adjacent plants, making them partially parasitic. Recent genetic studies have shown that Pedicularis and other hemiparasitic genera in the Scrophulariaceae (including the Indian paintbrushes, Castilleja) are better placed in the broomrape family (Orobanchaceae), with species that are true parasites that lack green chlorophyll.

Another recent discovery implicates Leafy [Sickletop] lousewort as an alternate host for White pine blister rust. An introduced fungus called Cronartium ribicola causes this infectious disease of five-needled pines [including Limber and Bristlecone pines]. . . . It remains unknown whether Leafy [Sickletop] lousewort has served as an alternate host for blister rust for decades, or if this relationship has evolved only recently.”

A Draba question mark

Draba incerta, July 7, 2022

Common & scientific name
Yellowstone draba, Draba incerta

Family
Mustard, Brassicaceae

Location
Geissler, 13,200’

Fun, weird, helpful, or little known fact
I call this a question mark because Ackerfield says this species is not found in our region, and is found on limestone (which is not found on Geissler: probably. Possible we have small outcrops of it). Weber, however, says it is found in the Elk Mountains, our neighbors to the southeast, not teeming with limestone. Also, Ackerfield says the dense hairs on the tiny leaves are “mostly pectinate” (comb-like) while Weber says they are “stellate” (star-like) and the Alpine Flower Finder (best small guide I’ve ever seen, hands down) says they are “mostly dendritic” (tree-like), the latter of which best fits the species I found. Most importantly, the fruit (silique/seed) was glabrous (hair-free) and non-inflated at the base, distinguishing it from D. ventosa and D. oligosperma. As Bill Weber said, “puzzling”!

First dragonhead on the Pass

Dracocephalum parviflorum, July 26, 2022

Common & scientific name
American dragonhead,  Dracocephalum parviflorum

Family
Mint, Lamiaceae

Location
Upper Lost Man trailhead area, 11,500’

Fun, weird, helpful, or little known fact
American dragonhead is a native annual, biennial, or short-lived perennial. It is a seedbanking species, whose seeds are large and not wind-dispersed. Buried seeds remain viable for a long period of time and require fire or other disturbance for germination. Like fireweed, it usually disappears or declines in importance within the first few years following disturbance. This plant was found on the highly-disturbed berm across from the upper Lost Man trailhead (the berm was created following construction work done on the nearby Top Cut), explaining its presence—it was not planted. Most authorities say it grows up to 10,000’ or so—here 11,500’!

Three heads are better than one

Arnica mollis, July 26, 2022

Common & scientific name
Hairy arnica,  Arnica mollis

Family
Sunflower, Asteraceae

Location
Upper Lost Man trailhead, 11500’

Fun, weird, helpful, or little known fact
As its name suggests, this arnica is fuzzy on its stems and leaves, grows taller than our other high-elevation arnicas, A. latifolia and A. rydbergii,  usually has three flower heads growing at the top, and its pappas (bristly parts under the disk flowers/button) are tannish, not white.  It emerges as the common A. cordifolia, Heart-leaved arnica, is receding. 

Telltale turions . . . or no?

Epilobium hornemannii, July 26, 2022

E. hornemannii, Linkins Lake trail, 11,500’, July 19, 2022

Common & scientific name
Hornemann’s willowherb, Epilobium hornemannii

Family
Evening primrose, Onagraceae

Location
Upper Lost Man trailhead, 11,500’

Fun, weird, helpful, or little known fact
Willowherbs are notoriously difficult to identify, as they often interbreed, are individually variable, and just plain look alike.  According to Bill Weber, one way to be certain that this plant is indeed this species, hornemanni, is by uprooting it and checking for turions, little fleshy bulbs attached to the base of the stem.  Hornemann’s doesn’t have them.  I have only done this once (sacrificed willowherbs for ID purposes), and won’t again.  Furthermore, other authorities claim they don’t have turions. Ergo, narrowing it down to “willowherb” is close enough!

E. hornemannii in fruit, Linkins Lake Trail, 11,500’, July 19, 2022

A phlox on you!

Collomia linearis, July 26, 2022

Common & scientific name
Narrowleaf collomia, Collomia linearis

Family
Phlox, Polemoniaceae 

Location
Upper Lost Man Trailhead, 11,500’

Fun, weird, helpful, or little known fact
This tiny pink trumpet is one of a handful of annuals found on the Pass, this one particularly high compared to its common, earlier-summer montane locale. The Phlox family, which includes sky pilot, scarlet gilia, and dwarf phlox, among others, is without doubt one of our most delightful, and diverse, families of wildflowers.

The wide-mouthed one

Gentiana parryi, July 26, 2022

G. parryi, upper Lost Man, 12,300’, August 23, 2022

G. parryi, 11,500’, August 24, 2022

Common & scientific name
Bottle gentian, Gentiana parryi

Family
Gentian, Gentianaceae

Location
Linkins Lake Trail, 11,800’

Fun, weird, helpful, or little known fact
This bright, blue-purple goblet puts out one to a half-dozen blooms per plant (alpine plants tend to have single blooms, lower growing more), opening fully only in sunshine.  This and its other purple gentian cousins are some of the last wildflowers to grace the Pass above treeline—enjoy!

G. parryi, Wet Gulch, 11,500’, August 5, 2022

The asters are out!

Symphyotrichum foliaceum, July 26, 2022

Same, phyllaries

Common & scientific name
Leafy aster, Symphyotrichum foliaceum (Aster foliaceus)

Family
Sunflower, Asteraceae

Location
Linkins Lake trail, 11,900’

Fun, weird, helpful, or little known fact
What an incredibly variable plant this late-summer aster is!  Its wider “petals” (ray florets)and broader, layered, leaf-like phyllaries distinguish it from the earlier-blooming Erigerons. In subalpine and alpine meadows, it commonly grows just 6” high, with few flower heads, and is often a deep purple/lavender as shown at left. Roadside it grows up to 3’ high with many (lighter-colored) flowered heads and noticeably red stems (photo to come).

I just wish they had come up with a more memorable, or pronounceable, or spell-able, name to replace “Aster” with . . . .  

A late-blooming daisy

Erigeron coulteri, July 26, 2022

Same, phyllaries

Common & scientific name
Coulter’s daisy, Erigeron coulteri

Family
Sunflower, Asteraceae

Location
Linkins Lake trail, 11,700’

Fun, weird, helpful, or little known fact
This is one of our most common late-summer daisies, blooming from the montane to the alpine in meadows and moist woodlands.  It is of medium height (usually less than a foot), has bright white, very thin ray florets (petals), and has white and black hairs on the underside of its flowerhead (on its phyllaries—see photo below left).  If you see a giant version of this, standing several feet tall, with fewer but wider petals, you are seeing Engelmann’s aster, another late-summer bloomer.