Aliens have landed

Cirsium scariosum var. coloradense , August 15, 2025

Common & scientific name

Elk thistle, Cirsium scariosum var. coloradense

Family

Sunflower, Asteraceae

Location

Ruby area, 12,500’

Fun, weird, helpful, or little known fact

This wonderfully-whacky thistle is uncommon on the Pass, but is always a treat to find. This flower is always stemless, whether the plant stands several feet tall or just 6” off the ground. Its leaves are light green. When it is in the form shown here, a flat, stemless rosette with whitish-purple flowers clustered in the center, it looks like a giant sunflower. Beautiful, no?

Light lavender

Gentianella amarella, August 7, 2025

Common & scientific name

Autumn dwarf gentian, Gentianella amarella subspecies acuta

Family

Gentian, Gentianaceae

Location

Roadside, 11,600’

Fun, weird, helpful, or little known fact

Autumn dwarf gentian’s flowers are a lovely shade of lavender. They grow in small clusters from the tip of the stem and from most of the leaf axils. They have four or five petals, equal in length, that flare widely to reveal a circle of long white hairs. Autumn dwarf gentian can be tall like this plant, or much smaller depending on elevation and conditions. While July 26 hardly counts as “autumn,” it is like all gentians (save green gentian) a sign of the waning summer season.

Deep purple

Gentianopsis thermalis, July 15, 2025

Common & scientific name

Rocky Mountain fringed gentian, Gentianopsis thermalis

Family

Gentian, Gentianaceae

Location

Linkins Lake, 12,000’

Fun, weird, helpful, or little known fact

This delightful, widespread gentian (think roadside ditches, among other wet places) has four spiraling, delicately-fringed, deep-blue or deep-purple petals (compare the photos at left). “Thermalis” refers to the thermal pools of Yellowstone, where this gentian is particularly abundant and has been designated the park’s official flower.

What a big mouth

Gentiana parryi, July 29, 2025

Common & scientific name

Bottle gentian, Gentiana parryi

Family

Gentian, Gentianaceae

Location

Linkins Lake Trail, 11,800’

Fun, weird, helpful, or little known fact

This bright, blue-purple goblet puts out one to a half-dozen blooms per plant (alpine plants tend to have single blooms, lower growing more), opening fully only in sunshine. This and its other purple gentian cousins are some of the last wildflowers to grace the Pass above treeline—enjoy!

Greenland's national flower

Chamaenerion latifolium, July 28, 2025

Common & scientific name

Dwarf fireweed, Chamaenerion latifolium

Family

Evening primrose, Onagraceae

Location

Roadside, 11,700’

Fun, weird, helpful, or little known fact

Smaller plant and larger flowers than its close cousin, Chamaenerion angustifolium, and won’t be found roadside but rather creekside or ditch-side. It is the national flower of Greenland: good choice, Greenland!

No lemon

Oxyria digyna, July 24, 2025

Common & scientific name

Mountain sorrel, Oxyria digyna

Family

Buckwheat, Polygonaceae

Location

Geissler, 11,200’

Fun, weird, helpful, or little known fact

Heart-shaped leaves and red and green flowers then seeds make this charming alpine plant unmistakeable. The tart, lemony leaves are edible and have been enjoyed by humans and wildlife alike for millennia.

Bad hair day

Senecio amplectens var. amplectens, July 24, 2025

Common & scientific name

Showy alpine ragwort, Senecio amplectens var. amplectens

Family

Sunflower, Asteraceae

Location

Lower Green Mountain, 11,000’

Fun, weird, helpful, or little known fact

I so love this flower! Something about the way its petals bend and fold in different directions, in sometimes scraggly ways, as seen below, and the fact that it appears only occasionally in spruce/fir forests, or below along a steep streambank, makes this flower feel like a friend too rarely seen. A friend calls it the “bad hair day” flower.

A shy maiden

Moneses uniflora July 22, 2025

Common & scientific name

Wood nymph, Moneses uniflora

Family

Heath, Ericaceae

Location

Roaring Fork River, 10,500’

Fun, weird, helpful, or little known fact

Standing just a few inches off the ground, this perennial favorite’s single, nodding flower hides a clever stigma that can take pollen off the back of a visiting bumblebee after the bee has shaken pollen off the flower’s anthers. Look for this shy beauty in moist spruce-fir woods.

The Scottish bluebell

Campanula rotundiifolia, July 22, 2025

Common & scientific name

Harebell, Campanula rotundifolia

Family

Bellflower, Campanulaceae

Location

Roadside, 10,800’

Fun, weird, helpful, or little known fact

This IS the bluebell of Scotland (not our smaller Mertensia bluebells). The fact that this plant is sometimes found in areas inhabited by hares—rabbits—may explain its common name. It is commonly found on the Pass in the montane and subalpine zones.

A big fuzz head

Agoseris glauca var. dasycephala, July 15, 2025

Common & scientific name

Pale agoseris, Agoseris glauca var. dasycephala

Family

Sunflower, Asteraceae

Location

Upper Lost Man, 11,700’

Fun, weird, helpful, or little known fact

Much taller than A. glauca, much fuzzier, much bigger head, and found only in the high subalpine or alpine. I love this big fuzz head!

A Colorado native

Penstemon hallii, July 10, 2025

Common & scientific name

Hall’s penstemon, Penstemon hallii

Family

Plantain, Plantaginaceae

Location

Summit, 12,100’

Fun, weird, helpful, or little known fact

A true blue (well, magenta-purple) Colorado native, this brilliant wildflower, large for the tundra, is found mostly near the Continental Divide and nowhere else on the planet—lucky us! Don’t miss its brief stay.

A smallest, sweetest saxifrage

Saxifrage hyperborea, July 9, 2025

Common & scientific name

Alpine saxifrage, Saxifraga hyperborea

Family

Saxifrage, Saxifragaceae

Location

Ruby, 12,500’

Fun, weird, helpful, or little known fact

This total jewel of a flower, also known as “pygmy saxifrage,” is almost always found tucked into wet caves and boulder-created crevasses. It stands just three inches high, is usually single-flowered, has adorably-lobed leaves, and is guaranteed to make your day. Never let rock gardens go unexplored: treasures await!

An angelic carrot

Angelica grayi, July 9, 2025

Common & scientific name

Gray’s angelica, Angelica grayi

Family

Parsley, Apiaceae

Location

Ruby, 12,000

Fun, weird, helpful, or little known fact

This alpine carrot is unmistakeable, with its large umbel of greenish flowers and overall stocky demeanor. It is usually found high on the Pass near water in the company of many other flowers and grasses.

A skunk never smelled so sweet

Polemonium confertum, July 9, 2025

Mountain Boy, July 2, 2025

Species

Rocky Mountain sky pilot, Polemonium confertum

Family

Phlox, Polemoniaceae

Location

Ruby, 12,500’

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! Sky pilot, a common but striking tundra flower, sometimes goes by the name “Skunkweed,” owing to the strong odor it sometimes puts out.

Fuzzy, wasn't he?

Castilleja occidentalis, July 9, 2025

Same

Common & scientific name

Western Indian paintbrush, Castilleja occidentalis

Family

Broomrape, Orobanchaceae

Location

Ruby, 12,000’

Fun, weird, helpful, or little known fact

What a wonderful alpine fuzzball this is! Especially when it hybridizes with other paintbrushes like the magenta C. rhexifolia to create tie-dyed, striped wonders (note that not all botanists agree these hybridize: some argue for separate speciation).

While there is much discussion among botanists about the proper classification of paintbrushes, including the genetic difference (if any) between C. occidentalis and the similarly yellowish-white C. sulphurea (also called C. septentrionalis), the two are readily distinguishable in the field by their elevation (C. occidentalis is an alpine plant, C. sulphurea is found lower), their size (C. occidentalis is shorter), and their fuzziness factor (C. occidentalis wins!) It also crosses with other high-elevation Castillejas like C. rhexifolia and C. miniata to create colorful, striped versions

Pioneer Pea

Astragalus alpina, July 2, 2025

Common & scientific name

Alpine milkvetch, Astragalus alpinus

Family

Pea, Fabaceae

Location

Roadside east, 10,000’

Fun, weird, helpful, or little known fact

This circumpolar, pioneer plant may be the most widely distributed and common Astragalus in the world. While it is rarely found above treeline in our area, despite its name, and is more common on the east side of the Pass than the west, it is always a delight to find, in subalpine woods, meadows, and even (especially!) roadside, with its dainty purple-and-white flowers set among its sprawling, ladder-like leaves. It is also enjoyed by caribou, arctic hares, and greater snow geese (as food, that is), and grizzly bears forage its underground parts.

There's gold in them thar' hills

Saxifraga chrysantha, July 2, 2025

Common & scientific name
Golden saxifrage, Saxifraga chrysantha

Family
Saxifrage, Saxifragaceae

Location
Mountain Boy, 12,600’

Fun, weird, helpful, or little known fact
A single yellow flower with orange dots at the base of its petals sits atop a 2”-3” red stem covered with gland-tipped hairs (as can be seen in this photo) arising from a sweet little rosette of succulent leaves.  Yet another jewel of the alpine!  It does not have the red runners of its close cousin, Saxifraga flagellaris.

Harbour no regrets

Penstemon harbourii, July 2, 2025

Common & scientific name
Harbour’s penstemon, Penstemon harbourii

Family
Plantain, Plantaginaceae

Location
Mountain Boy, 12,600’

Fun, weird, helpful, or little known fact
This one must be earned! Found only in Colorado, only in high talus fields, and only in a few spots on the Pass, this beautiful beardtongue is worth the climb and the search.

The leaves have it

Claytonia megarhiza, June 29, 2025

Common & scientific name

Alpine springbeauty, Claytonia megarhiza

Family

Purslane, Portulaceae

Location

Independence Ridge, 13,000’

Fun, weird, helpful, or little known fact

This totally unmistakeable plant can be found growing among rocks in the high alpine. Its white flowers, colored with yellow centers and pink anthers, are found squeezed tight within a round rosette of succulent leaves that are deep purple at emergence (as with the plant at left), turn green during bloom, then bright red after.

Finally!

Sullivantia hapemanii, June 27, 2025

Common & scientific name

Hapemann’s coolwort, Sullivantia hapemanii

Family

Saxifrage, Saxifragaceae

Location

Grottos climbing wall area, 9,500’

Fun, weird, helpful, or little known fact

I’ve been searching Independence Pass for this rare Colorado plant for ten years. Alas, as soon as I stopped searching, there it was! Happy to find this elegant beauty, found in seeping rock wall/cliff areas.