A pretty potentilla

Potentilla pulcherrima, June 16, 2021

P. pulcherrima, ne of summit, 12,300’, June 23, 2021

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 flower (except P. arguta, which is white),  hence I am not including a flower photo here. 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. They are green on the “front” side and fuzzy-white-hairy on the “back” (as seen in the bottom-left photo).

The most delicate Draba

Draba crassifolia, June 17, 2021

Common & scientific name
Snowbed draba, Draba crassifolia

Family
Mustard, Brassicaceae

Location
Linkins Lake, 12,000’

Fun, weird, helpful, or little known fact
This tiniest of mustards is short-lived but abundant in our alpine and subalpine zones.  It stands a couple of inches tall, on the slenderest of leafless stalks, above a rosette of linear leaves, often in the protection of rocks or other plants.  Unlike many other Drabas, it is unmistakeable!

Pledge allegiance

A. coerulea, ne of summit, 11,900’, June 23, 2021

A. coerulea, possibly hybridizing with A. elegantula? Sayres Gulch, 11,400’, July 2, 2021

Common & scientific name
Colorado columbine, Aquilegia coerulea

Family
Buttercup, Ranunculaceae

Location
Upper Lost Man, 11,800’

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!

A. coerulea, ne of summit, 11,900’, June 23, 2021

Kinnikinnik spelled backwards

Arctostaphylos uva-ursi, June 17, 2021

Common & scientific name
Kinnikinnik, Arctostaphylos uva-ursi

Family
Heath, Ericaceae

Location
Above Linkins Lake, 12300’

Fun, weird, helpful, or little known fact
Kinnikinnik, or Bearberry (see its scientific name), is a ground-hugging, evergreen shrub with thick, leathery, paddle-shaped leaves that are yellow-green in the spring, dark-green in the summer, and reddish-purple in the fall.  Its tiny, bell-shaped, pink-tipped, white flowers nod in clusters from red stems.  Bright-red berries succeed the flowers and persist into winter.  This wonderful alpine ground cover is equally at home at sea level back east. 

A. uva-ursi, in fruit, Wet Gulch 12,000’, August 18, 2021

Pearly vs. Pussy

Anaphalis margaritacea, June 17, 2021

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. 

A. margaritacea, roadside, 10,000’, August 3, 2021

Skunks are beautiful

Polemonium pulcherrimum, June 17, 2021

Common & scientific name
Jacob’s ladder, Polemonium pulcherrimum

Family
Phlox, Polemoniaceae

Location
Ptarmigan Creek, 10,500’

Fun, weird, helpful, or little known fact
“Pulcherrimum” means “very beautiful.”  Indeed.  These low-lying, soft-blue, light-purple flowers light up the brown understories of dry lodgepole and spruce/fir forests.  And like their alpine cousin, P. viscosum, Sky pilot, they emit a less-than-beautiful skunk-like odor in the wind.  Enjoy the paradox!

Bedding down for the summer

Paronychia pulvinata, June 17, 2021

Common & scientific name
Alpine nailwort, Paronychia pulvinata

Family
Pink, Caryophyllaceae

Location
Above Linkins Lake, 12,300’

Fun, weird, helpful, or little known fact
Inconspicuous yellow-green flowers embedded in tight, sometimes large mats, often growing directly on the crumbling granite of our high peaks.  This low-lying, wonderfully subtle flower knows how to make the best of things amidst the hard, desiccating winds of the high alpine!

Meet me by the lake

Kalmia microphylla, June 17, 2021

K. microphylla, North Fork Lake Creek, 11,300’, June 19, 2021,

Common & scientific name
Alpine laurel, Kalmia microphylla

Family
Heath, Ericaceae

Location
Linkins Lake, 12,000

Fun, weird, helpful, or little known fact

Is there any more delightful sight than coming upon a high alpine lake or stream lined with Kalmia?  Its bright pink petals are fused into a shallow, saucer-shaped bowl, with anthers that are held under spring-like tension until a large-bodied pollinator (like a bumblebee) triggers the stamen and is showered by pollen.  Kalmia was named after one of the star pupils of Carl Linnaeus (the inventor of the binomial system and botanist extraordinaire), Peter Kalm, who collected 60 new species for Linnaeus in North America in 1748, including Alpine laurel. 

The mama bear of alpine parsleys

Podistera eastwoodiaem, June 16, 2021

Common & scientific name
Eastwood’s woodroot, Podistera eastwoodiae

Family
Parsley, Apiaceae

Location
Summit, 12,100’

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, Oreoxis alpina, or Mountain parsley, Pseudocympoterus montanus, 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.