As the valley greens up and we need a respite from the world of Covid-19, many of us are out and about looking for flowers. 
As I write, some of our regular haunts in Grand Teton National Park are still closed (but about to open!). However, there are many other places for botanical forays.
Bridger-Teton National Forest has various accessible habitats such as more south-facing grassy slopes mixed with sagebrush and dry rocky slopes where the snow melts early. Josie’s Ridge, Cache Creek, and the lower slopes of Munger Mountain are all good jaunts. Dry hills to the north and east of Flat Creek Road; Crystal Butte near Jackson; Game Creek south of town; and Poison Creek southeast of Hoback are other accessible points. Please always respect boundaries and watch your step—many of the plants are small and fragile.
Many common flowers are presented here. Go to past posts of “What’s in Bloom?” for additional and different details.
Earliest flowers found to the south of Jackson a month ago are now fading but are still visible farther north:
Turkey Peas – Orogenia linearifolia – have the tiniest of white flowers and skimpy linear leaves. The cluster if often smaller than the size of a penny.
Two early look-alike buttercups perk up the dried grasses: Sagebrush Buttercups – Ranunculus glaberrimus – have simple leaves—although when they stretch out they can have two lobes.
Utah Buttercups leaves are 3-lobed from first emergence. 
Steer’s-heads – Dicentra uniflora – are easily overlooked until you get the search image of the leaves…then look for the flowers which have an obvious western motif. 
Slightly later or in different locations Spring Beauties – Claytonia lanceolata – are sprinkled about in light shade or sun where snow has just melted. Leaves are opposite, and the flowers are pinkish with delicate, pinker veins that lead pollinators to the center of the flower.
Ever-popular Yellowbells – Fritillaria pudica – grace hillsides and sageflats with their charming bells.
As we move into mid-May, species found on grassy slopes and amidst sage brush include:
Yellow violets – Viola nuttalii varieties – have a range of leaf shapes and sizes which confuse exact identification to variety. 
Goosefoot Violet – Viola purpurea – is easy to ID because of its distinctive webbed-foot leaves.
Oblongleaf Bluebell – Mertensia obtusifolia – flowers dangle, changing color from pink to blue when ready to attract pollinators. 
Shooting Star – Dodocatheon conjugens – folds back its petals and has little knobs for bees to cling to—it is “buzz” pollinated. A bee lands, hangs, vibrates its wing muscles and then pollen grains sift out of the purple anthers and land on the bee’s belly. The bee flies to another flower with a stigma sticking out which then tags the pollen. 
Nuttall Larkspur – Delphinium nuttallianum – will soon become more abundant and attract hummingbirds.
Dry slopes are some of my favorite spring botany spots:
Wonderfully fragrant Hood’s Phlox – Phlox hoodii – has tight needle-like leaves with cobwebby hairs that help distinguish it from the later blooming Multiflora Phlox. Flowers can range from light to dark blue on different plants of the same species.
Low pussytoes – Antennaria dimoprha – are often overlooked even when in flower – its tiny composite flowers are all male or female on separate plants. Flowers are wind pollinated or females can produce seeds without a male around.
Pursh’s milkvetch – Astragalus purshii – has typical pea-like flowers emerging beyond a clump of compound ladder-like silvery leaves. The flowers are creamy white. The genus of the Pea Family can be IDed, in part, by the two “wing” petals being longer than the “keel”, which here is purple tipped.
Bessey’s Locoweed – Oxytropus besseyi – has elegant fists of flowers above similar leaves to milkvetch. The pea-like are very similar (except for its color!); however, the “wing” petals are shorter than the pointy “keel” in this genus of the Pea Family.
Whitlow Grasses – Draba sp.- were abundant on a very dry slope. ID of this confusing genus of mustards requires the fruits to ripen. Hairs also help!
Mountain Rockcress – Boechera sp. – is another Mustard Family member awaiting full ID. All mustards have 4 sepals, 4 petals, 6 stamens – 2 shorter than the other 4, and a single pistil. The pistils of the family grow into fruits of various shapes—the key ID feature needed. (photo by Susan Marsh)
Desert Paintbrush – Castilleja chromosa – is the first of several paintbrushes that will bloom over the next several months. Its orange-red, day-glow flowers decorate dry hillsides amidst colorful rocks.
Below are some of the plants, which for some reason, have been given less prominence in past posts—not sure why:
Pasqueflowers – Anemone patens – are an early spring favorite for obvious reasons!
Diamondleaf Saxifrage – Saxifraga rhomboidea – is often overlooked. The basal rosette of rhomboid leaves gives rise to a single 2-9” stalk with a cluster of several white flowers. 
Oregon Grape – Mahonia repens – is common in many habitats, but we often forget to get down and sniff the wonderfully fragrant flowers! But watch your nose on the spiny, tough evergreen leaves.
Wyoming Kittentails – Besseya wyomingensis – have no showy petals. The color comes from the purple-blue stamens that unfold to yield white pollen.
Best to get out now to see these early spring flowers before you are distracted by so many more flowers to come, such as Balsamroot!
Happy Spring.
Frances Clark, Teton Plants Program Coordinator
P.S. As always, we appreciate any corrections, suggestions, or other comments!
A drive along Antelope Flats Road or inner Park Road rewards one with clouds of Sulphur Wild Buckwheat – Eriogonum umbellatum. 
In some areas such as near Oxbow Bend or up Old Pass Road, Scarlet Gilia — Ipomopsis aggregata — appears particularly abundant this year. In other areas, it stands more or less among sagebrush. 
Leaves have several deep, sharply toothed lobes and are a bit fuzzy or “tomentose”. 
Modoc Hawksbeard – C. modocensis – has fewer flower heads (up to 40/plant) but each has more than 10-60 ray flowers and the bracts are stippled with black stiff hairs. Leaves and stem are very hairy. See if you can find these two species and discern the differences. There are other look-alike species as well.
Note the arrangement of its flowers:
Sticky Geraniums – Geranium viscosissimum — are abundant. Here is a swallow-tail butterfly sucking up nectar. Anyone know which species?
Scarlet Paintbrush – Castilleja miniata – is emerging. 
This species found along the Ski Lake Trail keyed out to Wasatch Beardstongue — P. cyananthus.
Flowers are extremely fragrant. Bend over for a whiff. It is also related to Scarlet Gilia.
Species particularly adapted to very short growing seasons are also blooming where snow has just melted. Patches of Rocky Mountain Snow Buttercups – Ranunculus adoneus – are frequent. Note their fine leaves.
Spring sun is warming south-facing slopes of buttes and hillsides. Snow along Grand Teton National Park roads is finally retreating. Wetlands are warming. Bugs and birds are flying about. The delight is in the details of small flowers; no big show yet.
The lowest leaf of Sagebrush Buttercup – Ranunculus glaberrimus – is unlobed, the upper leaves are 3-lobed. It is a denizen of sage flats.
Some individual Sagebrush Buttercups don’t have petals, only sepals. I dont’ know why the flashy petals aren’t there.
In Utah Buttercup – R. jovis – both the lower and upper leaves are lobed into three parts. Note buttercups have many separate anthers and stigmas—a common characteristic of this family. It is found in relatively moist locations, including woodland edges and openings.
Springbeauties – Claytonia lanceolata — grow in scattered in patches. Some blooms exhibit obvious pinkish veins that direct pollinators to yellow nectaries in the center. Pollinators bump against the anthers and get dusted with pollen.
It is easy to step on Turkey Peas – Orogenia lineariifolia. The plants look like bits of lichen or stone, nothing to think about.
However, Turkey Peas are more interesting if you take a close look at their tiny white flower with maroon centers that together form clusters barely an inch long. Think about what tiny insects must pollinate them–likey small flies and bees.
Sandhill cranes, bears, and rodents seek out the thumb-sized bulbs (“peas”) for food. (Turkeys would likely eat the bulbs if they lived in Jackson.)
The quintessential western plant Steer’s-head – Dicentra uniflora – requires some belly botany. Scan an area for divided leaves and then get down to stare at the steer-like flowers. This is the larval host plant for the Parnassian butterfly Parnassius clodius, which Dr. Debrinski from MSU is researching in Grant Teton National Park (more info on her research below).
Yellowbells – Fritillaria pudica – are always cheerful! The 6-8”-high plants sprout from miniature scaly bulbs. The base of the 6 yellow tepals is said to change from red to green depending on pollination, but I can’t see any consistent difference happening to the outside flower color or anthers and pistil on the inside. Maybe you can.
Goosefoot Violet – Viola purpurea var. venosa – has leaves shaped like goose feet with a few more toes. The back of the leaves and yellow petals are often purple, hence “purpurea” in its botanical name. Note the dark center of the flower and the convenient landing pad of petals for pollinators.
Several yellow violets intergrade in leaf features which confuse me and other botanists trying to sort out the names. This cheerful specimen is one of three look-alike species – V. vallicola, V. praemorsa, or V. nuttalii. Leaf ratios, shapes, and hairiness, as well as ultimately seed-capsule sizes, determine identification.
Hood’s Phlox – Phlox hoodii – is often the first out, with its white to bluish flowers. Bees and flies pick up on the sweet fragrance. They come in and land on the flared petal tips and dip their long tongues deep down the center tube for nectar. They then carry the orange pollen off to other flowers nearby. The leaves of Hood’s Phlox are opposite, very small and tight on very slow growing stems that collectively form a cushion shape. Plants inches wide can be decades old.
Nearby, Twinpods – Physaria didymocarpa – feature bright-yellow, 4-petalled flowers at the end of sprawling 3-4” stems. Spade-shaped, silvery leaves help identify this member of the Mustard Family. Mustards usually have 4 petals, 6 anthers (2 short, 4 long), and one 2-parted pistil.
The first pussytoes to bloom is Low Pussytoes – Antennaria dimorpha. The tiny gray, finely hairy leaves form mats on the ground. Look closely for the flowers.
Sprawling Cymopteris – Cymopteris longipes – is spreading its whorl of dissected silvery leaves low to the ground. As a member of the Carrot Family, plants have umbels, in this case with yellow flowers.
Pursh’s Milkvetch – Astragalus purshii – is also just beginning to flower on dry knolls. The pea-like flowers are slightly yellow to white with a blue bow to the keel (lower two petals). Some flowers open wide for pollinator business. Note the pinnately divided leaves are silvery hairy.
Our local Townsendias belong to a beautiful but often confusing genus. This plant has all the features of T. leptotes: narrow leaves, whitish petals, a whorl of 4-5 rows of pointed bracts tinged with color. Apparently this species and T. montana can hybridize or self-fertilize to the point that some experts say separating the two species appears “arbitrary.” I say, let’s just enjoy the flowers if you can find them. They are pretty rare.
Shrub swamps throughout the valley are warming up. Ducks, moose, and beaver are moving through the waters under dangling catkins of alders and amidst thickets of pussywillows.
Male catkins of mountain alders – Alnus incana var. occidentalis – elongate: their pollen is released upon the wind to meet up – purely by chance – with the stigmas of female flowers (above left in photo) in separate, stout “cones.”
Later in May, its relative Bog Birch – Betula glandulosa – will bloom after its leaves have filled out.
Wildflower seekers are hiking above 8,000’, even 9,000′, for colorful displays of flowers found earlier at lower elevations. It is also time to search for unusual subalpine to alpine flowers above 9,500′ to 10,500′
Leaves are 6-8” long, toothed to lobed, wavy, and spine-tipped. Notably, petioles run down the stem (decurrent). Tweedy’s thistle is deemed “unresolved” by the authoritative Flora of North America: it is not even considered a variety. However, the authors note that there is much post-glacial hybridization among formerly isolated populations of this complex genus.
Bright yellow Long-leaved Arnica – Arnica longifolia – grows in cheerful drifts.
The 1-1.5’ stems feature several pairs of elongate leaves, as well as many yellow heads surrounded by equal-length bracts. The plant is overall glandular hairy with a strong odor.
It is common as you continue down the mountain road and seen from the tram.
Alpine sweetvetch – Hedysarum alpinum var. americanum – has many deep violet- red, pea-like flowers (its in the pea family) dangling from one side of the inflorescence (photos above and below).
Bluish-green leaves are pinnately divided into oval leaflets. Careful measurements of flowers (9-15mm) distinguish it from the slightly larger flowered (17-22 mm) Western Sweetvetch (H. occidentale). (Not all taxonomists agree with this separation!)
The 1’ plants have divided, mostly basal leaves, which helps distinguish it from a similar, more lower-elevation species: Parrot’s Beak – P. racemosa – which has with toothed but not lobed leaves. White-coiled lousewort is shown below.
Undulating, slightly toothed, slightly succulent or waxy leaves clasp the 1-2’ stems (below).
The rocky talus of Cody Bowl has several speciality flowers that seem to be able to grow out of rock.
Fremont Groundsel – Senecio fremontii – has single flowers with the indicative row of waxy bracts. The small leaves are toothed and arranged along the stem: not clustered at the base (although some plants with short stems look like they have basal leaves). The flowers are single and appear large compared to the leafy body of the plant.
Small-flowered Anemone – Anemone parviflora – is only inches tall with tidy whorled leaves.
And nearby, the deep-pink Teton Anemone – Anemone tetonensis.
Some anemones are already setting seeds!
Similar in size is the Alpine Harebell – Campanula uniflora. Instead of many bell-like flowers per stem found in the more common harebell, this species has only one flower per stem, as the Latin name uni-flora aptly describes.
You may smell this plant before you see it’s blue flowers: Skypilot or Skunkflower – Polemonium viscosum. It ranges in size from 5-12” high.
Snow Buttercups – Ranunculus adoneus – are blooming brightly in recently melted snowpatches. The leaves are divided 1-2x into narrow lobes (photo below).
Another combination includes Sulphur paintbrush, Bog Gentian, and Coiled-beak Lousewort:
Forest fires can appear devastating at first, but for the most part nature has its systems for resilience. Depending on how hot the fire was and what plants were present both above and below ground and nearby, vegetation will return in its own due course. In some cases, plants sprout that have not been noticed in years, and indeed are triggered to flower after the heat of the moment. Others take advantage of the open ground and fly in with fresh seeds. Still others have stored seed until the magic moment. Wildlife also takes advantage of the changes.
Their cones have thick scales with spine tips which protect the seeds inside from mauraders and weather for years. When a fire comes through, the resin that has sealed the scales shut melts, and cone scales open wide, releasing winged seeds upon the wind. The delicate embryos fall onto newly exposed soil, which may be enhanced by ash, and quickly germinate. Ash often contains recycled nutrients and retains warmth which helps the seeds grow. Seeds germinate quickly, giving them a headstart among competing plants. Pines in fact need sun to grow well. A truly fire adapated species!
Due to a prescribed burn south of Hoback, the slopes along the trail up Palmer Creek are now covered with 4-5’ flowering Mountain Mallow plants (photo above taken 7.13.18). Soon fruits, which look like peeled hairy tangerines, will split to release seeds for the next generation decades in the future (photo below).
Note: In mountain mallow the seedbank is in the soil, in lodgepole pine, the seedbank is in the air.
This evergreen, resinous, sprawling shrub will shoot up new branches from old roots after a light fire. After heavy burns, it can also sprout from “Rip-van-Winkle” seeds.
Notably, in some areas it burned through lodgepole stands that were recolonizing from a fire only a few years before. Ecologists and foresters are concerned that this unusual short “return” interval will be the pattern of future fires in this era of climate disruption.
Deep fibrous roots of Pinegrass are important for holding soils, especially when soils are vulnerable to erosion after fires. Plants are blooming in profusion near the parkway.
Fireweed – Epilobium/Chamerion angustifolia – is well known for showing up after fires. In the insulating soil, rhizomatous (underground creeping) stems growing 4-6” deep may have survived the above-ground heat to sprout again. Even one surviving plant can shed 1000s of seeds that can catch upon the wind, land, and germinate quickly on exposed ground. (Photo above shows both Fireweed and Pinegrass.)
Cheerful patches of Broadleaf Arnica – Arnica latifolia – and a strange hybrid, likely Arnica X diversifolia – a cross between Heartleaf and Broadleaf arnica, are growing in charred soils (photo above).
Large clumps of yellow Missouri Goldenrod – Solidago missouriensis – was dense along Grassy Lake Road, brightening the dark scene (photo above).
A mix of Yarrow – Achillea millefolium – and Thickstem Aster – Eurybia integrifolia – are common in fields right now, but they are also flourishing in the sun under dead lodgepole pine trees along Grassy Lake Road (photo above).
Silvery Lupine – Lupinus argenteus – seeds are “scarified” by the heat of fire, enabling buried seeds to germinate relatively quickly. As a legume, lupines have a mutually beneficial relationship with bacteria in their root nodules that can “fix” nitrogen. This provides lupines an advantage in colonizing poor soils (photo above). Their heavy seeds pop out of their pea-pod like fruits.
A robust member of the Mint Family – Dragonhead – Dracocephalum parviflorum – (photo above) was a new species to this botanist. Apparently it thrives in disturbed soils.
Patches of other common meadow flowers have retained a niche as well, including Oregon Daisy – Erigeron speciosus – (photo above) with its many narrow, lavender ray flowers (ray flowers look like petals). Many perennials have deep storage roots that are often insulated by soils to heat of fire (or the cold of winter.)
Common Yampa – Perideridia montana – has created a tapestry of white. Upon a walk through the area, one can see that many late-summer flowers which are common elsewhere as here as well: a hidden layer of Sticky Geranium – Geranium viscossimum, blue spires of Tall Delphinium – Delphinium occidentale, yellow sprays of Cinquefoil – Potentilla spp., orange-yellow Rocky Mountain Golendrod – Solidago multiradiata, and spikes of blue Silvery Lupine mix in.
Mountain Brome – Bromus carinatus (photo below),
and elegant spikelets of Oniongrass – Melica spectabilis (photo below):
(Note all the grasses pictured above are in bloom)
Grasses have evolved to sprout from buds at the base of their leaves – an adaptation to both browsing and fire.
With summer strong, flowers are blooming everywhere in and around Jackson Hole. Here are a favorite dozen (plus!) wildflowers seen on hikes this past week: around Phelps Lake and up Munger Mountain (above); the start of the Ski Lake Trail; just south of Teton Pass; and the north end of Grand Teton National Park. Lower elevations fade first while upper elevations are just emerging.
The 1-2” red trumpet flowers attract hummingbirds, which are able to hover and extend their long tongues into the deep tube to lap up (not sip) nectar. A bird’s head may be doused in pollen on one visit. On the next stop, it is poked with a sticky stigma that will collect the pollen to make seeds. Pinkish flowers later in the season attract long-tongued sphinx moths, which provide a similar pollination service.
These laterally flattened, irregular flowers require bumblebees to pollinate them. Bumblebees are strong and smart enough to land on the lower lip of the flowers and push and prod their way into the throat to find nectar. In so doing, the bee gets a bunch of pollen on its body. At another flower, it distributes pollen to the stigma protruding from the top of the upper lip.
With light shade, greater moister, and more nutrients recycled from the deciduous aspen leaves, wildflowers are able to flourish at this time of year.
Teton Plants 