A crowning achievement

Rhodiola integrifolia, June 12, 2022

R. integrifolia, this year’s and last year’s, Geissler area, 12,500’, July 7, 2022

Common & scientific name
King’s crown, Rhodiola integrifolia

Family
Stonecrop, Crassulaceae

Location
Lower Twining, 12,000’

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!

R. integrifolia, Top Cut 12,100’, July 14, 2022

Purple jewel of the alpine

Besseya alpina, June 12, 2022

B. alpina, Blue Lake area, 12,800’, June 17, 2022

Common & scientific name
Alpine besseya, Besseya alpina

Family
Plantain, Plantaginaceae

Location
Lower Twining, 12,900’

Fun, weird, helpful, or little known fact
This gem of an alpine flower is found only in the high mountains of the Four Corners states, and most abundantly in Colorado. A swift glance might mistake it for Silky phacelia, Phacelia sericea, but its leaves are dark green and thick, not feathery, and it stands just a couple of inches tall. It is usually found nestled within rock gardens, and is always a worthy find.

Hoary, not Hairy

Packera wernerifolia, June 12, 2022

P. wernerifolia, Sioux Lake area, 12,200’, July 4, 2022

Common & scientific name
Hoary groundsel, Packera wernerifolia

Family
Sunflower, Asteraceae

Location
Top Cut, 11,900’

Fun, weird, helpful, or little known fact
A highly variable yellow senecio (not always “hoary”), but easy to identify in our area owing to its location (alpine), stature (short), reduced, bract-like stem leaves, and often (subtly) three-toothed leaves at the apex .  Named after another genus not found in the US—not Mr. Werner!

P. wernerifolia, Geissler, 13,000’, July 7, 2022

Lucky clovers

Trifolium dasyphyllum, June 12, 2022

T. dasyphyllum, north summit, 12,300’, June 20, 2022

Common & scientific name
Alpine clover, Trifolium dasyphyllum

Family
Pea, Fabiaceae

Location
Top Cut, 11,800’

Fun, weird, helpful, or little known fact

One of our three throughly delightful alpine clovers, this early bloomer can be distinguished from its similarly shaped but (usually) later blooming cousin, T. parryi, by its lighter overall color (often white or light pink) and darker, contrasting (here magenta) keel, where T. parryi is a darker magenta or purple overall, without the boldly contrasting keel

Our fuzzy alpine daisy

Erigeron simplex, June 12, 2022

E. simplex, above Linkins Lake, 12,400, June 21, 2022

Common & scientific name
One-stem daisy, Erigeron simplex

Family
Sunflower, Asteraceae

Location
Beaver ponds below summit, 11,300’

Fun, weird, helpful, or little known fact
This common tundra plant ranges from lavender to pink to white, has hairy phyllaries (the whorl of bracts surrounding the flower (actually, flowers—as a member of the Sunflower family, the daisy has multiple ray flowers (the “petals”) surrounding multiple disk flowers that make up the yellow middle (the “button”)), and simple (undivided, smooth on the edge) leaves.  This is how to tell it apart from other Erigerons it shares the high country with (see photo below).

Mr. Parry scores another

Trifolium parryi, June 11, 2022

T. parryi, Twining, 12,200’, July 1, 2022

Common & scientific name
Parry’s clover, Trifolium parryi

Family
Pea, Fabaceae

Location
Top Cut, 11,800’

Fun, weird, helpful, or little known fact
One of our half-dozen wonderful clovers, found primarily in the alpine in wettish places, and named, as so many plants are, after the 19th century botanist/explorer, Charles Parry.  How thrilling it must have been for Mr. Parry to be exploring the West in the early 1800s, seeing new flower after new flower, making one amazing “discovery” after the next (for western science, that is—native Americans had known these plants well for thousands of years).

Yellow lupine?

Thermopsis montanus, June 11, 2022

Common & scientific name
Golden banner, Thermopsis montana

Family
Pea, Fabaceae

Location
Grottos, 9,200’

Fun, weird, helpful, or little known fact

Looks like a lupine, but it’s yellow, and that’s all you need to know to distinguish it!  Golden banner grows easily and in great quantities around our valley, but in only a few spots on the Pass

The choke's on you

Prunus virginiana, June 9, 2022

Common & scientific name
Chokecherry, Prunus virginiana

Family
Rose, Rosaceae

Location
Roadside, 8,600’

Fun, weird, helpful, or little known fact
So named because of its berries’ bitter flavor—and indeed their seeds contain cyanide—Chokecherry is popularly used to make jam, and was a staple of Native American diets, as cooking rids the fruit of its cyanide and bitter taste.

Peas be careful where you step

Trifolium nanum, June 9, 2022

T. nanum mat, summit, 12,100’, June 11, 2022

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.

T. nanum, Blue Lake area, 12,700’, June 17, 2022

It's all about the leaves

Potentilla subjuga, June 8, 2022

Common & scientific names
Colorado cinquefoil, Potentilla subjuga

Family
Rose, Rosaceae

Location
Summit, 12,100’

Fun, weird, helpful, or little known facts

Cinquefoils all have basically the same-looking flower (except P. arguta, which is white), so everything depends on their leaves and their location/elevation.

P. subjuga is common in the alpine in our area. It has palmate leaves often with two or a pair of two, smaller leaflets separated slightly on the stem from the “hand” above. The teeth of the leaves are deep, the surface of the “front” side of the leaves are green but with hairs, the back side white and very hairy.