A wonder of creation

Thalictrum fendleri, male, June 16, 2023

Female, June 16

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!

June 28, 2023

Berry unappetizing

Symphoricarpos rotundifolius, June 16, 2023

In fruit, September 21, 2023, Difficult

Common & scientific name

Roundleaf snowberry, Symphoricarpos rotundifolius

Family

Honeysuckle, Caprifoliaceae

Location

Roadside, 8,200’

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!

Yellow lupine?

Thermopsis montana, June 16, 2023

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.

Patience pays

Ceanothus velutinus, June 16, 2023

Common & scientific name

Snowbrush, Ceanothus velutinus

Family

Buckthorn, Rhamnaceae

Location

Roadside, 8,200’

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. Wow.

How low can you go

Oreoxis alpina, June 16, 2023

June 16

Common & scientific name

Alpine parsley, Oreoxis alpina

Family

Parsley, Apiaceae

Location

Above Linkins Lake, 12,400’

Fun, weird, helpful, or little known fact

William Weber, the foremost authority on the flora of Colorado, describes Cymopterus alpina as “a common dwarf alpine on granitic mountains of the Continental Divide.” Bingo! This minute yellow flower is a common early summer companion on the high mountains and ridges of Independence Pass, where it stays low to the ground and protected from wind by surrounding rocks and vegetation.

Sufferin' saxifrage!

Micranthes rhomboidea, June 16, 2023

Common & scientific name

Diamond-leaf saxifrage, MIcranthes rhomboidea

Family

Saxifrage, Saxifragaceae

Location

Linkins Lake area, 12,200’

Fun, weird, helpful, or little known fact

Saxifrages are one of our most delightful families. They’re mostly white (sometimes yellow), usually delicate, and always a treat to find. This will be the first of over a dozen saxifrage species to come on the Pass.

Daisy rockin' it

Erigeron leiomerus, June 13, 2023

Common & scientific name

Rockslide daisy, Erigeron leiomerus

Family

Sunflower, Asteraceae

Location

Ridge above Turkey Rock, 10,900’

Fun, weird, helpful, or little known fact

This cheery lavender and occasionally white daisy has glandular, deep-purple phyllaries and few, small stem leaves (most of its leaves are at the base of the plant, i.e., they are “basal”).

Pika produce

Geum rossii, June 13, 2023

Twining Peak, 12,700’, June 29, 2023

Common & scientific name

Alpine avens, Geum rossii

Family

Rose, Rosaceae

Location

Ridge above Turkey Rock, 11,600’

Fun, weird, helpful, or little known fact

Alpine avens, one of our most common alpine plants, can often be seen in the mouth of the Pass’s mascot, the American pika. This is surprising because alpine avens contain tannins, bitter-tasting compounds that are intended to make them unpalatable to animals before their fruits or seeds are ripe. (Tannins cause that astringent, mouth-coating feeling you get from biting into an unripe pear—yuck). However, those same tannins act as preservatives, which help the pika preserve the other plants they store in their winter “haypiles” so they don’t mold or rot during their long winter lock-down. And alpine avens’ leaves turn a lovely red in late summer, blanketing the browning tundra. So we love alpine avens for numerous reasons!

Alpine cinquefoil

Potentilla nivea, June 13, 2023

Front side of leaf

Common & scientific names

Snow cinquefoil, Potentilla nivea

Family

Rose, Rosaceae

Location

Summit, 12,100’

Fun, weird, helpful, or little known facts

Our most common alpine cinquefoil, its three-parted leaves are densely white/hairy below, greener on top (but still hairy: see photos to left and below). There is substantial confusion/flux around a number of Potentillas, including this one (does it include P. uniflora, for example? or is the difference that it lacks the cottony hairs on snow cinquefoil’s petioles?), and they do tend to hybridize. But for now most experts seem to agree this cinquefoil is properly classified. For now, anyway . . .

Back side of leaf

Short life but many offspring

Trifolium repens, June 13, 2023

June 13, 2023

Common & scientific name

White clover, Trifolium repens

Family

Pea, Fabaceae

Location

Weller curve, 9,200’

Fun, weird, helpful, or little known fact

White clover is one of the most widely cultivated clovers for pastures and agricultural purposes in the world. It is not as hardy as red clover, though: after only 1–2 years, the original plant dies. It IS, however, a prolific seed producer, so stands of white clover may persist almost indefinitely.