Never to be forgotten

Eritrichum aretioides, June 8, 2020

Common & scientific name
Alpine forget-me-nots, Eritrichum aretioides

Family
Borage, Boraginaceae

Location
Summit, 12,100’

Fun, weird, helpful, or little known fact

This ground-hugging alpine jewel is many people’s favorite wildflower, period.  Its Kodachrome-blue petals and golden eyes are unique in our region, and its favorite habitat—rocky, windswept, highly inhospitable mountain tops and ridges—makes its beauty and sheer existence all the more jaw-dropping.  Because this flower blooms early and won’t stick around too long, it is worth dropping everything to get up high and bow down to this wonder of creation.

Good enough wins

Heterotheca villosa, June 8, 2020

H. pumila, July 28, 2020

Common & scientific name
Hairy golden aster, Heterotheca villosa

Family
Sunflower, Asteraceae

Location
Above winter gate, 8,550’

Fun, weird, helpful, or little known fact

While all guide books describe this plant as “highly variable” (in size, leaf shape, hairiness, etc.), it is easily identifiable by its strongly pungent smell, location (dry, exposed places, often roadside), and its numerous yellow flowers atop a mound of grayish-green leaves.  Its alpine cousin, H. pumila, looks similar (and they may interbreed), but it generally has larger yellow flowers and, well, grows higher. I tried for years to distinguish these two species, but have now decided not to make the perfect the enemy of the good: if it’s up high, it’s H. pumila, if it’s not, it’s H. villosa.

Smokin' soft

Geum triflorum, June 26, 2020

Common & scientific name
Prairie smoke, Geum triflorum

Family
Rose, Rosaceae

Location
North Fork Lake Creek TH, 10,800’

Fun, weird, helpful, or little known fact

This sublimely soft, rosy, nodding flower is always a delight to find, whether it’s a single plant or whether it fills a meadow.  Its seed heads are reminiscent of a Dr. Seuss hair style, and will be featured here later this summer when they go to seed!  Interestingly, it is the plant’s rosy bracts and sepals, not its small, pale petals just protruding at the tip of the flower, that give Prairie smoke its elegant color and shape.

Scarious stuff

Cerastium strictum, June 8, 2020

Common & scientific name
Mouse-ear chickweed, Cerastium strictum

Family
Pink, Caryophyllaceae

Location
Mountain Boy basin, 11,100’

Fun, weird, helpful, or little known fact

This cheery chickweed is abundant in meadows and forest openings from the montane to the alpine.  It can be distinguished from its close cousin, C. beeringianum, by its scarious-margined bracts; that is, the green, reduced leaves surrounding the bottom of C. strictum’s flower have clear, thin, plastic-looking margins.

Yellow to the west, lavender to the east

Erysimum capitatum, June 8, 2020

Erysimum capitatum, June 11, 2020

Common & scientific name
Western wallflower, Erysimum capitatum

Family
Mustard, Brassicaceae

Location
Mountain Boy basin, 11,100’ & summit, 12,100’

Fun, weird, helpful, or little known fact

This big, cheery mustard is as at home on the summit of Independence Pass as it is in the deserts of Utah.  It is most commonly yellow, but on the east side of the Pass, especially up near treeline, it is a striking lavender-magenta—photo coming soon!

I'm early this year!

Castilleja linarifolia, June 8, 2020

Castilleja linarifolia, yellow version, June 16, 2020

Common & scientific name
Wyoming paintbrush, Castilleja linarifolia

Family
Broomrape, Orobanchaceae

Location
Above winter gate, 8,600’

Fun, weird, helpful, or little known fact

One of five species of paintbrushes found on the Pass, Wyoming paintbrush (so named because it is the state flower of Wyoming) is found at the lowest elevations on the Pass, and usually later in the summer than early June.  It is the tallest and skinniest in appearance, due to its mostly linear leaves, and does not have the soft, fuzzy appearance of its red cousin, Castilleja miniata. It occasionally takes on varying shades of yellow and orange, as seen in the photos below, likely through mutation.

C. linarifolia, orange version, June 16, 2020

Shiny, beautiful things

Ranunculus macounii, June 8, 2020

Common & scientific name
Macoun’s buttercup, Ranunculus macounii

Family
Buttercup, Ranunculaceae

Location
Twin Lakes, 9,700’

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!

Rocky Mountain regal

Penstemon strictus, June 16, 2020

Common & scientific name
Rocky Mountain penstemon, Penstemon strictus

Family
Plantain, Plantaginaceae

Location
Above the winter gate, 8,600’

Fun, weird, helpful, or little known fact

In her fabulous local guide, Wild at Heart, Janis Huggins notes that “with more than 250 species . . . [penstemon] is the largest genus of flowering plants native to North America and one that is still actively evolving—closely related species in the same vicinity readily hybridize.”  This being said, it is impossible to mistake our regal Rocky Mountain penstemon for any other kind.  It grows only near the bottom of the Pass in sunny, dry areas, and is by far the tallest and lightest blue-lavender of the Pass’s half-dozen species.

I am not a sham

Pseudocymopterus montanus, June 23, 2020

Common & scientific name
Mountain parsley, Pseudocymopterus montanus

Family
Parsley, Apiaceae

Location
Waterfall, 10,100’

Fun, weird, helpful, or little known fact

This common parsley, seen at every elevation on the Pass, gives scientists fits because of its morphological variability and differences of opinion as to how it should be classified, both genus and species-wise.  But it’s one of our easier plants to identify: it has carrot-like leaves and it’s yellow, unlike any other parsleys on the Pass, which are all white (EXCEPT Alpine parsley, Oreoxis alpina, which is mat-forming and much tinier in all aspects than Mountain parsley).

Peas mind where you're stepping

Trifolium nanum, June 8, 2020

Common & scientific name
Dwarf clover, Trifolium nanum

Family
Pea, Fabaceae

Location
Summit, 12,100’

Fun, weird, helpful, or little known fact

This exclusively alpine pea hugs the ground, coming in at just an inch or so high (“nanum” is Greek for “dwarf.”) It’s hard to miss, though, as it forms densely-packed mats of elegant pin-striped flowers ranging from whiteish-pink, to lavender, magenta, and purple.

In the land of the fairies

Androsace septentrionalis, June 8, 2020

A. septentrionalis in larger form, June 8, 2020

Common & scientific name
Northern fairy candelabra, Androsace septentrionalis

Family
Primrose, Primulaceae

Location
Waterfall, 10,100’ & Mountain Boy basin, 11,100’

Fun, weird, helpful, or little known fact

This delightful diminutive is remarkably variable in its morphology (its form and structure).  It ranges from 1-8 inches in height, and can have a few to many flowers in its umbels (“umbel” refers to a cluster of flowers that radiate on their stalks, like the spokes on an umbrella).  Its variability appears to be related to elevation, moisture, aspect, light, and undoubtedly other factors of which humans know nothing, as this fairy undoubtedly prefers.