Potentilla pensylvanica, July 3, 2023
Common & scientific names
Pennsylvania cinquefoil, Potentilla pensylvanica
Family
Rose, Rosaceae
Location
Interlaken/Twin Lakes, 9,200’
Fun, weird, helpful, or little known facts
Yet another Potentilla, totally distinctive owing to its clustered flowers,. tall stature, and pinnate leaves with many pairs. Not found on the west side of the Pass.
Dodecatheon pulchellem, July 4, 2023
Common & scientific name
Shooting star, Dodecatheon pulchellem
Family
Primrose, Primulaceae
Location
North Halfmoon Lakes Trail, 10,500’
Fun, weird, helpful, or little known fact
Found only in consistently wet places, its elegant shape and delicate, contrasting colors make this a top find of the summer. Its name derives from “twelve gods” (genus) and “handsome” (species) (thank you, Janis Huggins!). This is the closest to the Pass I’ve found this flower: the Crested Butte-Marble area is better endowed. (Apologies for this terrible photo, BTW!)
Solidago simplex, July 4, 2023
Common & scientific name
Sticky goldenrod, Solidago simplex
Family
Sunflower, Asteraceae
Location
North Halfmoon, 10,500’
Fun, weird, helpful, or little known fact
The only sure-fire method of distinguishing this from the other look-a-like goldenrod on the Pass, Solidago multiradiata, is to look at the petioles (the leaf stems) to see if they are ciliate-margined (have hairs sticking straight out on their edges): this plant does not.
Penstemon hallii, July 4, 2023
Summit, 12,100’, July 7, 2023
Common & scientific name
Hall’s penstemon, Penstemon hallii
Family
Plantain, Plantaginaceae
Location
Mt. Massive, 12,800’
Fun, weird, helpful, or little known fact
A true blue (well, magenta-purple) Colorado native, this brilliant wildflower, large for the tundra, is found mostly near the Continental Divide and nowhere else on the planet—lucky us! Don’t miss its brief stay.
Summit, 12,100’, July 7, 2023
Taraxacum scopulorum, July 4, 2023
Above Ruby, 12,600’, August 4, 2023
Common & scientific name
Dwarf alpine dandelion, Taraxacum scopulorum
Family
Sunflower, Asteraceae
Location
Mt. Massive, 13,900’
Fun, weird, helpful, or little known fact
Standing only a couple inches tall and with a small head and blackish bracts that don’t bend down and outward, this native subalpine to alpine dandelion can be distinguished from its lawn-loving (and everywhere-loving) cousin by these traits.
Above Ruby, 12,600’, August 4, 2023
Rhodiola integrifolia, July 4, 2023
July 4
Common & scientific name
King’s crown, Rhodiola integrifolia
Family
Stonecrop, Crassulaceae
Location
Mt. Masive, 13,200’
Fun, weird, helpful, or little known fact
Who doesn’t love the succulent, uniquely-colored high mountain wildflower? Rhodiola integrifolia’s flat-topped flower clusters have dozens of wine-colored to almost black flower heads packed tightly together. King’s crown plants sprout from rhizomes, forming dense colonies, making them hard to miss and easy to enjoy!
Ruby area, 11,700’, August 4, 2023
Heuchera parviflora var. nivalis, July 4, 2023
Common & scientific name
Littleleaf or Common alumroot, Heuchera parvifolia var. nivalis
Family
Saxifrage, Saxifragaceae
Location
Mt. Massive, 12,800’
Fun, weird, helpful, or little known fact
Delicate, wonderful, if somewhat nondescript plant of the alpine. It is generally found tucked up against the leeward side of rocks, amongst lovely alpine gardens.
Linkins Lake area, 12,200’, July 18, 2023
Primula parryi, July 4, 2023
Blue Lake area, 12,000,’ July 30, 2023
Common & scientific name
Parry’s primrose, Primula parryi
Family
Primrose, Primulaceae
Location
North Halfmoon Lakes, 10,600’
Fun, weird, helpful, or little known fact
Known for its big, brilliant magenta flowers and stale-perfume-like smell, nothing lights up a high mountain stream like Parry’s primrose. Look for its smaller cousin, P. angustifolia, on drier alpine slopes.
10,500’, July 4
Phlox condensata, July 4, 2023
Common & scientific name
Dwarf phlox, Phlox condensata
Family
Phlox, Polemoniaceae
Location
Mt. Massive, 13,000’
Fun, weird, helpful, or little known fact
What a beauty! And found only on the east side of Independence Pass. These dense cushions can cover large swaths of rocky tundra, conjuring up small snowfields. Its flowers are the purest white: unmistakeable.
July 4
Aquilegia coerulea, July 3, 2023
Above Ruby, 11,900’, August 4, 2023
Common & scientific name
Colorado columbine, Aquilegia coerulea
Family
Buttercup, Ranunculaceae
Location
Mt. Massive, 11,200’
Fun, weird, helpful, or little known fact
Our beloved state flower, equally at home in aspen groves and on rocky tundra, manifesting all kinds of color combinations, hybridizing with all other species of Aquilegia, occasionally with spurless variants: how lucky we are to call this endlessly interesting flower our own!
Blue Lake area, 12,000’, July 30, 2023
Sedum lanceolatum, July 3, 2023
Common & scientific name
Yellow Stonecrop, Sedum lanceolatum
Family
Stonecrop, Crassulaceae
Location
Interlaken/Twin Lakes, 9,200’
Fun, weird, helpful, or little known fact
Found from the bottom to the top of our valley on exposed, sunny places on rocks or gravelly soil, with yellow, star-like flowers, maroon stems, and succulent leaves. In the same family as King’s and Queen’s Crown.
Penstemon procerus, July 3, 2023
Common & scientific name
Small-flowered penstemon, Penstemon procerus
Family
Plantain, Plantiganaceae
Location
Interlaken/Twin Lakes, 9,200’
Fun, weird, helpful, or little known fact
Its name says it all: Penstemon procerus can be distinguished from all other penstemons in our area by its 1/2” long, tightly-packed, blue/purple/magenta flowers. It grows on both sides of the Pass in a variety of habitats, especially the subalpine, but is not as common as many of our other penstemon species.
Dasiphora fruticosa, July 3, 2023
Common & scientific name
Shrubby cinquefoil, Dasiphora fruticosa
Family
Rose, Rosaceae
Location
Interlaken/Twin Lakes, 9,200’
Fun, weird, helpful, or little known fact
This plant has gone through more than a half-dozen name changes since Carl Linnaeus first stamped the binomial system onto it in the mid-1700s, beginning with “Potentilla fruticosa.” Its flowers are very potentilla (or cinquefoil)-like, but not its essential shrub nature (a “shrub” being defined as a woody plant which is smaller than a tree and has persistent woody stems above the ground, unlike herbaceous plants). It can be seen almost everywhere on the Pass.
Geranium caespitosum, July 3, 2023
Common & scientific name
Purple geranium, Geranium caespitosum
Family
Geranium, Geraniaceae
Location
Interlaken/Twin Lakes, 9,200’
Fun, weird, helpful, or little known fact
This species of geranium I have only seen on the east side of the Pass. It sprawls closer to the ground than our other two, more common species (G. richardsonii and G. viscossissimum), and the lobes of its leaves are more rounded. Please let me know if you’ve seen this on the west side!
Oxytropis splendens, July 3, 2023
Common & scientific name
Showy locoweed, Oxytropis splendens
Family
Pea, Fabaceae
Location
Interlaken/Twin Lakes, 9,100’
Fun, weird, helpful, or little known fact
Showy, indeed! Covered in long, white hairs, the plant takes on a silvery appearance, which contrasts with its numerous, richly colored flowers, ranging from dark purple to lavender, that sit atop tall, leafless stems that grow in large clusters.
When I first encountered this flower, I thought it might be a cultivated Oxytrope that had been planted and escaped back in the Hotel Interlaken days, as I had NEVER seen a wildflower in our area quite as large and dramatic as this. Alas, it IS a native, one you won’t see on the west side of the Pass, and worth a trip all by itself to the south side of Twin Lakes (you can also see it up South Fork Lake Creek meadows and alongside Highway 82!
Hymenoxis grandiflora, July 2, 2023
Indy-Mtn Boy ridge, 12,000’, August 23, 2023
Common & scientific name
Old-Man-of-the-Mountain, Hymenoxis grandiflora
Family
Sunflower, Asteraceae
Location
East summit, 12,100’
Fun, weird, helpful, or little known fact
This common alpine resident stands out with its comparatively huge flower head and its wooly-hairy stem and leaves. According to Dr. David Inouye, who for 4+ decades has studied alpine plants and their pollinators at the Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory, just over the Elk Range in Gothic, H. grandiflora grows for 12-15 years without flowering, storing up nutrients in its roots and leaves, flowers once, and then dies. So treat every Old-Man-of-the-Mountain you see with reverence, and imagine (if you can) your own last summer . . . .
Backside, August 23, 2023
Phacelia sericea, July 2, 2023
Common & scientific name
Silky phacelia, Phacelia sericea
Family
Waterleaf, Hydrophyllaceae
Location
Mountain Boy, 12,200’
Fun, weird, helpful, or little known fact
With its thick stalks of purple flowers, long, gold-tipped anthers, and silvery-pubescent fern-like leaves, Silky phacelia is one of our handsomest alpine wildflowers, akin to miniature fireworks. The genus Phacelia is found only in North and South America, primarily in desert areas. Bees love Silky phacelia, as well!
Indy-Mountain Boy ridge, 12,000’, August 23, 2023
Apocynum androsaemifolium, June 30, 2023
Common & scientific name
Spreading dogbane, Apocynum androsaemifolium
Family
Dogbane, Apocynaceae
Location
Aspen grove below Highway 82, 8,600’
Fun, weird, helpful, or little known fact
Called the “bane of dogs” owing to the toxic milky sap in its stems, our native dogbane with its lovely but diminutive white & pink-striped flowers belongs to the same family as oleanders.
Ranunculus adoneus, July 2, 2023
Common & scientific name
Alpine buttercup, Ranunculus adoneus
Family
Buttercup, Ranunculaceae
Location
Mountain Boy, 12,000’
Fun, weird, helpful, or little known fact
This beaming buttercup emerges along the edges of snowfields immediately after the snow melts, and sports fine, thread-like leaves (compared to its cousin, R. escholtzii). The flowers of the Alpine buttercup display heliotropism; that is, they track the sun's movement from early morning until mid-afternoon. Flowers aligned parallel to the sun's rays reach average internal temperatures several degrees Celsius above ambient air temperature, and attract more pollinators (in this case, flies) more often as a result.
Anaphalis margaritaceae, June 30, 2023
Common & scientific name
Pearly everlasting, Anaphalis margaritacea
Family
Sunflower, Asteraceae
Location
Classy Cliffs, 8,300’
Fun, weird, helpful, or little known fact
Pearly everlasting, seen roadside and in meadows throughout our valley, grows in profusion via underground stems (“rhizomes”). It has no ray flowers, just small yellow disk flowers that early in bloom are completely enclosed within papery white bracts, making them appear pearl-like (as in this photo). And while Pearly everlasting looks like a Pussytoe (Antennaria sp.), it is taller and doesn’t have an extensive mat of small leaves at its base.
Weller Lake area, 9,800’, August 15, 2023