Pollinators need not apply

Arnica cordifolia, May 29, 2023

June 6, 2023

Common & scientific name

Heartleaf arnica, Arnica cordifolia

Family

Sunflower, Asteraceae

Location

Grottos, elevation 9,300’

Fun, weird, helpful, or little known fact

From the highly excellent online resource, www.swcoloradowildflowers.com: “Since seeds of Arnica cordifolia are produced without fertilization . . . off-spring are genetically identical to their parents. The patches of Arnica cordifolia are, therefore, clones and this accounts for the wide variability of Arnica cordifolia characteristics from one location to another. Since there is no pollination there is no blending of characteristics to a common denominator.” Ah-ha! Look for them in varying form in our evergreen forests everywhere.

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.

Cultivating appreciation

Paxistima myrsinites, May 16, 2023

Common & scientific name

Oregon boxleaf, Paxistima myrsinites

Family

Stafftree, Celastraceae

Location

Difficult Trail, 8,100’

Fun, weird, helpful, or little known fact

Easy to miss as Oregon boxleaf’s tiny, cross-shaped flowers hide within the axils of its evergreen leaves. It’s worth taking note of these rosy gems, though, because this common shrub will be a constant companion on the lower stretches of the Pass.

Pepper candy

Noccaea fendleri, May 16, 2023

Common & scientific name

Wild candytuft, Noccaea fendleri

Family

Mustard, Brassicaceae

Location

Difficult, 8,100’

Fun, weird, helpful, or little known fact

This ubiquitous flower is one of our earliest bloomers. It can be found from the valley floor in Glenwood Springs in early April to the highest peaks on the Pass in July. Like all mustards, it is edible, but less bitter than most—hence the common name!

With siliques, June 6, 2023

Dozens of flowers in one

Taraxacum officinale, May 13, 2023

In road, 10,400’, August 2, 2023

Common & scientific name

Dandelion, Taraxacum officinale

Family

Aster, Asteraceae

Location

Weller Curve, 9,400’

Fun, weird, helpful, or little known fact

Of Eurasian origin and now virtually everywhere, owing in part to the fact that its seeds remain viable for nine years or more, with a single plant producing more than 5,000 seeds a year. The good news: Dandelions are an important early spring food source for deer, elk, bear, and (maybe) moose? They are also incredibly tough and adaptable (see photo below left).

The Sunflower family is considered the most highly evolved of all flowering plants: what appears to be one “flower” actually consists of many tiny flowers aggregated together in a flower head consisting most commonly of ray flowers—the “petals”—and disk flowers—the “button” in the middle—in the case of the dandelion, just ray flowers. This aggregation strategy is thought to attract more pollinators.