A pretty potentilla

Potentilla pulcherrima, June 20, 2023

Backside of leaf

Common & scientific names

Beautiful cinquefoil, Potentilla pulcherrima

Family

Rose, Rosaceae

Location

Difficult Trail, 8,200’

Fun, weird, helpful, or little known facts

Cinquefoils all have basically the same-looking yellow flowers (except P. arguta, which is white). With the cinquefoils, everything depends on their leaves and their location/elevation.

P. pulcherrima is abundant throughout our area at lower elevations (never alpine). As you’ll see in the photo, P. pulcherrima’s leaflets extend out from a single point. As seen in these photos, they are green on the “front” side and fuzzy-white-hairy on the “back”

Fairy time

Calypso bulbosa, June 20, 2023

Common & scientific name

Fairy slipper, Calypso bulbosa

Family

Orchid, Orchidaceae

Location

Difficult Creek, 8,300’

Fun, weird, helpful, or little known fact

This early-blooming, circumboreal orchid was named after the sea nymph Calypso of Homer’s Odyssey. Like Calypso, this delicate beauty prefers secluded forest haunts, where she brings delight to the observant hiker.

Lower Lost Man, June 28, 2023

Pioneer pea

Astragalus alpinus, June 18, 2023

Summit, 12,100’, July 25, 2023

Common & scientific name

Alpine milkvetch, Astragalus alpinus

Family

Pea, Fabaceae

Location

Star Mountain, 12,000’

Fun, weird, helpful, or little known fact

This circumpolar, pioneer plant may be the most widely distributed and common Astragalus in the world. While it is rarely found above treeline in our area, despite its name, and is more common on the east side of the Pass than the west, it is always a delight to find, in subalpine woods, meadows, and even (especially!) roadside, with its dainty purple-and-white flowers set among its sprawling ladder-like leaves. It is also enjoyed by caribou, arctic hares, and greater snow geese (as food, that is), and grizzly bears forage its underground parts.

Lookin' sharp

Valerian acutiloba, June 18, 2023

Common & scientific name

Sharpleaf valerian, Valerian acutiloba

Family

Valerian, Valerianaceae

Location

South Fork Lake Creek, 12,300’

Fun, weird, helpful, or little known fact

Valerian is famous in part for its roots, which when cooked are appealing in the way that tobacco is (it is also commonly known as “Tobacco root”): that is, very appealing to some, almost nauseating to others. It’s really just as fun to look at. Sharpleaf valerian is a smallish plant with soft-pink flowers that can be found into the alpine. It is less common in our area than its taller, smellier cousin, V. edulis.

June 18

What's new, pussytoe?

Antennaria pulcherrima, June 18, 2023

Common & scientific name

Showy pussytoes, Antennaria pulcherrima

Family

Sunflower, Asteraceae

Location

South Fork Lake Creek, 10,500’

Fun, weird, helpful, or little known fact

This species of pussytoe, which has a taller stem and larger head than our other local species, doesn’t look much like a sunflower because it only has disk flowers (the flowers that usually make up the button of a sunflower), and no ray flowers (the “petals”).

Purple jewel of the alpine

Besseya alpina, June 18, 2023

Geissler, 13,000’, July 21, 2023

Common & scientific name

Alpine besseya or alpine kittentails, Besseya alpina

Family

Plantain, Plantaginaceae

Location

Lower Twining, 12,900’

Fun, weird, helpful, or little known fact

This gem of an alpine flower is found only in the high mountains of the Four Corners states, and most abundantly in Colorado. A swift glance might mistake it for Silky phacelia, Phacelia sericea, but its leaves are dark green and thick, not feathery, and it stands just a couple of inches tall. It is usually found nestled within rock gardens, and is always a worthy find.

June 23, Mt. Champion, 13,000’

Break on through

Saxifraga bronchialis, June 18, 2023

Linkins Lake area, 12,300’, July 18, 2023

Common & scientific name

Spotted saxifrage, Saxifraga bronchialis

Family

Saxifrage, Saxifragaceae

Location

Star Mountainl, 10,900’

Fun, weird, helpful, or little known fact

This delightfully dainty Saxifrage earns its name as a “rock breaker,” as it is usually found sprouting out of the side of a rock crevice or fracture. Saxifrages grow as far north as any species of wildflower in the world, and as such are quite at home in our high mountains.

Linkins Lake area, 12,300’, July 11, 2023

A social climber

Vicia americana, June 18, 2023

Common & scientific name

American vetch, Vicia americana

Family

Pea, Fabaceae

Location

Difficult Campground, 8,100’

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

The mama bear of parsleys

Podistera eastwoodiae, June 18, 2023

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, Cymopterus alpina, or Mountain parsley, Cymopteruus lemmonii, 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.

Not a keeper

Cynoglossum officinale, June 16, 2023

Common & scientific name

Houndstongue, Cynoglossum officinale

Family

Borage, Boraginaceae

Location

Roadside, 8,200’

Fun, weird, helpful, or little known fact

The Colorado Noxious Weed Act lists houndstongue as a List B species, meaning land owners or managers are required to eliminate or control it. It’s a short-lived perennial or biennial that produces rosettes in the first year and bolts a stout, 1-4 feet tall stem the second year. Its thick, woody taproot can reach 3-4 feet deep. It can produce up to 2,000 seeds with velcro-like attachments that remain viable for up to 3 years. It is poisonous.

This photo is the last you’ll see of it!

Nah nah na nah nah

Phacelia heterophylla, June 16, 2023

Common & scientific name

Wand phacelia, Phacelia heterophylla

Family

Waterleaf, Hydrophyllaceae

Location

Roadside, 8,200’

Fun, weird, helpful, or little known fact

This white version of its showier purple cousin, Phacelia hastata, which grows in the alpine, can be found along roadsides at lower altitudes. Waterleafs are distinguished by their stamens exerted on long filaments.

A hairy beast

Draba aurea, June 16, 2023

Common & scientific name

Golden draba, Draba aurea

Family

Mustard, Brassicaceae

Location

Above Linkins Lake, 12,400’

Fun, weird, helpful, or little known fact

Ah, the wonderful yellow alpine drabas! Time to get the microscope out to study the hairs on its leaves, the only way to tell the various species apart. This Draba’s hairs are dense, overlapping each other in a tangled mess of cruciform (4-forked) hairs on top of short stalks, giving the plant an overall grayish-green look. This highly variable species can (sometimes, maybe) be distinguished from its close cousin, Draba helleriana, by (usually) the lack of teeth on the edge of its leaves, and its slightly smaller overall stature. Both are (possibly) common on the Pass, unless they’re not: Ackerman does not place D. helleriana in Pitkin or Lake Counties.

Alp lily

Lloydia serotina, June 16, 2023

Common & scientific name

Alp lily, Lloydia serotina

Family

Lily, Liliaceae

Location

Above Linkins Lake, 12,400’

Fun, weird, helpful, or little known fact

A dainty lily with purple pencil markings on its white petals, grass-like leaves, and standing just 4 or 5” high, easily overlooked hiding among rocks or other alpine flowers and grasses. Worth seeking out!

Serious science vs. mickey mouse

Cerastium arvense, June 16, 2023

North summit, 12,300’, July 18, 2023

Common & scientific name

Field chickweed, Cerastium arvense ssp. strictum

Family

Pink, Caryophyllaceae

Location

North Fork Lake Creek TH, 10,800’

Fun, weird, helpful, or little known fact

The foremost authority on Colorado flora, William Weber (at least prior to Jennifer Ackerfield’s arrival: the jury is still out), believes this flower is classified erroneously not only species-wise, but family-wise: “This family [which he identifies as Alsinaceae] is usually placed as a subfamily of Caryophyllaceae, but it differs obviously in having its flowers constructed differently, with separate instead of united sepals, and petals without narrow basal claws.”

Obviously.

Furthermore: “C. arvense is a northern European tetraploid [having four sets of similarly structured chromosomes] occurring in America at low altitudes only as a weed. Our plants are diploid [two sets] and are related to, if not identical to, the diploid C. strictum of the high mountains of Eurasia.”

This plant is also called Mouse-ear chickweed. As in Mickey.

All joking aside, I am forever indebted to Dr. Weber for his meticulous work and complete devotion to Colorado’s flora, without which all Colorado wildflower lovers would be wildly impoverished.

Berry uncertain

Lonicera involucrata, June 16, 2023

In fruit, Weller Lake, 9,800’, August 15, 2023

Common & scientific name

Twinberry, Lonicera involucrata

Family

Honeysuckle, Caprifoliaceae

Location

Difficult Campground, 8,100’

Fun, weird, helpful, or little known fact

From the USDA’s Plant Fact Sheet: “Reports on the fruit (below) vary from poisonous, to mildly toxic, to bitter and unpalatable, to edible and useful as food, depending on tribe, region or publication.” Got it? In any event, its twin berries are eaten by bears, small mammals, quail, grouse, and songbirds such as thrushes. So be safe and leave it be!

In fruit, lower Green, 11,000’, August 2, 2023

Packing in the Packeras

Packera streptanthifolius, June 16, 2023

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.

At home in the great white north

Silene acaulis, June 16, 2023

June 23, Mt. Champion 11,600’

Garden above Ruby, 12,800’, August 4, 2023

Common & scientific name

Moss campion, Silene acaulis

Family

Pink, Caryophyllaceae

Location

Above Linkins Lake, 12,400’

Fun, weird, helpful, or little known fact

This perennial favorite of the high alpine occurs in almost all arctic and alpine habitats throughout the northern hemisphere. It reaches as far south as Arizona and as far north in Greenland well above the arctic circle, within twenty-five miles of the most northern growing of any plant. And according to extensive studies done on this alpine jewel in the 1950s in Rocky Mountain National Park, its roots go down as far as six feet—hard to believe in the (very) Rocky Mountains.

Geissler, 12,200’, July 21, 2023

Geissler, 12,900’, July 21, 2023

The white in alpine red, white, and blue

Minuartia obtusiloba, June 16, 2023

Mt. Champion 12,500’, June 23

Geissler, 12,300’, July 21, 2023

Common & scientific name

Alpine sandwort, Minuartia obtusiloba

Family

Pink, Caryophyllacaea

Location

Blue Lake, 12,400’

Fun, weird, helpful, or little known fact

Reminiscent of Alpine forget-me-nots and Moss campion in its matted structure and (relatively) large flowers compared to its leaves, alpine sandwort thrives, too, on dry, rocky, windy alpine ridges, and is always a treat to encounter.

East summit, 12,100’, July 2, 2023

Bluebells on high

Mertensia lanceolata, June 16, 2023

Common & scientific name

Alpine bluebells, Mertensia lanceolata

Family

Borage, Boraginaceae

Location

Blue Lake area, 12,800’

Fun, weird, helpful, or little known fact

These are not the bluebells of Scottish fame (those are harebells, in their own Bellflower family), but our Mertensias grace our slopes from the valley floor in spring (M. fusiformis) to the alpine (here) and at all elevations near water in their largest form (M. ciliata).

Mt. Massive, 13,500’, July 4, 2023

Our berry best berry

Rubus parviflorus, June 16, 2023

Common & scientific name

Thimbleberry, Rubus parviflorus

Family

Rose, Rosaceae

Location

Difficult Campground, 8,100’

Fun, weird, helpful, or little known fact

While some denigrate the thimbleberry’s fruit as “mealy,” this only indicates a lack of experience. When the berry of this lovely shrub is discretely chosen—it should be bright red, plump, and soft—it is hands down, in this writer’s opinion, our tastiest berry, a perfect blend of sweet and tart, and readily available trailside to boot: look for it in late July & early August.

June 27, 2023