Shiny, beautiful things

Ranunculus ___, May 29, 2023

June 11, 2023

Common & scientific name

_______ buttercup, Ranunculus ________

Family

Buttercup, Ranunculaceae

Location

Twin Lakes, 9,250’

Fun, weird, helpful, or little known fact

Many of us can recall holding a buttercup up to a friend’s chin and seeing its yellow reflection. This glossy-reflective property on the outside (but not innermost part) of the buttercup’s petals is water repellent, causing dew or rain to drain off and leave pollen floating just at the level of the stigmas and thus aiding pollination. Most beautiful adaptations are, indeed, useful, as well!

As for this particular buttercup . . . found in a wet but currently dry meadow next to Twin Lakes, heart-shaped, scalloped basal leaves and clustered simple leaves on stem. Possibly R. glabberimus or R. macounii, but still determining with certainty its species. Feels different than R. inamoenus.

The stars of the forest

Aquilegia elegantula, June 1, 2023

June 1, 2023

Common & scientific name

Western red columbine, Aquilegia elegantula

Family

Buttercup, Ranunculaceae

Location

Difficult Trail , 8,200’

Fun, weird, helpful, or little known fact

Nothing lights up a speckled woods like these dazzling red rockets. They are often found in large groups, and in the same location as fairy slippers. Look for both in early summer before they’re gone!

The bane of your existence?

Actaea rubra, June 1, 2023

June 1, 2023

In fruit, Weller Lake, 9,800’, September 2, 2023

Common & scientific name

Red baneberry, Actaea rubra

Family

Buttercup, Ranunculaceae

Location

Difficult Trail, 8,100’

Fun, weird, helpful, or little known fact

Let’s be honest: most of us are fascinated by deadly, poisonous things. Especially beautiful, deadly poisonous things. Enter Baneberry. It begins with a delicate sprig of white flowers, which turn to shiny red or white berries later in the summer—berries that can kill you. Stop and pay homage to this beautiful killer.

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

A perennial favorite

Anemone patens var. multifida, May 30, 2023

June 6, 2023

Seedheads, July 10, 2023

Common & scientific name

Pasqueflower, Anemone patens var. multifida

Family

Buttercup, Ranunculaceae

Location

Lower Independence ghost town, 10,750’

Fun, weird, helpful, or little known fact

According to the Flora of North America, this perennial favorite’s elevational range is unusually broad, from 330 to 12,500’. It is an early bloomer, starting in April and continuing through August, depending on elevation and latitude. It can be found on prairies, open slopes (like this one, a subalpine dry meadow facing southwest), woods, or granite outcrops.

June 6, 2023

The east side's favorite daisy

Erigeron vetensis, May 29, 2023

May 29, 2023

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.

The elegant one

Potentilla bicrenata, May 29, 2023

June 18, Star Mountain, 10,900’

Common & scientific name

Elegant cinquefoil, Potentilla bicrenata

Family

Rose, Rosaceae

Location

Twin Lakes, 9,300’

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 grows in dry places like the sagebrush country of Twin Lakes.

This daisy doesn't like to be pigeon-holed

Erigeron compositus, May 29, 2023

Summit June 14, 2023

Geissler, 12,900’, July 21, 2023

Common & scientific name
Cutleaf daisy, Erigeron compositus

Family
Sunflower, Asteraceae

Location
Grottos climbing wall, 9,600’

Fun, weird, helpful, or little known fact

Cutleaf daisy’s petals—or more properly speaking, its ray flowers, as all individual daisy flowers are composed of multiple ray flowers (the petal-looking parts) and/or disk flowers (which together make up the button-looking part)—can be white, pink, or light blue.  They can also be absent entirely, leaving a head with only yellow disk flowers, as in the photo below.

Rayless version, Geissler, 12,900’, July 21, 2023

Berry yummy!

Ribes cereum, May 29, 2023

June 13, 2023

Common & scientific name

Wax currant, Ribes cereum

Family

Gooseberry or Currant, Grossulariaceae

Location

Grottos climbing wall, 9,750’

Fun, weird, helpful, or little known fact

Ribes is native to western North America. R. cereum’s edible berries are soft and juicy, with a mild but fruity taste. Unlike other area species of Ribes, its berries are smooth (see photo below)—try one later in the summer!

Roadside, 9,700’, August 2, 2023

These fireworks aren't always on display

Ipomopsis aggregata, May 26, 2023

June 1, 2023

Common & scientific name

Scarlet gilia, Ipomopsis aggregata

Family

Phlox, Polemoniaceae

Location

Roadside near Difficult, 8,100’

Fun, weird, helpful, or little known fact

Scarlet gilia, also know as Fairy trumpet, is among our most flamboyant and unmistakeable wildflowers. Like Old Man of the Mountain, Green Gentian, and other of our well known wildflowers, these gleaming crimson trumpets are monocarpic—that is, they bloom once, after a half dozen or so years of storing up nutrients in their roots, then die.

A purple and white harlequin

Delphinium nuttallianum, May 26, 2023

June 1, 2023

Common & scientific name

Nuttall’s larkspur, Delphinium nuttallianum

Family

Buttercup, Ranunculaceae

Location

Across road from Difficult, 8,200’

Fun, weird, helpful, or little known fact

Nuttall’s larkspur is often found in white (as seen in this first photo), blue (as seen less frequently in the second photo), or lavender morphs, in addition to its classic purple coloring (below). This is the result of a genetic mutation that forces the switching on and off of certain genes that cause parts of a plant to grow without pigmentation. In the case of Nuttall’s larkspur, it doesn’t appear to affect its survivability: morphs are everywhere!

June 6, 2023

Give her a nod

Microseris nutans, May 26, 2023

Common & scientific name

Nodding microseris, Microseris nutans

Family

Sunflower, Asteraceae

Location

Across road from Difficult, 8,200’

Fun, weird, helpful, or little known fact

This short-lived, early-blooming sun lover, composed only of ray flowers, can be distinguished from Taraxacum officinale, Dandelion, by its phyllaries—the bracts, or much-reduced leaves, subtending the flower head of members of the sunflower family. Nodding microseris’s phyllaries cup the flower head tightly, while Dandelion’s curl outward at the tips. Nodding microseris’s phyllaries also distinguish it from its lookalike, Agoseris glauca, the former having tiny black hairs on them.

Visualize whirled peas

Latherus lanszwertii, May 26, 2023

Common & scientific name

Lanszwert’s pea, Lathyrus lanszwertii

Family

Pea, Fabaceae

Location

Across road from Difficult, 8,200’

Fun, weird, helpful, or little known fact

A common peavine found everyone on the Pass below treeline, especially in Aspen forests and open meadows. White with a hint of pink or purple guide lines, it turns rust-colored with age.

With a name like ragwort . . .

Senecio integerrimus, May 26, 2023

Common & scientific name

Lambstongue ragwort, Senecio integerrimus

Family

Sunflower, Asteraceae

Location

Across road from Difficult, 8,200’

Fun, weird, helpful, or little known fact

This is one Senecio of a thousand throughout the world, and one of two dozen in our region. They are all yellow, occasionally interbreed, and for all these reasons can be a bear to tell apart! This Senecio is tall, has just a couple leaves on its stem, and its middle “flower” has a shorter, thicker stalk than the flowers surrounding it. It loves the Pass!

A hairy problem

Boechera stricta, May 23, 2023

B. stricta with fungus, 10,500’, May 25, 2023

Common & scientific name

Drummond’s rockcress, Boechera stricta

Family

Mustard, Brassicaceae

Location

Difficult Trail, 8,100’

Fun, weird, helpful, or little known fact

The Boechera genus is notoriously difficult to narrow down to species. They interbreed, they vary within species, and often it’s the microscopic hairs on their leaves and the angle of repose of their siliques (seed pods) that make the difference. This rockcress, often found under the name B. drummondii, which is tall and common on the Pass, especially in forests and at higher elevations, can be identified by the pick-axe hairs on its basal (ground-level) leaves, and its erect, stem-hugging siliques (photo below). Its flowers range from white to lavender.

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

The first of many daisies

Erigeron flagellaris, May 23, 2023

Common & scientific name

Whiplash daisy, Erigeron flagellaris

Family

Sunflower, Asteraceae

Location

Difficult Trail, 8,100’

Fun, weird, helpful, or little known fact

This delightful early-blooming daisy reproduces in part through runners (hence the name “whiplash”) that put down roots and enable it to spread along roadsides and in meadows throughout our valley. Its phyllaries are finely glandular and sparsely hairy.

Cat fights

Antennaria parviflora, May 23, 2023

May 23, 2023

Common & scientific name

Small-leaf pussytoes, Antennaria parviflora

Family

Sunflower, Asteraceae

Location

Difficult Trail, 8,100’ & Grottos (below), 9,200’

Fun, weird, helpful, or little known fact

Pussytoes are made up only of disk flowers. Telling our half-dozen or so pussytoe species apart is tricky. The flowers of Small-leaf pussytoes are white or pinkish (see both photos), and its leaves, fuzzy on both sides, are thin on the stem and wide at the base, and the basal leaves are either rounded or obtuse at the apex. They generally grow lower on the Pass than others, and spread by stolons—slender stems running along the top of the ground—like strawberries.

Evergreen (and yellow and red)

Berberis repens, May 17, 2023

May 23, 2023

Common & scientific name

Oregon grape, Berberis repens

Family

Barberry, Berberidaceae

Location

Difficult Campground, 8100’

Fun, weird, helpful, or little known fact

This hardy plant is abundant throughout our area. An evergreen, it is able to withstand many degrees of heat, cold, and drought, and its leaves turn a beautiful red in the fall, some of which remain red in the spring. The berries are edible, but much more delicious to bears than people!

May 26, 2023

Free eye test!

Collinsia parviflora, May 17, 2023

Common & scientific name

Blue-eyed Mary, Collinsia parviflora

Family

Plantain, Plantaginaceae

Location

Difficult day use area, 8,100’

Fun, weird, helpful, or little known fact

This tiniest of flowers—“parviflora” is Latin for “small-flowered”—will test your eyes (or prescription), but will reward you with its intricate, unusual shape and lovely blue and white petals.

Bigger not always better

Fragaria virginiana, May 16, 2023

Common & scientific name

Mountain strawberry, Fragaria virginiana

Family

Rose, Rosaceae

Location

Difficult day use area, 8,100’

Fun, weird, helpful, or little known fact

This wild strawberry concentrates all the flavor of the much larger store-bought version into a tiny berry to produce an intense tasting experience. Indeed, it was this species that was originally crossed with F. chiloensis to create the strawberries you buy at the store today. Look for this flower’s fruits in July.

How low can you go?

MIcrosteris gracilis, May 16, 2023

Common & scientific name
Slender phlox, Microsteris gracilis

Family
Phlox, Polemoniaceae

Location
Difficult day use area, 8,100’

Fun, weird, helpful, or little known fact

An early bloomer that’s easy to miss, this tiny flower has 5 petals, its leaves and stem are glandular and hairy, and it rarely grows more than a few inches high. It is frequently found growing beside another tiny beauty, Blue-eyed Mary, both of which will reward the hiker who is willing to stop and get low.