Primula parryi, July 4, 2023
Blue Lake area, 12,000,’ July 30, 2023
Common & scientific name
Parry’s primrose, Primula parryi
Family
Primrose, Primulaceae
Location
North Halfmoon Lakes, 10,600’
Fun, weird, helpful, or little known fact
Known for its big, brilliant magenta flowers and stale-perfume-like smell, nothing lights up a high mountain stream like Parry’s primrose. Look for its smaller cousin, P. angustifolia, on drier alpine slopes.
10,500’, July 4
Phlox condensata, July 4, 2023
Common & scientific name
Dwarf phlox, Phlox condensata
Family
Phlox, Polemoniaceae
Location
Mt. Massive, 13,000’
Fun, weird, helpful, or little known fact
What a beauty! And found only on the east side of Independence Pass. These dense cushions can cover large swaths of rocky tundra, conjuring up small snowfields. Its flowers are the purest white: unmistakeable.
July 4
Aquilegia coerulea, July 3, 2023
Above Ruby, 11,900’, August 4, 2023
Common & scientific name
Colorado columbine, Aquilegia coerulea
Family
Buttercup, Ranunculaceae
Location
Mt. Massive, 11,200’
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!
Blue Lake area, 12,000’, July 30, 2023
Sedum lanceolatum, July 3, 2023
Common & scientific name
Yellow Stonecrop, Sedum lanceolatum
Family
Stonecrop, Crassulaceae
Location
Interlaken/Twin Lakes, 9,200’
Fun, weird, helpful, or little known fact
Found from the bottom of our valleys to the top of our peaks on exposed, sunny places on rocks or gravelly soil, with yellow, star-like flowers, maroon stems, and succulent leaves. In the same family as King’s and Queen’s Crown.
Penstemon rydbergii, July 3, 2023
Common & scientific name
Small-flowered penstemon, Penstemon rydbergii
Family
Plantain, Plantiganaceae
Location
Interlaken/Twin Lakes, 9,200’
Fun, weird, helpful, or little known fact
Its name says it all: Penstemon rydbergii can be distinguished from all other penstemons in our area by its 1/2” long, tightly-packed, blue/purple/magenta flowers. It grows on both sides of the Pass in a variety of habitats, especially the subalpine, but is not as common as many of our other penstemon species.
Dasiphora fruticosa, July 3, 2023
Common & scientific name
Shrubby cinquefoil, Dasiphora fruticosa
Family
Rose, Rosaceae
Location
Interlaken/Twin Lakes, 9,200’
Fun, weird, helpful, or little known fact
This plant has gone through more than a half-dozen name changes since Carl Linnaeus first stamped the binomial system onto it in the mid-1700s, beginning with “Potentilla fruticosa.” Its flowers are very potentilla (or cinquefoil)-like, but not its essential shrub nature (a “shrub” being defined as a woody plant which is smaller than a tree and has persistent woody stems above the ground, unlike herbaceous plants). It can be seen almost everywhere on the Pass.
Geranium caespitosum, July 3, 2023
Common & scientific name
Purple geranium, Geranium caespitosum
Family
Geranium, Geraniaceae
Location
Interlaken/Twin Lakes, 9,200’
Fun, weird, helpful, or little known fact
This species of geranium I have only seen on the east side of the Pass. It sprawls closer to the ground than our other two, more common species (G. richardsonii and G. viscossissimum), and the lobes of its leaves are more rounded. Please let me know if you’ve seen this on the west side!
Oxytropis splendens, July 3, 2023
Common & scientific name
Showy locoweed, Oxytropis splendens
Family
Pea, Fabaceae
Location
Interlaken/Twin Lakes, 9,100’
Fun, weird, helpful, or little known fact
Showy, indeed! Covered in long, white hairs, the plant takes on a silvery appearance, which contrasts with its numerous, richly colored flowers, ranging from dark purple to lavender, that sit atop tall, leafless stems that grow in large clusters.
When I first encountered this flower, I thought it might be a cultivated Oxytropis that had been planted and escaped back in the Hotel Interlaken days, as I had NEVER seen a wildflower in our area quite as large and dramatic as this. Alas, it IS a native, one you won’t see on the west side of the Pass, and worth a trip all by itself to the south side of Twin Lakes (you can also see it up South Fork Lake Creek meadows and alongside Highway 82).
Hymenoxis grandiflora, July 2, 2023
Indy-Mtn Boy ridge, 12,000’, August 23, 2023
Common & scientific name
Old man of the mountain, Hymenoxis grandiflora
Family
Sunflower, Asteraceae
Location
East summit, 12,100’
Fun, weird, helpful, or little known fact
This common alpine resident stands out with its comparatively huge flower heads and woolly-hairy stems and leaves. According to Dr. David Inouye, who for 4+ decades has studied alpine plants and their pollinators at the Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory, just over the Elk Range in Gothic, H. grandiflora grows for 12-15 years without flowering, storing up nutrients in its roots and leaves, flowers once, and then dies. So treat every old man of the mountain you see in bloom with reverence, and imagine (if you can) your own last summer . . . .
Backside, August 23, 2023
Phacelia sericea, July 2, 2023
Common & scientific name
Silky phacelia, Phacelia sericea
Family
Waterleaf, Hydrophyllaceae
Location
Mountain Boy, 12,200’
Fun, weird, helpful, or little known fact
With its thick stalks of purple flowers, long, gold-tipped anthers, and silvery-pubescent, fern-like leaves, silky phacelia is one of our handsomest alpine wildflowers, akin to miniature fireworks. The genus Phacelia is found only in North and South America, primarily in desert areas. Bees love silky phacelia, as well!
Indy-Mountain Boy ridge, 12,000’, August 23, 2023
Ranunculus adoneus, July 2, 2023
Common & scientific name
Alpine buttercup, Ranunculus adoneus
Family
Buttercup, Ranunculaceae
Location
Mountain Boy, 12,000’
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.