Flowers keep unfurling this Fourth of July week. Here is a quick post of wildflowers you may see hiking or driving throughout Jackson Hole. Enjoy skimming through the photos for their names. And if you have a moment, read the captions to find out a quick fact you can share with a friend.

Sunny dry habitats, such as sage flats and south facing slopes:

Silky Lupine – Lupinus sericeus – has fine silvery hairs covering most of the 2’-2.5’ plants.

Both sides of the “palmate” leaves and the back of the “banners” of the blue pea-like flowers are silky —good identification features. Hairs on plants help keep plants from drying out in hot, open spaces: they reflect back the sun and shade the leaf surface, cut the velocity of drying winds, and reduce abrasion by wind-swept soil particles. These hairy adaptations are found in many desert and alpine plants, too.

Scarlet Gilia – Ipomopsis aggregata –is blooming strong. The 1-3’ stems wave in the wind like red wands. The red, 1”, trumpet-shaped flowers are pollinated by hummingbirds. Hummingbirds are attracted by the red color (most insects can’t see red) and hover as they insert their long beaks and even longer tongues down into the tough flower tube. While the hummingbird is lapping (not sipping) high-test nectar, it gets doused by pollen, which it distributes to the next flower if the sticky female stigma is stretched out to collect it from the hummingbird’s forehead.

Growing only a few inches high, Lance-leaved Stonecrop – Sedum lanceolatum – is related to hens and chicks, popular garden and house plants. The pudgy leaves are succulent, designed to hold water in reserve in dry conditions. If knocked off the plant, the leaves can grow roots and start whole new plants, which is one way stonecrops can move around the neighborhood.

If pollinated, the bright yellow, star-shaped flowers of Lance-leaved Stonecrops form seeds, which is the other way plants can get out of the shadow of their parents.

Sulphur Buckwheat – Eriogonum umbellatum var. majus – has umbels of creamy yellow flowers often with a blush of pink held above a whorl of leaves.  Below the 12″ stems, small oval leaves and creeping stems form large mats upon the ground, out of the wind.

In mostly dry locations, delicate clumps of Ballhead Sandwort – Eremogone congesta – are scattered among more robust plants.  ‘Congesta’ in the botanical name refers to several small white flowers grouped tightly together in a head at the top of each wiry stem.

Sandwort is in the same family as florist carnations and garden pinks, sporting opposite needle-like leaves joined together in a bit of a bump on the stem.

 Three blues: Stickseed, Bluebells, Flax

Jessica Stickseeds grow to 3’, have several 3-6” leaves around the base and up the stem, and are found in a variety of habitats with a bit of moisture.

Jessica Stickseed flowers look similar to “For-get-me-nots” – Myosotis –  with 5 sky-blue peals in a pinwheel around a “yellow eye”.

However, the four nutlets (fruits) have 2-barbed prickles which will stick to you—you become the vector for its seed dispersal–hence the name Stickseed.

Mountain Bluebells – Mertensia ciliata – are in the same family as the Stickseeds (Borage Family) and have a similar sky-blue color. The 5 petals form a  tube and flowers dangle together at the tips of 2-3’ stems. Plants grow along stream edges and in wet meadows.

Pollinators zero in on individual blue flowers, where they hang or hover while reaching into the tube for nectar. Watch the color changes of the flowers as they ripen and then fade in the course of pollination and for what insects show up!

Lewis’ Flax – Linum lewisii – named after Merriweather Lewis the explorer, is common along roadsides and in meadows. Each saucer-shaped flower appears to reflect the sky. Many kinds of insects can land and pollinate the flowers. Each flower lasts only a day.

Particularly showy and popular: Paintbrushes, Cinquefoils, Penstemons

Found in a variety of habitats, Paintbrushes – Castilleja spp. – come in different colors and shapes. They hybridize, thereby forming intermediates, making ID difficult. Paintbrush flowers are complicated: most color comes from bracts and sepals, not from petals which are often green. Bracts are modified leaves found just below each flower. Each flower has 2-4 sepals fused together. The petals form a long tube with a lip, and are often hidden inside the bracts and sepals until the flower is in full bloom. This “galea” protects the anthers and stigma until pollination.

Here are a two common paintbrushes which are relatively easy to ID.

The state flower – Wyoming Indian Paintbrush – Castilleja liniarifolia – stands out.  The green petals form a narrow tube beyond which extends the stigma (seen here on the right). This tube or  “galea” arches beyond the bright red sepals and flaring red bracts.  Red elongate flowers appeal to hummingbird pollinators. Stem leaves are dissected into 2-3 narrow segments. Plants can be 2-3’ tall.

Mostly mingling in meadows, Scarlet Indian Paintbrushes – Castilleja miniata – are usually red but range into orange. Green and red bracts are broad and pointed.  Sepals are red, pointed, and fused, concealing the green tubes (“galea”) of petals until fully mature. This species is found at lower elevations, such as along Moose-Wilson Road, than the look-alike C. rhexifolia which is subalpine.

Potentilla or Cinquefoil flowers are 5-petalled with many anthers circling a cone of many pistils. White Cinquefoil – Potentilla arguta – is the most commonly seen species at this time and has mostly yellow, not white, flowers. For precise ID (using a hand lens helps!), one counts up to 25 anthers, notes the roughly marked stigmas on smooth ovaries forming a slight cone in the center, and sees several flowers held tightly together on sticky stems.  They look very similar to Sticky Cinquefoil  – P. glandulosa – which holds its flowers a bit more broadly.  Some plant experts say both should be the same species.

The leaves of this cinquefoil are “pinnately” divided into 7-9 coarsely toothed leaflets.

Graceful Cinquefoil – Potentilla gracilis – is common along trails, leaning out and shining up at you.

Beardtongues – Penstemon spp. – are fascinating puzzles. Most have opposite oval to elongate leaves going up the stem. The lower 3 petals form a landing pad and all 5 petals fuse together to form a tunnel sized for specific pollinators. The name “Penstemon” refers to the false fifth stamen- staminode – which lies like a tongue (say ahh!)  at the base of the flower and is often hairy or “bearded”. There are 4 true stamens, each with two divergent anther sacs, which curve over the bodies of pollinators—bumble bees in this instance.

Right now at least four beardstongues stand out in patches along roadsides or on dry slopes. One representative is Wasatch Penstemon – P. cyananthus – seen hiking south from Teton Pass.

Another common species is Smooth Penstemon – P. subglaber – 3’ wands of blue, often found along roadsides in gravelly soils.

Two sizable plants of meadows and aspen groves: Giant Hyssop and Little Sunflowers

Looking closely at Nettle-leaf Giant Hyssop – Agastache urticifolia – you can see the “irregular” whitish flowers (with five fused petals ) with long anthers sticking out. The surrounding pointed sepals are pinkish. The egg-shaped, toothed leaves are aromatic and sit opposite one another, each pair set at 90-degree angles from the one below. The 2-4’ stems are square. These are characteristics of the Mint Family.

One-flower Little Sunflowers – Helianthella uniflora – are big bright spots on dry slopes and ridge lines. This species usually has 1-3 flowers per stem and only 3 veins on its leaves.

The more robust Five-nerved Helianthella – Helianthella quinquenervis – appears to stare right at you! The large lower leaves have 5 distinct nerves and the 4-5′ plants usually have only one big 3-4” flower per stem.

 Particularly impressive: Monument Plant, Cow Parsnip, Elk Thistle 

This is a great year for Monument Plants or Green Gentians – Frasera speciosa. Once upon a time, botanists thought these plants grew like biennials or short-lived perennials in the garden…a rosette of leaves one year, a tall stalk of flowers a year or two later. However, a long-time researcher in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado determined that these plants don’t in fact flower until they are 40 to even 60 years old!

This stage of growth–a rosette of leaves–can last dozens of years before Green Gentian or Monument Plant shoots up its flower stalk.

With a fresh rosette of leaves each year, Green Gentian continually stores energy into its deep tap root until it has sufficient fuel for its final, tremendous act. Flowers buds are triggered four years before the spring when each stalk stretches up to 4-5’, arrayed with dozens, even hundreds, of flowers.

Once pollinated by myriad insects, the plants form fruits which split open to scatter thousands of seeds.  The plant then dies. Snow depth appears to be the stimulus for flower bud set for the individuals old enough to bloom. Consequently, plants bloom in cohorts, overwhelming the ability of predators to eat all the seeds.

Flowers of Cow Parsnip – Heracleum spondylium – unfurl from huge buds into dinner-plate sized umbels of tiny flowers.   How did all that stuff fit into one bud?

Cow Parsnip grows under aspens and in moist meadows where there is enough water to supply the very large leaves on 4-6’ plants. It is the largest member of the Parsley Family here in Jackson Hole.

Elk Thistle – Cirsium scariosum – is almost as impressive as the two large plants above. The first year, it forms a flat rosette of leaves which store energy into the tap root before the winter. The second year a 1-3’-tall, thick stalk arises with elegant elongate, spine-tipped leaves. The plants are covered in fine cobwebby hairs. The large flower heads are nested in the top.  Elk Thistle is a native thistle which supports a diversity of insects and is indeed eaten by elk and should be treated with respect.

Teton County Weed and Pest is targeting this monstrous alien Musk Thistle – Carduus nutans – before it overwhelms pastures, hayfields, and meadows.  Let them know if you have these scarey plants on your land.

Surprises: Cactus and Sego Lily

Flowering in a small rocky cleft across from Kelly Warm Springs is Brittle Prickly Pear Cactus – Opuntia fragilis. The waxy, thickened stems contain chlorophyll to manufacture food and to hold extra water. Spines are actually modified leaves, which help shade the plant and provide defense. The spines coupled with fragile stem joints help spread the plants vegetatively—they attach to your shoes or worse your flesh. Do not touch!

Along Old Pass Road, we spied a Sego Lily – Calochortus nuttallii – an elegant flower which grows from a bulb in dry locations. Sego Lily was voted by school children as the state flower of Utah in 1911. Between 1840-1851 Mormon settlers dug and ate the soft bulbs when the plague of crickets ravaged crops.

At another location near Bryan Flats, we spied White Mariposa Lily – Calochortus eurycarpus – with elegant goblet-like flowers which attract a variety of insects including bees, wasps, bee-flies and several kinds of beetles. One can imagine quite a pollinator party!

Please, enjoy these beautiful days looking at wildflowers up close.

Frances Clark, Wilson, WY

Julyl 4, 2016

The number of fresh flowers is overwhelming hiking up Old Pass Road, Ski Lake, Munger Mountain and other trails with aspen groves and coniferous forests intermingle with meadows. The range of sun and shade, moisture and soils provides opportunities for a diversity of wildflowers to find their niche. Some plants are generalists, others are specific in their growing needs. All have evolved pollination techniques which are fascinating to observe and underground connections which we can only imagine.

Connections above and below ground:

Sticky Geranium – Geranium viscosissimum – is wide open to pollinators.  The nectar guides lead to a central column of anthers and pistil.

Sticky Geranium – Geranium viscosissimum – is common everywhere right now. The saucer-shaped flowers formed by 5 petals are wide open to a variety of pollinators. Look closely at the nectar guides that lead to a central column comprised 0f anthers and stigmas. These male and female parts mature at different times to avoid self-pollination. Petal color varies from almost blue to deep pink, to almost white. All parts of the plant have sticky “glandular hairs” which present a gooey forest defense for tiny crawling predators.

Richardson’s Geranium – Geranium richardsonii – looks very similar to Sticky Geranium but is white and grows in moist sites.

Both species have sticky hairs that serve as a gooey forest of defense against tiny invaders.  The hairs of Richardson’s Geranium are purple-tipped.

Lupines are lurking…quite obviously…under conifer trees—lodgepole pines at Signal Mountain, Douglas firs along Ski Lake Trail. The “palmately” divided leaves and the pea-like flowers (later pods) are two definitive ID features for lupines, overall.

Silvery Lupine – Lupinus argenteus – is found most frequently in forests vs. Silky Lupines are found commonly in sageflats. Lupines can grow in, and even improve, low nutrient soils.

Silvery Lupine flowers look like miniature garden pea flowers. The banner which folds back at the top is smooth. The two side petals–the wings–hide the two “keel” petals inside. Within are 10 anthers and one pistil.  The pistil will become a pod.

Silvery Lupine flowers have smooth backs to their banners. The banners are held at a <45 degree angle to the wings and keel. Insects land on the “wings”, and while pushing into the center of the flower for pollen, the “keel” drops, revealing anthers which press pollen onto the insect’s belly. On the next flower visit, the stigma may tap pollen off the bee’s belly. Seeds will form inside a growing pod…like peas in a pod.

Root nodules form in legumes, including lupines. They harbor bacteria which fix nitrogen from the air, passing it on to plants for growth. Photo: wiki commons

All plants need nitrogen. Gardeners add nitrogen to flower beds and lawns. For centuries, farmers have grown alfalfa, clover, beans, and other legumes to improve conditions for crops. Lupines, like many legumes, form nodules in their roots to protect nitrogen-fixing bacteria. The bacteria have a safe haven to “fix” nitrogen from the air (N2), which is plentiful in soil pores, and convert it into a form usable and essential for plant growth (NH3). Dying lupines, in turn, add nitrogen to the soil in a form that all other plants can use. Thus, lupines are beneficial to our forests and sagebrush lands.

The 3-4′ tall stalks of Fernleaf Lousewort or Wood Betony – Pedicularis bracteosa – is growing in shady aspen groves.

Fernleaf Lousewort – Pedicularis bracteosa – stands up tall in aspen groves and shady meadows. The leaves are large and finely dissected. Pale yellow flowers spiral up 3’ stalks.

Flowers of louseworts are designed to fit specialized pollinators. Here you can see the stigma poised to tap pollen off the back of a visiting bee as the bee searches for nectar deep within the flower.

Louseworts have a variety of pollination strategies: the flowers of each species have evolved to fit specific pollinators. The lower petals are fused to serve as landing pads, and the upper petals shield the male anthers and female stigma. When the right-sized bumblebee comes in for a landing, the anthers will deposit pollen. On another visit, the stigma will stick out and relieve the bee of its burden.

Another point of interest: Fernleaf Lousewort parasitizes Engelmann Spruce for certain compounds: pinidinol, specifically. Why? Who knows?

Fern-leaf Lovage – Ligusticum filicinum – is beginning to flower. Note the large delicate leaves and umbels of white flowers.

Another tall wildflower bearing lacy large leaves is Fern-leaf Lovage – Ligusticum filicinum, of the Parsley Family.   It is beginning to bloom in aspens groves near Munger Mountain and in meadows by Two-Ocean Lake. Umbels (remember umbrella ribs) of tiny white flowers are spreading high and wide.

Many insects step from flower to flower in Fern-leaf Lovage, which collectively give perches and treats to all sizes of flies, beetles, and bees. Look for shiny rings of nectaries below the two stigmas–the reward the insects are looking for.

The highly pungent and flavored root of this plant is called Osha in herbal medicine and was used by many groups of Native Americans for infections.

Osha root is very pungent and powerful. It has been used for generations of native peoples for medicine.

Westerm Sweetroot – Osmorhiza occidentalis – has tiny yellow-green flowers in umbels, and a divided leaf.

Also in the Parsley Family, Western Sweetroot – Osmorhiza occidentalis – has similar features to Ligusticum. The flowers are in umbels and the leaves are divided—looking a bit like parsley leaves.

Sticky Geranium – Geranium viscosissimum – is wide open to pollinators.  The nectar guides lead to a central column of anthers and pistil.

Already, plants are forming elongated ½” fruits which have a licorice flavor.  Plants create  chemicals for defense (toxins) or attractants (perfumes). While many Parsley Family species are tasty and beneficial to us, others are deadly, such as Water Hemlock – Circuta maculata.

Two Opposite Pollination Strategies:

Two members of the Buttercup Family are flowering now in forests. One is spectacular, the other easily overlooked. These two family members have evolved very different strategies for survival.

Western Meadowrue – Thalictrum occidentale – is a delicate looking plant in shady forests. This plant is in full (male) flower.

Western Meadowrue – Thalictrum occidentale – is wind pollinated. As with many wind-pollinated plants, the flowers are almost invisible to us. Wind doesn’t see, so the plant does not provide a showy display, as it would if it were insect pollinated. Male pollen grains need to land on female pistils to make fruits and seeds. Preferably the pollen comes from a genetically different plant for long-term diversity and adaptation of the species.

Dangling male flowers of Western Meadowrue scatter pollen grains upon the wind.

Pink stigmas of female flowers of Western Meadowrue – stretch wide to catch pollen grains.

Fruits of Western Meadowrue.

To assure cross-pollination, in this species male flowers are on separate plants from the females. Look for many anthers dangling out in the wind. Nearby, hopefully, are female plants with flowers with stigmas reaching wide to catch the wind-scattered “balls” of pollen. With luck, and it is luck!—the male pollen is caught by feathery female stigmas and fruits and seeds can form.

Surprisingly found in the same family, the very showy  Colorado Columbine – Aquilegia coerulea – is found in moist shade where its white petals and sepals stand out.

Columbines have five flaring white sepals, 5 petals that form “spurs” with nectar at the bulbous ends, many anthers, and 5 pistils. This is Colorado Columbine – Aquilegia coerulea.

Colorado columbines which are white and have long floral tubes are pollianted by Vashti Sphinx moths which can reach the nectar. photo from Wiki commons, taken by Kugamazog, a graduate student at Texas A.&M. Columbines with the

White lined hummingbird moths are other pollinators of Colorado Columbines: those with more blue and shorter spurs.

Vashti Sphinx Moths (left image – from Wikipedia Commons) are  specialist, nectar-seeking pollinators of Colorado Columbines. Nectar is held deep in the petal spurs, which only this species can reach: the moth hovers and uncurls and extends its proboscis inside to the sweet energy reward at the end.  Research has shown that Sphinx vashti visits columbine populations with longer spurs than populations visited  by White-lined Sphinx moths or Hummingbird Moths – Hyles lineata (right image – from Wikipedia). Furthermore, blue variations of Colorado columbine with shorter spurs are associated with bumble bees seeking pollen as well as nectar. Both flowers and pollinators are specialized with in the same plant species.

Mountain Snowberry – Symphiocarpus oreophilus – is the host plant for caterpillars of Vashti Sphinx Moths which pollinate Colorado Columbines. The shrub is in flower now.

A Big Year for Tiny Orchids

Many people have reported seeing Coralroot and Calypso Orchids this spring. A few have come upon Twayblades. Orchids comprise the largest family of plants in the world. Researchers are exploring how specialized pollinators and mychorrizal relationships may be driving species diversification, but overall little is known about these plants, including the species here in Jackson.

All Coralroots – Corallorhiza spp. – are dependent on association with fungi for survival, as they do not have any chlorophyll. Their knobly, twisted rhizomes (underground stems) are connected to mycelia threads of gilled Russula mushrooms, which are in turn connected to nearby trees that provide carbohydrates. Coralroot stems are reddish to yellow (never green) and do not have leaves.  Flowers are small with variable markings, depending on species and varieties.

Spotted Coralroot – Corallorhiza maculata – is variable in its decoration. However 2 lobes on either side of the base of the lowest petal (lip) and a bump (spur) under the throat of flower help in ID. All-yellow forms with white lips are also present–some say these are albino forms.  None have chlorophyll.

Very little is known about coralroot pollinators—maybe bees?—which visit the flowers, expecting a “reward” of nectar or pollen.  In any case, the pollinators leave duped and carry only a load of a pollinia (sac with thousands of pollen grains) which it cannot reach.

If the pollinator is fooled again, the next flower will receive the pollinia and can produce thousands of very fine, dust like seeds. Spread by wind, the tiny seeds depend on the right species of fungus to be in the soil where they land. It’s amazing to see any orchids at all!

Striped Coralroot – Corallorhiza striata. The striped petals direct hapless pollinators down a dead end. In exploring for a reward of nectar, the pollinator presses upon the yellow wad of pollinia on the end of the “column”, which sticks to its back.  However, there is no nectar!  If  it is fooled again, it visits another flower where the pollinia sticks to a perfectly sized stigma.

Corallorhiza mertensiana

Corallorhiza wisteriana

Two other Coralroots: C. mertensiana and C. wisteriana can be discovered in conifer forests as well. Details of differences include design of stripes and spots, length and shape of petals, and bumps on the inferior ovaries.  Insects can tell the difference in species, even if it hard for us to do so.

Calypso Orchid or Fairy Slipper – Calypso bulbosa – is one of a kind. There are no other species in the genus. Young queen bumblebees are attracted to the fragrant, elegant flowers. However, they do not receive any reward for their time and soon learn (yes, insects learn) not to visit this species again. However, if a queen does visit another flower, she delivers a wad of pollen which can stimulate thousands of seeds in the single fruit capsule. The plant has been pollinated without its expending any extra resources on nectar.

Calypso Orchid – Calypso bulbosa – is alluring to inexperienced bumblebee queens. However, after a visit or two, they learn there is no reward for them and cease to visit.

The paired green leaves of twayblades (Neottia/Listera spp.) indicate that this genus can manufacture its own food. Four species of twayblades are listed in Teton County. These photos are of Western Twayblade – now called Neotiia banksiana, formerly Listera caurina, It is found in the northwest but is listed only in Teton County for Wyoming.

Twayblade orchid – Listera caurina – is rare in Teton County and all of Wyoming.

While all our wildflowers deserve protection, please never pick an orchid…their existence is precarious enough.

While hiking, ponder the remarkable life passing by your boots. Take a moment to look closely at the unfurling flowers and developing fruits and seeds. What pollinators are flying and crawling about? What micro-organisms are living in the soil that provide us with such colorful displays above? Enjoy the questions, even if we don’t know the answers, yet.

Aspen grove along Cole Creek Trail, Bridger Teton National Forest.

Frances Clark, Wilson, WY

June 28, 2016

P.S. Watch out for Stinging Nettles – Urtica dioica – along the trail. Plants can be 4′ tall and have opposite, egg-shaped, 3-4″ toothed leaves.  Flowers are tiny and male and females are on different plants.  Transparent needle-like hairs on stem and leaves are filled with liquid. When brushed, the tip of the hair breaks open and ejects a liquid that stings like a red ant bite. Ouch!

If you haven’t already been out scouting for early spring wildflowers, now it the time!

Over the past three weeks, native plant enthusiasts have been exploring Munger Mountain, the south end and now the north end of Grand Teton National Park. Here are some discoveries:

Trees and Shrubs:

Cottonwoods (Populus spp.) are expanding their buds.

Buds of Cottonwood trees (several confusing species of Populus) are swelling and in some places the male catkins are ready to shed their pollen onto the winds.  Look closely at the black frills on individual flower bracts. The anthers are maroon.

Cottonwood male catkin is exploding out of its confining, resinous bud scales.

Willows (Salix spp. ) – “Pussies” are emerging from their single bud coverings. In the same family as Cottonwoods and Aspens, willows also produce male and female catkins usually on separate plants. Most flowers are wind pollinated.

Willows (Salix spp) of many kinds are expanding their catkins (pussies) out of their single bud scale covering. Elegant!

Going going going – the earliest flowers:

Turkey Pea or Orogenia (Orogenia linearifolia) is only an inch or two high and has minature umbels of flowers. This is an unusual pink form found near the base of Munger Mountain.

Turkey Pea or Orogenia (Orogenia linearifolia) – Dingy-white to rarely pink flower clusters are hard to find unless you are really looking. The individual flowers are smaller than ant feet!   Take a close look at the deep purple stigmas. The leaves are divided into grass-like segments, further confounding the search.

Turkey Pea has a bulb-like storage root.

The “pea” part of the name comes from the underground bulbs relished by bears to sandhill cranes. Some were still blooming along Pacific Creek Road on April 26, but others were beginning to set fruit.

The fruits of Turkey Pea or Orogenia are tiny, as are the flowers. Note the red “stylopodium” below the two white stigmas and above the smooth developing “schizocarp” – a dry fruit that will split in two.

Steer’s-head (Dicentra uniflora) – The single flowers are smaller than a thumbnail and the whole plant with its dissected leaves is less than an inch high. Once you spot the flower, look carefully at its intriguing flowers so emblematic of the West!

Steer’s-head (Dicentra uniflora) – is a quintessentially Western plant.

Coming out now!

Buttercups: The saucer-shaped yellow flowers gleam back at us from only an inch or two above the ground. The glossy yellow flowers are especially structured to provide this intense signal to pollinators: a smooth petal surface; yellow (carotenoid) pigments in the epidermal cell layer; a special air layer; and then another cell layer with white starch granules which reflect the light back at you (or the bee).   Go to http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3350741/ for the marvelous story.

Two low, early buttercups are blooming:

Sage Buttercup (Ranunculus glaberrimus var. ellipticus) grows in slightly drier habitats as the common name implies. The lower leaves and many of the stem leaves are elliptical (not lobed). The petals are falling off in the southern end of the park around Antelope Flats, but go north and you will still find flowers shining in colonies between sage shrubs.

The lowest leaves of Sage Buttercup are not lobed.

Utah Buttercup (Ranunculus jovis) – Typical of more moist sites, this species has three-(to five-) lobed basal leaves. And if you dig down (not in the park!) you would see that the roots are swollen. Carbs for wildlife.

Utah Buttercup (Ranunculus jovis)  sports lobed basal leaves and fattened roots.

Spring Beauty (Claytonia lanceolata) – Delicate bouquets of white to blush flowers are true harbingers of spring around sage flats. Look closely at the deep pink nectar guides on the petals and find the nectar glands in the center which direct and reward pollinators.

Spring Beauties  (Claytonia lanceolata) are sprinkling sage flats in the park

Yellowbells (Frittilaria pudica) – These dangling yellow, lily-like flowers are readily spotted along park roads: Moose-Wilson, Antelope Flats, and Pacific Creek. The 3-5” plants arise from bulbs just like lilies.

Yellowbells (Frittilaria pudica) are like miniature yellow lilies gracing sage flats and hillsides.

Yellow Violets (Viola nuttallii var.) – Most of us can identify a violet by its unique bi-lateral flowers that guide insects into the nectaries hidden deep inside a spur formed behind the petals. The precise identification can be complex, but for the most part “yellow violet” will do for now.

Yellow Violet (Viola nuttallii var) – has oval leaves and a spur that holds nectar to entice pollinators into the sexual parts of the flowers. Leaf shape and color on the back of the petals are some ID features used to determine species or variety.  However these features are highly variable and confuse even experienced botanists.

Another yellow violet, Viola purpurea – has leaves shaped like webbed duck feet. Here it is with spots of hail.  This is easy to ID compared to other “yellow violets”.

South-facing, dry slopes: 

On slopes around Blacktail Butte and Kelly Warm Springs, one can find three mat-forming species:

Some of the earliest flowering plants are found on south-facing, dry slopes.

Common Twinpod (Physaria didymocarpa) – The four-petaled yellow flowers, which indicate its a member of the confusing Mustard family, are held just above a rosette of paddle-like silvery leaves. The fruits and starred hairs are used in positive identification.

Twinpod (Physaria didymocarpa) grows on dry slopes of Blacktail Butte.

Pursh’s Milkvetch (Astragalus purshii) – The creamy to bluish pea-shaped flowers are held in clusters. The silvery leaves are pinnately compound e.g. are divided into segments like a feather. Later the fruits will become plump pea pods hairy all over.

Pursh’s Milkvetch (Astragalus purshii) – has elegant pea-like flowers. Fruits will be furry, broad pea-pods. (Last year’s fruit lies just in front of the flower cluster).

Less conspicuous are flowers of Low Pussytoes (Antennaria dimorpha). The 4-6” broad mats of tiny silvery leaves obscure the flower heads. As with most pussytoes, separate plants bare either female or male flowers. This is a female plant as seen by the stigmas pushing out in the center of the delicate goblet-like flowers. See if you can find plants with only pollen producing parts.

Low Pussytoes (Antennaria dimorpha) forms mats on dry slopes.

In the Aster family, individual flowers are grouped into heads. These are female flowers.

Hood’s Phlox (Phlox hoodii) – Like small patches of snow, these plants are scattered around Antelope Flats and elsewhere. The flowers are bright white, tubular, and very fragrant! Note the tiny pointed leaves have “cobwebby” hairs between them. Later in the season, another low phlox (P. multiflora) blooms with slightly larger flowers and no cobwebs.

Hood’s Phlox (Phlox hoodii) is low growing and very fragrant!

Hoods Phlox also has “cobwebby” hairs which help separate it from the slightly different Multiflora phlox.

Why are so many leaves silvery hairy? In exposed locations, leaf hairs reflect sunlight and help shade leaves from too much intense sun.  They prevent leaves from being sandblasted by soil particles. Finally, hairs hold in transpiring moisture to prevent desiccation.

And an early parsley:

Cous Biscuit-root (Lomatium cous) – The delicately divided leaves, which look like sprawling parsley leaves, and the umbels (think ribs of an umbrella) of yellow flowers with broad bracts at the base are all good clues to identification. These plants are blooming along the Gros Ventre Road just east-southeast of the highway intersection.

Cous Biscuit-root (Lomatium cous) is closely related to the plants that Lewis and Clark observed Native Americans using for food. The tuberous roots were ground and used for a bread. 

The broad bracts at the base of the flower, as well as the parsley-like leaves help in ID.

Much more to come:

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Frances Clark

Wilson, WY

Who would have imagined it possible to find so many species of wildflowers in bloom late in the season? Actually it isn’t that unusual, and we probably walk right past some of them because we don’t expect to find them. Now that the leaves have mostly fallen we can start looking down instead of up.

In addition to the late-bloomers that are still producing flowers, the long season has encouraged some to bloom a second time. On a recent hike along the dry south-facing slope in Cache Creek’s Crystal Butte area, I found the following plants blooming away:

Long-leaf phlox – especially near the trailheads and along the lower trail. Lovely drops of bright pink in a sea of straw.

Yarrow – often seen blooming late, and the foliage is still fresh and green.

Yarrow (Achillea millefolium)

Sticky geranium – stunted stems that have already gone to seed once, foliage bright with fall reds and oranges, yet another bloom or two rises to the sunlight. So sweet.

Sticky Geranium (Geranium viscosissimum)

Harebell – Another not-so-unusual fall bloomer, but a delight to find along the trail.

Harebell (Campanula rotundifolia)

Foothill daisy, Pacific aster and hoary aster continue to bloom, green rabbitbrush keeps producing yellow blossoms (pollinators, where are you?), and the other day I spotted a few I had not seen in bloom in fall before—stemless goldenweed and mat buckwheat.

Foothill Daisy

Rabbitbrush (Chrysothamnus viscidiflorus)

Non-natives still blooming include common dandelion and a few salsify.

Common Dandelion (Taraxacum officinale)

Until the snow flies or the temperatures fall below the mid-20s, we can continue to catch these last unexpected bit of bloom on the mountainsides and valley. What have others seen lately?

Susan Marsh, Jackson