Narcissim on display

Anemone narcissiflora, June 14, 2022

Common & scientific name
Narcissus anemone, Anemone narcissiflora

Family
Buttercup, Ranunculaceae

Location
Linkins Lake TH, 11,500’

Fun, weird, helpful, or little known fact
A flower named Narcissus would have LOVED all the attention it gets from scientists!  From the authoritative E-Flora:  “The taxonomy of this highly variable, widespread species is extremely controversial. The conservative approach taken here most closely approximates S.L. Welsh's (1974) treatment for the Alaskan varieties. E. Hultén's discussion (1941-1950, vol. 4, pp. 735-736) of local races and the variation within this species, however, clearly illustrates the need for a thorough biosystematic investigation. Recognition of about 12 varieties is in light of S. V. Juzepczuk's (1970) work; however, he elevated local races to specific rank in his treatment.”  What a complex character, indeed!

What I KNOW is that Anemone narcissiflora can be distinguished from the habitat-sharing, similar-looking Globeflower by its hairy stem, and from Marsh marigold by its divided (rather than simple, smooth-edged) leaves

Happy to smell a skunk

Polemonium viscosum, June 14, 2022

P. viscosum, summit, 12,200’, June 27, 2022

P. viscosum/confertum, Geissler, 13,100’, July 7, 2022

Common & scientific name
Sky pilot, Polemonium viscosum/confertum

Family
Phlox, Polemoniaceae

Location
Near summit, 12,100’

Fun, weird, helpful, or little known fact

If you’ve ever been scrambling along a rocky alpine ridge and swore you smelled a skunk, you were (sort of) correct!  Polemonium viscosum, a common but striking tundra flower, sometimes goes by the name “Skunkweed,” owing to the strong odor it sometimes puts out.  Like its faunal namesake, however, it is a beauty to behold, no matter the smell.  So hold your nose and thank your lucky stars for being where you are: in the magnificent alpine among the magnificent Sky pilot!

P. viscosum, Geissler, 13,200’, July 7, 2022

P. viscosum, Top Cut 12,100’, July 14, 2022

At home in the great white north

Silene acaulis, June 14, 2022

S. acaulis, Blue Lake area, 12,500’, June 17, 2022

Common & scientific name
Moss campion, Silene acaulis

Family
Pink, Caryophyllaceae

Location
Above Linkins Lake, 12,200’

Fun, weird, helpful, or little known fact
This perennial favorite of the high alpine occurs in almost all arctic and alpine habitats throughout the northern hemisphere.  It reaches as far south as Arizona and as far north in Greenland well above the arctic circle, within twenty-five miles of the most northern growing of any plant.  And according to extensive studies done on this alpine jewel in the 1950s in Rocky Mountain National Park, its roots go down as far as six feet—hard to believe in the (very) Rocky Mountains

Berry unappetizing

Symphoricarpos rotundifolius, June 14, 2022

Common & scientific name
Roundleaf snowberry, Symphoricarpos rotundifolius

Family
Honeysuckle, Caprifoliaceae

Location
Difficult Campground, 8200’

Fun, weird, helpful, or little known fact
This common shrub, native to the western United States, produces a white berry apparently enjoyed by no one: birds, animals, or people. Its dainty pink and white flowers, though, deserve a close look!

A wonder of creation

Thalictrum fendleri, male, June 14, 2022

Thalictrum fendleri, female, June 14, 2022

Common & scientific name
Fendler’s meadowrue, Thalictrum fendleri

Family
Buttercup, Ranunculaceae

Location
Difficult Campground, 8,100’

Fun, weird, helpful, or little known fact

This is one of my favorite wildflowers.  First, unusually, its plants come in male and female versions.  The first flower shown at left, reminiscent of a tasseled lampshade, is male.  The female version below is star-like, akin to skinnier versions of False Solomon’s seal.  They love aspen groves, and their leaves look like columbines’. In their intricacy, they are wonders of nature!

Patience pays

Ceanothus velutinus, June 14, 2022

Common & scientific name
Snowbrush, Ceanothus velutinus

Family
Buckthorn, Rhamnaceae

Location
Difficult, 8,100’

Fun, weird, helpful, or little known fact

A native evergreen shrub growing 2-9 feet tall with shiny, sticky leaves, its fruit is a capsule a few millimeters long which snaps open explosively to expel the three seeds onto the soil, where they may remain buried for well over 200 years before sprouting

Another daisy for your delight

Erigeron pinnatisectus, June 12, 2022

Common & scientific name
Cutleaf daisy, Erigeron pinnatisectus

Family
Sunflower, Asteraceae

Location
Beaver ponds below summit, 11,300’

Fun, weird, helpful, or little known fact
Its finely-cut leaves and large, light-purple heads distinguish Erigeron pinnatisectus from other subalpine and alpine daisies.  It is common on our rocky tundra.

E. pinnatisectus, Twining, 12,200’, July 1, 2022

A rare find

Draba globosa, June 12, 2022

D. globosa, Blue Lake area, 12,350’, June 17, 2022

Common & scientific name
Beavertip draba, Draba globosa

Family
Mustard, Brassicaceae

Location
Lower Twining, 12,500’

Fun, weird, helpful, or little known fact
A rare alpine draba, standing an inch high, with a tight mat of leaves. Its stem and leaves are mostly glabrous (non-hairy), somewhat glandular, with a few stiff hairs along the leaf edges and an extra-thick and stiff, terminal hair at the apex of the leaf (hence the “beavertip”—although not exactly sure what that means). This one is easy to miss!

D. globosa, Twining, 13,000’, July 1, 2022

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.

Let the Draba games begin!

Draba albertina, June 8, 2022

Common & scientific name
Slender draba, Draba albertina

Family
Mustard, Brassicaceae

Location
Lincoln Creek meadow, 10,250’

Fun, weird, helpful, or little known fact
With over a dozen species of Drabas—mostly small, yellow, and distinguishable only by the types of hairs on the plants and their siliques (seed pods)—Drabas present an excellent challenge for the aspiring botanist.

Most of this slender, meadow-loving draba’s leaves are basal and hairy with stiff, simple hairs, with a few sessile (unstalked) leaves along the stem. Its stems are hairy at the bottom, becoming glabrous (smooth/hairless) higher up. Its siliques are smooth and narrowly elliptic. This is a slender, almost weedy-looking draba found in open meadows usually below treeline.

Follow the sun and the flies will follow

Ranunculus adoneus, June 8, 2022

R. adoneus, June 8, 2022

Common & scientific name
Alpine buttercup, Ranunculus adoneus

Family
Buttercup, Ranunculaceae

Location
Green Mountain, 12,700’

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.