In April and May flowers are literally bursting forth.  One needs to look for and step carefully around the first flowers that are barely inches tall. It is hard to keep up with all that is happening. This is the first “What’s in Bloom” post of the season. More to come very soon

Our early spring wildflowers typically arise from underground storage units: tubers, bulbs, or corms. They leaf out, flower, set seed, and disappear within a few weeks. These are termed “spring ephemerals”.  Some are already going by in the south end of the valley, but others are still visible to the north end of the park.

Two particularly elusive species:

Turkey Peas – Orogenia linearifolia – are perhaps the hardest to find when they start blooming the end of April. They look like spots of white on brown ground. The flowers are tiny—5 curled white petals surrounding maroon anthers. The flower clusters are often no larger than a thumbnail – little is known about its insect pollinators. If no pollinators show up so early in the spring, plants can self-pollinate to produce seeds for future generations.

Leaves are linear once they stretch out.  All this arises from a corm – a swollen underground stem that stores starches over the winter.

Many people have handled the heftier corms of crocuses. Here the corms are the “peas” that are eaten by sandhill cranes, bears, and likely others.  Turkey Peas are in the Carrot or Parsley Family.

Steer’s-head – Dicentra uniflora – is a regional favorite. Look closely for the bluish compound leaves.

Then for the unique flower: truly a western motif. Two outer petals form the horns and the two inner petals fuse to form the steer’s head. 

Queen bumblebees, which emerge early along with the flowers, are known pollinators of their eastern cousins—Squirrel-corn – Dicentra cucullaria – and likely also pollinate Steer’s-heads in Wyoming. The plants host the larva of Clodius Parnassian butterflies.

Much easier to find!

Buttercups have bright-yellow, truly glossy petals due to the rare combination of structural and pigmentary coloration. The gloss of the petals provides a strong visual signal to insect pollinators and increases the reflection of sunlight to the center of the flower to heat up the reproductive organs. Find why this glossiness is unique– technical but fascinating:   https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5332578/

Utah Buttercup – Ranunculus jovis – has been glowing across sparse sage flats since the end of April.

Note the leaves are deeply lobed. The roots are swollen tubers—like bulging pantaloons.

Sage Buttercup – Ranunculus glaberrimus – leaves are slightly different: the lowest leaves are entire, a feature that is a bit hard to discern until the stems stretch with age.  The roots are stringy!

Spring Beauties – Claytonia lanceolata – are scattered like a dusting of snow throughout the sageflats right now. 

Notice the wide-open white flowers with pinkish lines heading into the center.

These nectar guides encourage pollinators to visit the center of the flower to pick up pollen grains from the 5 pinkish anthers. Visiting another flower, the small insect may drop off pollen onto the central pistil with 3 flaring stigmas. Often anthers and stigmas mature at separate times to encourage this cross-pollination – e.g. genetic exchange.

Yellowbells – Fritillaria pudica – are abundant now in sageflats up the inner park road. 

Dangling 4-6″ above the ground, the bell-like flowers entice a variety of pollinators.

Inside the bell, the stigma arises first above the anthers and then…

the anthers extend and split apart releasing pollen.

Dry slopes and knolls:

Some of the best places to see early spring flowers are on the dry slopes and knolls on the east side of Jackson Hole.

These barren-looking hillsides are dry for several reasons. Often they receive less snow than the mountains to the west; the wind blows off the snow; and south facing slopes receive the warmth of early spring sun which melts what remains. Wind further wicks off moisture. Also, the rounded steep slopes hold few nutrients: what little plant litter there is often washes down slope. With these dry, windswept, and nutrient-poor conditions, plants are sparse and small—only a few inches high.  Plant are often hairy and/or silvery to prevent desiccation. 

The fragrance of Hood’s Phlox – Phlox hoodii – attracts many pollinators who fly to the white (or blue) tubular flowers. They perch on the flaring petals and dip their probosci down the floral tubes for nectar.  They fly away with pollen that they drop off at the next receptive flower.

Note the stiff needle-like leaves have “cobwebby” hairs which help identify this species. 

Pursh’s Milkvetch – Astragalus purshii – forms tiny silvery tufts of pinnately divided leaves with white to cream flowers with a dash of purple.

In the Pea Family, the flowers of Pursh’s Milkvetch have an upright banner, two side petals called wings, and a rounded keel. In this case the keel is often tipped in purplish blue.

The very hairy pods will form quickly. 

Looking inside you can see the relationship to its relatives: peas and other legumes. But do not eat. Many milkvetches are toxic.

Also in the Pea family, the magenta flowers of Hare’s-foot Locoweed – Oxytropis lagopus – catch the eye.

The pinnately divided silvery leaves are very similar to Pursh’s Milkvetch; however, the flowers are clearly different.

The pea-like flowers are wonderfully decorated with nectar guides and a white spot to direct visiting bumblebees. Unlike Astragalus where the keel is rounded, in this genus the tip of the keel of the flower is pointed out – I think of being gored by an ox to remember the botanical name Oxy-tropis. 

The calyx (the cup or vase that surrounds the base of the petals) has plentiful white hairs often with a few black bristly hairs underneath.

Members of the very large Aster Family – often called Composites – have many small flowers set upon a platform, all of which is surrounded by protective “bracts”. The petal-like flowers are “ray” “flowers, and the tinier tubular flowers are “disc” flowers.  There are many variations of this “flower plan.”

Townsend’s Easter Aster – Townsendia leptotes – flowers are nestled in bunches of linear leaves. All arises from thick underground stems.

Notice the elegant rows of maroon/green bracts surrounding the dense flower heads.

In the photo below you can see the bristly hairs of each individual flower. Fruits will be achene with a bristly pappus. (Dandelion seeds also have a pappus which helps them disperse by wind.)

 Of several local pussytoes, the first to bloom is Low Pussytoes – Antennaria dimorpha. 

The flower heads of all disc flowers and are surrounded by mats of silvery leaves.

Most flower heads of Low Pussytoes have only female disc flowers—they don’t need the wind to scatter pollen upon them as they can self-fertilize. In any case, the male flowers would be on separate plants. Most pussytoes are wind pollinated with separate male and female plants to encourage cross-pollination.

Umber Pussytoes – Antennaria umbrinella – is just raising its heads of flowers.

Flower heads are surrounded by brownish bracts.

Cutleaf Fleabane/Daisy – Erigeron compositus – is beginning to come out with its daisy-like flower heads. Here there are several white ray flowers surrounding the fertile yellow disc flowers.

Like all members in this genus, the protective bracts are the same length like a palisade fence. Notably, this fleabane has divided leaves. 

We will see many more composite flowers in the weeks to come.

Another common plant on these dry knolls with silvery compound leaves is the Desert Biscuitroot – Lomatium foeniculaceum. A member of the Parsley Family, the tiny yellow flowers are borne in umbels. See how the pedicels arise from a central point and then the individual flowers are also clustered around a central point, as in ribs of an umbrella. 

Tiny insect pollinators will clamber over this collection of flowers to help form schizocarps – split dry fruits. Schizocarps are important in identification of many members of this family.

Members of the Mustard Family – Brassicaceae  – are also found on these knolls. The family overall is easy to recognize with its 4 petals, 6 anthers, and one ovary. The ovary can become a long fruit – a sleek “silique” – or a squat “silicle”.  For exact identification one not only must examine the tiny hairs on stem and leaves – straight, star-like, or branched, but also, must wait for the fruits to mature. Mustards can be particularly tough botanical puzzles.

A Rockcress – Boechera sp, – is leaning over what appears at first to be a stem topped by a yellow flower…or something. 

Actually, the mustard stem is infected with a rust fungus Puccinia monoica. Fungus spores infect and sterilize the mustard and withdraw resources to form features and smells similar to a flower—pseudo-flowers. The sticky material along with new pigments that reflect UV light attract pollinators. Cups of spermatogonia form, holding sex cells which are then carried off by the insects to another infected plant, thereby enabling fusion of the sex cells.

The next step is the formation of spores held in yet another structure. These spores then infect grasses, and after 2 more steps, the life cycle eventually circles back to infecting the mustard. For a full description go here.  Both people and insects can be fooled by a fungus.

Holboell’s Rockcress – Boechera holboeii – starts small and then grows tall as it expands its downward arching sleek siliques. Different taxonomists have different names for members of this species complex.

Desert Alyssum – Alyssum desertorum – are weedy non-native annuals from Eurasia that seed into disturbed ground. Only a few inches tall, it is not as pesky as many other invasive species.

Its fruits are squat silicles. Note the star-branched hairs. Hairs can be an important ID feature of mustards, and can be quite beautiful.

Nuttall Yellow Violets – Viola nuttalii var. praemorosa/Viola praemorsa – are raising their cheerful flowers for bees, flies, and even ants. They have nectar in the back of a spur. The lines and hairs on the lower petals guide the insects to this reward. If no pollinator comes, this violet (and many others) have a back-up strategy: they produce cleistogamous or hidden flowers below the leaves. These flowers don’t have any showy petals but do have pollen and ovaries to produce seeds, although the seeds don’t have any new genetic diversity. Capsules from both types of flowers explode the seeds out upon the ground.

Nuttall’s violets and their cousins have a tangled taxonomy. Helpful identification features for this species is in part the darkened backs of the two top petals.

Violets are important host plants to the caterpillars of fritillary butterflies.

Adding brilliant dashes of scarlet to dry hillsides are Desert Paintbrushes – Castilleja chromosa. 

Most of the color comes from expansive lobed bracts and sepals.

Tucked inside is the green galea: a tube formed by the green petals. A stigma is reaching out in this photo. The anthers are tucked inside. The plants are particularly hairy and stout at this stage which distinguishes them from several red paintbrushes to come.

The roots of paintbrushes attach to other plants and draw nutrients and/or toxins from the host—they are hemi-parasites. In this case Desert Paintbrushes have been documented on beard’s-tongues – Penstemon spp. – and dusty miller – Chaenactus douglasii. Many paintbrushes use grasses and sage. Because of its parasitic nature, paintbrushes are now in the Broomrape or Orobanche Family, no longer the Figwort Family .  

The next “What’s in Bloom” post will focus on larger plants coming into bloom fast in sagebrush habitats. It’s hard to keep up with the production wrought by photosynthesis.

We welcome any corrections or suggestions.

May 21, 2024

Note: no AI was used in producing this post.

We have enjoyed a fabulous season of flowers, thanks to extra moisture from late snow-melt then rains into August.

The valley has a few die-hard yellow composites and some tough blue asters along roadways. Higher up, remnant mid-summer flowers persist—such as Yarrow, Giant Red Paintbrushes, and Scarlet Gilia—but most late season bloomers are aster look-alikes. As always, the Composite Family (formally Asteraceae) steals the show for color be it yellows or blues, and some whites.  Indeed, this highly successful family is deemed to be the most advanced plant family and is found around the world.

As so many of the species below are composites, here is a simple diagram of the basic flower plan for reference. Many flowers – disc and/or ray flowers – sit upon a platform or “receptacle” and are surrounded by protective bracts. Bracts are particularly helpful in ID:

Flowers along Grand Teton National Park roads and drier slopes:

Yellows:

Showy Golden-eye – Vigueria/Heliomeris multiflora  – has been flowering all August and continues as into September.  Averaging about 2 ½’ tall, the leaves are oblong and opposite up the thin stems. Flowers hang out singly on the branching stems. Note the yellow ray flowers fade in color: they are slightly lighter at the tips and slightly darker toward the center. 

This subtlety is likely a significant contrast to an insect’s vision—a bull’s-eye to draw them in.

Gumweed – Grindelia squarrosa – is indeed gummy. Bright-yellow flowers line park roads.

Notice the cup of bracts that surrounds the many yellow flowers—both ray and disc.

The bracts curve downward into points. The leaves are more-or-less blunt ovals about ½-1” long with slight teeth. While definitely native to elsewhere in Wyoming, this “weedy” species appears to be a fairly recent newcomer to Teton County.

Most parts of the 1’ plants ooze a clear pitch-like sap if torn. The fresh sap from a flower head has been shown to reduce inflammation from “acid venoms” injected by bites of snakes or spiders, including recluse brown spiders. Depending on where it is growing, plants absorb and concentrate selenium from the soil. And different parts have been used carefully as various medicinal treatments. (reference: John Mionczynski)

Another late August bloomer is 6-12”-tall and wide-spreading Golden Aster – Heterotheca depressa. The pale-yellow flowers are now mostly going to seeds which are readily dispersed by wind. 

Look for the 1/2″ -1”-long, oblong leaves with fine hairs that add a grayish tinge to the plants.  It is most frequent around Moose and north along the park road.

All of a sudden do you smell something like freshly oiled macadam roads while hiking? Look under foot; you will likely find the aptly named Tarweed – Madia glomerata. 

This 6”-1’ plant has glandular hairs which contain a pungent resin.  Only 1-3 yellow ray flowers and a very few disc flowers are found in each ¼” head. Despite the tiny flowers, native bees are attracted to the nectar, and the seeds are favored by birds and small mammals.  These annuals are used in restoration projects in disturbed soils to prevent erosion and start the healing process as other plants move in.

Of particular appeal to pollinators of all sorts—bees, butterflies, flies – are shrubby rabbitbrushes. Pollinators are clutching to any nectar source they can find at this late season. The two obvious species blooming now in the valley floor are in two different genera.

The tallest and showiest species is Rubber Rabbitbrush – Ericameria nauseosa var. nauseosa.  Flower heads are bright yellow on this 3-4’+ shrub; the straight stems have alternating very narrow green leaves 2” long. 

The grayish stems are “tomentose”: covered tightly with many fine gray hairs.

The common name alludes to the fact that the plants exude a white sticky sap which was considered a source of rubber back in 1904.  It is currently being studied as an allergy-free form of latex. 

The other species in bloom often called Green Rabbitbrush – Chrysothamnus viscidifolius – has slightly twisted sticky (viscid) leaves. Plants are usually only a foot or two high and also thrive in dry soils.

It has slightly twisted sticky (viscid) leaves more or less hairy.

Both these species have several varieties in Teton County, so be aware of variations in appearance.

Some late blue “asters” from valley roads and higher elevations

Below are several different kinds of “asters”.  Taxonomists keep shifting the names around.in part because they are now using DNA as a definitive way to tell how closely plants are related. Thus many of the following species that were in the genus “Aster” are now in genera such as Symphyotrichum, Euephalus, Eurybia…not easy to pronounce or to tell apart. Lay people still call those in this look-alike group Asters. The visible differences (vs, microscopic DNA) are often most obvious in the bracts that surround the head of these composites. Identification provides botanical puzzles that are more rewarding than solving crossword puzzles or Sudoku, at least in this author’s thinking. Each plant has its own association with its setting.

Pacific Aster – Symphyotrichum ascendens – has been blooming since early August, often alongside Showy Golden-eye. The genus SySymphyotrichum is a large group of American Asters which have bracts of varied lengths overlapping like untidy shingles. 

In this species the flowers are blue,

and the leaves are linear with veins that form elongate patterns.

Eaton’s Aster – Symphyotrichum eatonii – grows in moist areas. It is blooming around the beaver ponds at Schwalbacher’s Landing in the park and along stream sides.

Flowers are abundant on the top third or more of the 3-4’ plants, attracting this Weidemeyer’s Admiral butterfly.

This species also has the shingle-like green bracts. The leaves are narrow and 3-4” long near the top.      

Thickstem Mountain Aster – Eurybia integrifolia – indeed has thickish, slightly zigzagging stems which are covered in glandular sticky hairs. 

The untidy bracts are also glandular and tend to curl outward. The flower heads are a notable deep violet. 

Overall, the plants usually grow 2-3’ tall with the leaves at the base up to 6” long, which become shorter and clasping as they alternate up the stem.

Found scattered in dry sites in the valley or high on Teton Pass grows Hoary Tansyaster – Machaeranthera canescens. 

The deep-purple ray flowers accentuate the yellow disc flowers in the center. 

The surrounding bracts are small, stiffly hairy, and curl outwards. The 6-12” stems are wiry with thin leaves often with spiny teeth – (another name is Spiny Aster). 

The plants are sticky and fragrant. This rather delicate looking plant is very durable.

Opposite in character and found in moister, higher elevations is the more rambunctious Leafy-bracted Aster – Sympiotrichum foliaceum var. foliaceum. 

It is a strong grower up to 3 or more feet tall with 8” leaves at the base. Flower heads are blue with many ray flowers. The bracts are foliaceous – like little leaves. 

Other lower growing varieties are found at very high elevations.

Speaking of higher elevations, this is usually where I have seen Chaffy Asters. The bracts are “imbricate”, arranged like tidy shingles around the head. They are firm and usually slightly colored as seen here in Engelmann and Elegant Chaffy Asters in the photo. 

Ray flowers vary in number and depending on species can range from white to blue to violet. The leaves typically remain the same length as they alternate up the stem. You may well have noticed these plants on the trail up to Ski Lake or along the Old Pass Road, or such.

Engelmann’s Chaffy Aster – Eucephalus engelmannii – has 4-6” leaves alternating up the 4-5’ stems.  Many white flower heads spread out at the summit.  The white ray flowers are relatively few. 

Gray Aster – formerly  Eucephalus glaucus, now in the genus Herricka – has not only white flower heads but also “glaucus” or bluish-gray leaves and stems. 

I see it in patches here and there, such as on the Old Pass trail south to Mt. Elly. Curiously, this species has had five botanical names…more than any others I have come across. Clearly the taxonomists are undecided or can I say perhaps confused?

Elegant Aster – Eucephalus elegans – is indeed the most elegant of the three chaffy asters. The flowers are a deep violet-blue surrounded by a tidy set of imbricate bracts outlined in purple. 

Plants are relatively small in their stature.

In the diagram below you can see both a disc and ray flower. Note that the pistil comes up through the cylinder of 5 anthers with the bilobed stigma.

Shown below in the photo is a disc flower. You can see the closed pistil stretching up through the 5 anthers that face inwards in a circle.  As of the female pistil stretches up through the anther column, the male anthers release their pollen onto the outside of the emerging straight style, where grains become available to pollinators. 

This “plunger” pollination is typical of many composites.

And a dominant shrub:

Mountain Big Sagebrush – Artemisia tridentata var. vaseyana – is now blooming on Antelope Flats and other sage-dominated habitats.

You can see the yellowish spires of the inflorescence waving in the wind. This wind-pollinated plant has light pollen grains that shake out on the wind and can be a big bother to those with allergies.

The composite flower heads are tiny and held above the foliage to enable free flow of pollen from one plant to another. 

(photo by Bob Sweatt – CalFlora.org)

Flower heads have both male and female flowers. Masses of pollen grains are produced in order to increase the odds of landing on a female flower at some distance. Seeds are tiny and drop off over the fall into the spring.  With a lot of luck, some will germinate in the spring and begin to form adult plants with deep taproots, well adapted to soils saturated briefly from snow melt in spring, and then dry soils throughout summer. Roots may grow 9′ or more to reach sufficient water.  

Despite the plentiful sagebrush seeds, restoration of sagebrush habitat in Grand Teton National Park and elsewhere is a difficult process. Several projects by The Nature Conservancy and GTP continue to experiment with the casting of seed or planting small plants (plugs) to reestablish these essential habitats.

And one final plant not to overlook:

Harebells – Campanula rotundifolia – are remarkably sturdy for such small, delicate-looking plants. 

The lowest leaves are roundish, the stem leaves are about 1 – 1 1/2″ long and very narrow – a rare shape shift for a plant. The bell-like flowers have a story about anthers and pistils. 

By the time flower opens, the male anthers have released their pollen onto the extending style.  One can see this with a 10x handlens.  You can see the brown withered anthers at the base of the pistil. The pistil continues to stretch and the stigma opens into three parts. If a pollinator doesn’t come by and gather the pollen, the flower can self-fertilize: the stigmas curl back and reach the grains from the same flower.

Harebells will continue to bloom into the end of fall.

Flowers are fading, but leaves are changing color and fruits are forming and being gobbled by birds, small mammals, and bears! Autumn will become ever more bountiful and colorful as the days become shorter.

Enjoy!

Frances Clark, Wilson, WY

Sept 1, 2023

This posting complements one of June 20 on Sagebrush Flats.  Several of the plants listed there are still blooming, such as spectacular stands of deep-yellow Mule’s-ears, wands of Scarlet Gilia, bunches of Silky Lupines, and occasional False Dandelions along with more plentiful Congested Sandworts.  It all depends on location: elevation, aspect, and soils.

At the time of this posting, the most abundant species of the sageflats and sunny sites elsewhere appears to be Sulphur Buckwheat – Eriogonum umbellatum.

Their sulphur yellow flowers flowers are held in clusters surrounded by a whorl of bracts.

The small leaves form mats beneath.

Scattered in betweenon disturbed ground, such as along the pathway in the park, are drifts of a weedy, reddish annual – Common Sheep Sorrel – Rumex acetosella. The seeds will be relished by many small birds and mammals. And these pioneering annuals help to retain soil and add nutrients and organic matter to the site, paving the way for slower establishing perennials.

Notably, Ambiguous Spring Parsley featured in the May bloom posting is still on the scene, albeit with fewer flowers and more fruits. It is noticeable also along the inner park road edges and road cuts or other disturbed areas.

Cinquefoils – Drymocallis/Potentilla – have appeared cheerfully on the scene. Potentillas, now called Drymocallis, have 5 pointed, green sepals; 5 yellow, roundish petals; many anthers; and many, many pistils set on a cone-shaped receptacle in the center. Leaves are either palmately or pinnately compound.

Slender or Graceful Cinquefoil – Drymocallis/Potentilla gracilis – holds out stems with bright  yellow flowers. Each petal is marked with a dash of orange at the base.

Palmately divided leaves have 5-7 lobes and are toothed. 

Within the species are at least two subspecies we won’t worry about at the moment.

Tall Cinquefoil – Drymocallis arguta – is 2-3’ tall with pinnately divided leaves.

Flowers are pale yellow to whitish and are held up at acute angles to the stem in tight clusters – like fists. 

Therefore, I think of argu-mentative to define this arrangement, which may help to remember is as  D. argu-ta. The plants are very sticky or glandular on stems and sepals.

Our state flower, Wyoming paintbrush – Castilleja linariifolia is just arriving on the scene.

The lean, long green galea extends beyond the orange-red sepals on 2-2.5’ stems.

Leaves are also divided into linear lobes. I think of the lean cowboys of Wyoming.

Notable is the Yampah species found only in Teton County in Wyoming – Bolander’s Yampah Perideridia bolanderi. 

It is flourishing along the very north end of the Moose-Wilson Road.

It tends to bloom earlier than the common Yampah – Perideridia gardnerii/montana. Petioles of the leaves are dilated (expanded) where they meet the stem. The leaflets are variable.

The fruits (schizocarps) will be oblong (vs more rounded).

Some rarer species:

Brittle Prickly Pear Cactus – Opuntia fragilis – is blooming on rocks at Kelly Warm Springs. 

Watch out!  The spines attach readily to boot, fur, or you.  You can see that the plants are migrating up hill, likely spread by roving wildlife or tourists.

Some folks have been finding the tapered blue flowers of Wild Hyacinth – Tritelia grandiflora. 

These elegant blue vase-like flowers are held up on 18” stems which grow from bulbs. They are on the very eastern edge of their range here in western Wyoming. They are in the Lily Family.

Also in the Lily Family, but very different looking are Sego Lilies – Calochortus nuttallii.  They sprout from bulbs on very dry slopes. We witnessed flowers being visited by what appeared to be flying ants. 

Not sure if they were actual pollinators. Sego lily bulbs have been a traditional food of several Native American groups, and this vital food was introduced by local tribes to the Mormons as a survival food.  As a consequence, Sego Lily it is the state flower of Utah.  (USDA)

New yellow composites:  There are always more composites to identify!

One-flowered Little-sunflowers – Helianthella uniflora – are abundant on slightly more moist sites in sageflats, up hillsides, and under dabbled shade of aspen groves.

The flowers are held up singly and the leaves have 1-3 visible veins.

Tapertip Hawksbeards – Crepis acuminata – are showing up here and there.

We have several different hawksbeards. This one has many (approx. 40) flower heads on a branching stem, each with about 5-12 ray flowers

all surrounded by about 5-8 smooth bracts. 

The stems and leaves are also essentially smooth. The leaves are about 6” long, mostly basal.  Their shape is distinctive with long-tapering tip and deeply incised, pointed lobes. 

Ragworts/Groundsels – Packera streptanthifolia – is one of three confusing relatively low growing groundsels. ID is based primarily on the highly variable leaves.

This species has tidy yellow flower heads with a few ray flowers with equal-length, smooth bracts, often tipped in black.

Their stem leaves are variably lobed and can slightly clasp the stem.

Most of the truly basal leaves are rounded and taper to the petiole. (Look around carefully for these…in this photo they are upper right corner).  

Woolly Sunflower – Eriophyllum lanatum – grows only about 8” tall. 

The broad, even-length bracts are slightly pointed and covered in fine white hairs.

The stems are also tomentose and the 2” linear leaves slightly less so.

You can notice the slight variation in color of the ray flowers: lighter yellow at the tips grading to a darker almost orange shade toward the base, likely forming a very noticeable “bull’s-eye” to pollinators with ultra-violet vision.

Harder to recognize as a composite is Common Yarrow – Achillea millefolium.  The species is found with many variations in chromosome numbers throughout much of North America, Europe, and Asia in relatively dry, lean soils. The composite flower heads consist about 3-5 small, white ray flowers and several disc flowers.

The feathery-looking leaves are finely dissected and very fragrant. Plants spread by rhizomes and can form dense colonies.

For thousands of years this chemically complex species has been used for medicinal purposes. It is named after Achilles of Greek mythology who is said to have used it to aid his wounded soldiers. This robust plant has been selected for colorful cultivars for gardens and can be considered quite aggressive. Needless to say, such a widespread species is also important for all sorts of insect pollinators.

Flowers mostly of meadows to dappled shade of Aspen groves.

Profusions of Sticky Geraniums – Geranium viscossissimum – cover many areas. Watch as the flowers begin to form their fruits that will catapult the seeds onto new ground. 

Five-nerved Little-sunflowers – Helianthella quinquenervis – are particularly robust 5-6’ tall in relatively moist meadow sites.

Look for the 5 obvious nerves or veins on their larger lower leaves for ID.

The large heads tend to glare right at you. Later the seeds will be plucked out by pine siskins and goldfinches.

Silvery Lupines  – Lupinus argenteus – also grow on open slopes or in part shade, or even in the dense shade of lodgepole pine forests. 

To distinguish it from its dry-habitat cousin Silky Lupine –  L. sericeus, note the palmate leaves are greener, less hairy (Silky on left,Silvery Lupine on right);

The silvery lupine flowers are smaller, more compact, usually darker,and without silky hairs on the back of the banner.

Timber Milkvetches – Astragalus miser – form mostly inconspicuous patches about a 1’ high and wide. The leaves are finely pinnately compound.

The small, pale white-to-bluish pea-like flowers are already producing small pods.

There are many species of of milkvetches – this is one of the most common in these habitats. Remember, milkvetches are toxic to many animals.

Fernleaf Louseworts – Pedicularis bracteosa – are flowering and fast fading in the light shade of Aspen groves or nearby hillsides, but they will soon be common in high meadows such as on the way to Ski Lake.

Wild strawberries creep into the verges of fields and forests.  They have 3-parted leaves, white 5-petaled flowers with many anthers and pistils. Brown seed-like fruits (achenes) lie on the outside of the swollen red receptacle—forming what we call the “berry”.  Note birds and small mammals may gobble delicious fruits before you see them. Plants spread by stolons: creeping stems over the ground.

Woodland Strawberry – Fragaria vesca – has leaves with obvious incised veins and are nearly hairless on the surface, but shaggy underneath.  The terminal tooth is usually longer than or equal to the adjacent two teeth.

The fruits lie on the surface of the receptacle, similar to our typical domestic strawberry. Flower stems are usually longer than the leaves. (Fruit photo from unknown source on web)

Common Strawberry – Fragaria virginiana – has 3-parted hairy leaves with the terminal teeth usually shorter than the two side teeth.

The leaves can have a blue-ish cast to them.  Plants tend to be hairier overall than Woodland Strawberries. The best way to ID them for sure is the fruits are embedded in the red flesh of the receptacle.

This species is one of the parents of the cultivated strawberries found in supermarkets.

Great Red paintbrush – Castilleja miniata – is the third red paintbrush seen so far this year. The flower clusters are held at the top of 12″ plus stems and the bracts and calyx tubes are toothed to lobed and surround the more-or-less green galea or petal-tube. The leaves are simple. 

This resembles and is often confused with a higher elevation (sub-alpine) species Rosy Paintbrush – C. rhexifolia.

Sulphur Paintbrush – Castilleja sulphurea – flowers are also clustered at the top of approx. 18″ stems. They have pale-yellow, broad, rounded bracts and rounded, toothed sepals.

Paintbrushes are notoriously difficult to ID as they can hybridize, self-fertilize, and generally muddle their chromosomes. Therefore bract and sepal shapes, sizes, and colors can range widely in appearance.

Fernleaf-Licorice Root – or Northern Osha – Ligusticum filicinum – is a new member of the Carrot Family appearing on the scene with its delicate domes of many fine umbels of white flowers that stand above finely dissected carrot-like leaves. (They are related to carrots). 

The root beneath the 3-4’ plants is thick and fragrant.  These plants and close relatives have been used by tribal groups for thousands of years for various medicinal purposes.  An interesting reference. regarding its use is provided by Ben Clark formerly of Wilson. 

Tall meadows are growing into their full splendor along the bumpy dirt road to Two-Ocean Lake in the Park. They include several of the flowers mentioned above: Sticky Geraniums, Five-nerved Sunflowers, Silvery Lupines,  and Northern Osha. 

Hard to Miss – Green Gentian or Monuments Plants! – Their story…

Green Gentian/ Mounument Plant – Frasera speciosa – is having a big year. 

These perennial “monocarpic” plants first form rosettes of leaves. 

The first few years, plants may exhibit only 1-2 leaves; if conditions go well, they will add another leaf or so each year. They use the summer leaves to store food down into their deep taproot for the winter.  Depending on the previous growing year, in spring a plant produces a larger rosette which, in turn, stores more food. 

Part of their energy “budget” is spent on defense. Each year they not only need energy to produce new leaves, but also, they need to manufacture enough chemicals to keep away predators…I see few blemishes on a leave.  Defense is expensive as we know from our national military budget. 

Years go by as the rosettes slowly become more and more leafy each year. Eventually, enough leaves (at least 20) will have stored enough food.  Certain weather conditions (still being researched) then trigger flower-bud formation deep down. A given geographical area is subject to the same weather conditions. 

Three to four years later, the plant produces a 4-6’ spire producing dozens of flowers. The flowers are open to all sorts of pollinators who show up and indeed fertilize the plants. 

And by late summer, capsules have formed with dozens of seeds inside each. Each Green Gentian plant produces hundreds of flowers, thousands of seeds and then dies (similar to Century Plants).  

Seeds shaken out by the wind often land not far from the parent where they are shaded and nourished by the parent plant decomposing above them.  Seeds are gobbled up by predators; but with so many, at least some seeds are missed. With luck, they will germinate and start growing single leaves, year by year.  It takes decades to grow from seed to flower! 

So, what we are seeing now is synchronicity of flowering triggered 3-4 years ago. We often overlook all the rosettes of various sizes still accumulating enough energy for the next big bloom cycle.  For more info see University of Colorado article.

We hope this posting catches you up on the more common plants of sun and shade.  Note the species we have seen in the past month or so will be showing up at higher elevations and in different densities and combinations as the summer continues on.  Check out past postings, too.  Many cover the same species or others found at similar date of posting.

Have fun!

Frances Clark, Teton Plants, Wilson, WY

July 10, 2023

As always we appreciate corrections. Some of these species are hard to ID. We want to make sure we are putting out correct info. Any questions or suggestions, please contact us at tetonplants@gmail.com. Thank you!

With our first sunny, days in the 70s, some of us are moving into the forests for our hikes. Trails around Phelps Lake, String Lake, Trail Creek, and Cache Creek all have areas of older growth spruce-fir forests. The understory plants have to be able to thrive in low light, cooler temperatures, lower nutrient soils, and a shorter growing season than those species that grow on the sunny sageflats and slopes or under aspen groves. Some forest flowering plants will by chance grow in light gaps, others have adapted to perpetual shadows.

Larger plants:

Red Baneberry – Actea rubra – post pompoms of small white flowers held 2-3’ above skirts of compound leaves.  Their delicate white sepals (no petals) have mostly shed. 

Over the next month, watch as the single ovaries swell and become shiny red fruits. 

These are poisonous for us to eat, but not for the birds and small mammals.

Meadow Rue – Thalictrum sp. – The leaves are very similar to the delicate compound leaves of its cousin columbine.

However, the wind-pollinated flowers are inconspicuous with male flowers with their dangling stamens (no petals) on one plant:

and wide-spreading filaments with sticky stigmas of females on another plant:

The wind blows the pollen from the anthers and with luck scatters polllen grains upon the stigmas of the females, thus fruits will form. 

Colorado Columbines – Aquilegia coerulea – are just emerging. Hard to miss the elegant, soaring flowers. The 5 long spurs harbor nectar in the far ends. Hummingbirds, long-tongued bees, or hawkmoths, all with long mouth parts, hover and reach deep for the sugary treat, incidentally bumping their bodies upon the many anthers and collecting pollen. 

With their  flight to a next, more mature flower, they will transport the pollen to 3 protruding stigmas while once again seeking nectar.  Then pollen grains can grow down into the separate 3 ovaries and stimulate seeds to form within 3 dried capsule fruits. 

False Solomon’s-seal – Maianthemum racemosum – stands 1.5-2’ plus tall.

The leaves with parallel veins alternate up the stems, and panicles of small white flowers plume out at the terminus. 

Twisted-stalks – Streptopus amplexifolius – arch over streams. 

Their 3-4’ stems branch and hold alternate leaves with parallel veins. Each axil (where leaf meets stem) has a single yellow flower held out upon a kinked stalk.

Later ovoid red fruits will dangle from the same spots. 

Bending down low:

Canada Violets – Viola canadensis – often form patches of distinctive heart-shaped leaves. 

The white flowers have delicate purple nectar guides leading into the yellow center of the flower. 

Insects land on the lower petals, follow the lines to the center, and probe for nectar in the back of flower to initiate the pollination process.

Hoodedspur Violet, Early Blue Violet, Sand Violet are just a few names for wide ranging Viola adunca.  Whatever the name, these plants form cushions of loose, heart-shaped leaves growing from the base or on short stems and produce blue violet blooms. The distinctive ID feature is the relatively long spur of the flower. 

If by chance the petalled flowers are not pollinated by bees or other pollinators, most violets have a back-up. They form cleistogamous flowers at the base of the plants.  Without fancy petals or fragrance, these hidden flowers self-fertilize so the plants still develop seeds, even without a mixture of new genes. Seeds are the means by which the next generation of plants can move away from their parent plant to go forth, grow, and multiply on their own. 

Unlike the many species of pussytoes we find in dry sunny locations, Racemose Pussytoes – Antennaria racemosa – thrive in shade. 

The 2” elliptical leaves are smooth green on top and hairy white on the underside.

They form extensive mats beneath the 6-18” flower stalks. Here the “pussytoes” or composite male or female flower heads are held out wide in racemes or panicles.

If you look carefully, you may find two relatives of the Saxifrage Family:

Delicate 1-2’ wands of tiny white flowers of Small-flowered Mitrewort – Mitella stauropetala – stand in the shade along trail sides. 

Look closely at the little cups (hypanthiums) formed by 5 white, blunt sepals and 5 thread-like petals.

If you keep looking around, you may find a more mature stem with cups brimming with un-ripened seeds.

Seeds will become shiny black.  Rain will “splash” them out upon the forest floor when fully ripened. The scalloped, almost round leaves are at the base of the plants.

Five-stamen Mitrewort – Mitella pentandra – is harder to find as plants are smaller and the flowers more obscure,.

The cup-shaped flowers are wide open. The five sepals are green and pointed and the 5 greenish petals have 5-7+ thread-like lobes.

These delicate petals stand just outside the 5 whitish anthers that surround a reddish nectar disc, with greenish splayed stigmas in the center.  The fruits will be very similar to those of Small-flowered Mitrewort. 

Orchids

Orchids are particularly fascinating plants.  Often their flowers have evolved to be pollinated by very specific pollinators. Typically, flowers have inferior ovaries, above which are 3 sepals that flare to the top and 2 sides, then 3 petals, two of which may be similar to the sepals and/or form a  “hood” above the third petal below which is usually quite distinct and called a “lip”. The stamens, style, and stigma are fused to form a “column”.  There are thousands of different orchids around the world, so needless to say, there are thousands of variations of appearance.

In general, pollen is held in a wad of hundreds of tiny grains called a pollinium.  This pollen wad is carried by the pollinator to another orchid of the same species, and the wad sticks to the sticky tip of the central column.  Then hundreds of pollen grains grow down into the inferior ovary where hundreds of eggs await. 

If fertilized, the seeds will form inside a dry capsule that will split part.  Seeds are dust-like…tiny. They are scattered by the wind.  As orchid seeds don’t have any extra food tucked in with the embryo, when they land  seeds count on specialized ectomychorrizal fungi to grow into them and provide nutrients and water for sustenance.  Some orchids form a “protocorm”, an underground mass of cells that slowly expands and eventually forms defined shoots that emerge above ground.  Also, after blooming a year or so, an orchid may disappear underground for time and pop up elsewhere in the area. Truly elusive plants.

Again, pollinators are very specialized. Lured in by fragrance, shape, color, and possibly nectar, the pollinator is directed by the form of the flower to position exactly to pick up or drop off the pollinium.  Not much is known about many of the pollinators of orchids or their essential ecotomychorrizal associates. Finding an orchid is a very special treat. Please do not pick or dig orchids!  And watch your step.  Thank you.

Some orchids we have seen in the past week or two:

Fairy Slippers – Calypso bulbosa – are said to be pollinated by young queen bumblebees.  Attracted by scent and design of the flowers, bees arrive looking for pollen and/or nectar. 

However, while they may bop against the pollinium and carry it off, the queen bee is not rewarded with pollen or nectar.  She may try another flower, dropping off the pollinium, but again no reward for her. So she gives up. The Fairy Slipper lucked out on luring in a novice queen bumblebee and thereby being pollinated! 

Coralroots – Corallorhiza spp., – are named for their knobby root structure.  Without any chlorophyll, these plants are completely dependent on ectomychorrhizal fungi throughout their life.  Of the 5 species native to Teton County, we have been seeing two:

Striped Coralroot  – Corallorhiza striata – has blurry reddish stripes on pinkish sepals and upper petals. You can see the thickish column with the yellow wad of pollinia. 

The lower petal or “lip” is deep maroon. Plants can grow up to 2’ or so and have many flowers.

Spotted Coralroot – Corallorhiza maculata – can sport reddish or yellowish stems and flowers. 

Different colored plants can grow side by side. 

Look for several reddish spots and two teeth on the lip. Some flowers do not have the spots, but always will have the teeth at the back of the lip.  

The mottled leaves of Rattlesnake Orchid – Goodyera oblongifolia – are evergreen and form rosettes connected by rhizomes. 

Soon up through the center of the rosette will grow 6” stalks with a spiral of small whitish hairy flowers. 

Typical of many orchids, the Rattlesnake Orchid fruits are dry capsules which break into narrow slits, gradually releasing hundreds if not thousands of dust like seeds upon the wind.

Twayblades – Listera spp. – are some of the smallest, and rarest orchids we have seen. The genus is easily identifiable by the two opposite leaves midway up a single stalk. The flowers have long protruding lips.

Northwestern Twayblade – Listera caurina – is relatively common growing up to 3-4”. 

Note the several flowers, each have a lip which is slightly rounded or squared at the tip.

If you can get down close enough with a hand lens you may see two very tiny transparent teeth at the base of the lip:

Broad-lipped Twayblade – Listera convallarioides – is also rare – we have seen this 2” plant once by pure luck.  The lip has an obvious indentation. Also look at the profile of the flowers and how it differs from Northwestern Twayblade.

Heart-leaved Twayblade – Listera cordata – is also rare, again with only one sighting. Note the lip is split into two very delicate segments.

Again, this plant is only 1-2” high.

For much more info on our North Temperate orchids, go to Go Orchids

More “belly botany”:

Over the next few weeks several 2-6” evergreen plants will bloom. To truly see their flowers, one has to get down on one’s belly. (Do watch out for other plants nearby as you kneel or step.)  One such gem that has just begun blooming is:

One-flowered Shinleaf, Single Delight – Moneses uniflora – is in the Heath Family and is related to several other evergreen species of deep shade and acid soils of evergreen forests. 

It is about 4” tall tops. The anthers are tubular, arranged in groups around the 5 parted stigma. Pretty cool if you can get all the way down and very gently take a look at the flowers with a 10x handlens.

Another evergreen wonder is Green Pyrola – Pyrola asarifolia.  A few round evergreen leaves are near the base of the 3-4” stem which holds 4-5 creamy white flowers. 

Soon these species will be accompanied by other evergreen members of the Heath Family including more Pyrolas, Orthillas, and Pipsissewas.

Enjoy walking the woodland trails: watch your feet and find the flowers!

Frances Clark, Teton Plants

July 4, 2023

As always we appreciate corrections, concerns, comments. Best to email us at tetonplants@gmail.org

The valley is resplendent with Balsamroot – across Antelope Flats, up the eastern slopes of Shadow Mountain, along Wally’s World, and elsewhere. This abundant species is accompanied by an entourage of showy flowers worthy of note as well.  Some are quite demure, and others puzzles to ID.  But all signify spring moving quickly into summer in sunny Jackson Hole. 

Arrowleaf-Balsamroot – Balsamorhiza  sagittata-  is a classic “composite” flower. The flower heads include many small individual flowers standing on a platform, all surrounded by protective bracts. Most are small disc flowers disc flowers that bloom from the outside in. The outer ray flowers help to attract and also serve as landing platforms for myriad pollinators.

Each yellow disc flower performs “push pollination”. Inside the tube of 5 fused yellow petals, 5 dark anthers face inward forming a tight circle.  The closed 2-parted yellow stigma extends up through this column, pushing pollen released by the anthers up and out for pollinators of bees and such to come and get it. Later the stigma of the flower opens wide to capture pollen from a different flower to prevent self-fertilization.  However, if for some reason a pollinator does not deliver pollen, the curled-back stigmas can reach for its own pollen. Each of these flowers will each make a single fruit, as does our commercial sunflower.  In Arrow-leaf Balsamroot, large, arrow-shaped leaves are all basal and grayish hairy. Also only one flower is held up on each stalk.

As Arrow-leaf Balsamroots fade, Mule’s Ears – Wyethia amplexicaulis – comes into their own.  Several bright orange-yellow flower heads bloom on the stems. Dark green, smooth, mule-ear shaped leaves alternate up the stems. These plants grow in more water retentive soils. They dominate Wally’s World ridge and also low sites around the valley such as near the Oxbow in the park.

Other yellow composites:

Sahkalen Arnica – Arnica sororia – As in most all arnicas, leaves are opposite, each yellow head of both ray and disc flowers is surrounded by an even row of bracts. Usually single flower heads are held above 2-4 sets of opposite, sessile, ovate leaves on each stem, with more leaves with 3 veins at base. Details include white, slightly bristly hairs around the base of each disc flower.  Overall plants are sticky hairy.

These arnicas are particularly plentiful out the northern end of Flat Creek Road in the Elk Refuge and scattered out Gros Ventre Road on the way to Kelly.

Western Groundsel – Senecio integerrimus – A common sagebrush habitat species, this groundsel stands about 12-18” tall. Most leaves are at the base, but some oblong leaves alternate up the stem.

Note the fine cobwebby hairs on stem and leaves. Flower heads have bracts that are smooth, equal length, and tipped in black.  They surround a few outer ray flowers and several more disc flowers in the center. I have been seeing a caterpillar eating these plants. (Anyone know what species it is?)

Stemless Goldenweed – Stenotus acaulis – In dry rocky roadsides and hill tops, one finds extensive mats of 3-4”, upright spear-shaped leaves are overtopped by numerous yellow flower heads.

Heads include several yellow, oblong, blunt ray flowers surrounding several disc flowers. Heads are protected by 3-4 rows of pointed, hairy bracts. This species tends to grow best on drier knolls within sagebrush or grassland habitat.

Also mixed in are two other 6-8” species that look very similar at first. A puzzle for botany nerds. Both have tap roots, heads with all yellow ray flowers surrounded by somewhat broad bracts arranged in 2-3 alternating rows. Leaves are long and narrow.  From there to details:

Microseris – Microseris nutans – often has several stems with several flowers arising from the base. Note that some stems and leaves alternate up the stem.  Also, flower buds nod…hence “nutans”.

Narrow leaves have smooth to slightly toothed edges. Even finer details: the outer bracts are few and short, the inner two rings have longer, broader bracts that taper to a point.

The shiny white pappus of each fruit is “plumose” with broad scaly bases. 

Nothocalais – Nothocalais troxmoides – is very similar (they used to be in the same genus Microseris). Compare closely: Typically Nothocalais has only a single flower stem surrounded by thin, slightly wavy, all-basal leaves.

The bracts are all about the same length, often finely dotted with purple. Each fruit has bristles that broaden only slightly at the base.

Confusing yellow composites to come:

False Dandelions – Agoseris glauca varieties – tend to be larger than the above, leaves are all basal, some with fine teeth, flower heads of all yellow ray flowers borne on single stalks.  Bracts and leaf shape determine which subspecies.

Hawksbeards – Crepis spp.  – Many all-ray flower heads held up on several branching stems. 

Leaves variable, often with large sharp teeth, arranged both at base and alternating up stems. 

White composites:

We have many Fleabanes or Fleabane Daisies – Erigeron spp. – in Teton County growing from a few inches to a few feet high.  They can be difficult to key to species.  All Fleabanes have equal-length bracts surrounding usually many thin ray flowers that in turn encircle tiny yellow disc flowers, like a typical “daisy”.  The white (vs blue) species are the more complex to ID, I find.

Shaggy or Low Fleabane – Erigeron pumilus – form dense bunches of hairy (sticking out like a fraidy-cat hair) stems and leaves about 4-5” high. Commonly found in drier soils of sagebrush and dry knolls.

Another very similar low species is easier to ID: – Cutleaf Daisy – Erigeron compositus.  Also, low growing with white composite heads in similar dry habitats, this species has divided leaves. It is going to seed now.

Rarely seen in Jackson Hole but abundant up at Island park, ID,  in moist meadow areas are White Wyethia – Wyethia helianthoides. 

Hard to miss or mistake!

A mix of colorful species:

Stoneseed/Puccoon – Lithospermum ruderale – are robust plants with 1-2’ tall straight stems.  Narrow leaves are 1-2” long, alternating up the stem.

Pale-yellow tubular flowers are clustered and tucked into the axils of the upper leaves. Flowers have a lovely fragrance.

Later they will form very hard white fruits each with one seed – hence its name Stoneseed.  Borage Family

Sulphur Buckwheat – Eriogonum umbellatum – is just unfurling its flat-topped clusters of creamy yellow to pinkish flowers. 

Note the collar of oval leaves below the inflorescence and the many mat-forming leaves at the base. Buckwheat Family/Polygonaceae

Prairie Smoke – Geum triflorum – Usually 3 (-5) pinkish rose-colored flowers dangle about 6-12” above the finely pinnately divided leaves which cluster at the base. 

The 5 sepals are rose colored, with 5 yellow petals barely peering out.

Later the many separate pistils mature into individual fruits with unfurling fine long hairy stigmas that give the plant is Prairie Smoke name.  Rose Family.

Long-leaved Phlox – Phlox longifolia – forms pinkish, bluish to white patches along roadsides, sageflats, and other sunny spots.

This plant stretches its 6-12” stems to display its flowers. The fragrance is wonderful and attracts long-tongued insects that can perch on the flaring petals and reach down into the long tube for nectar. Phlox Family/Polemoniaceae

Stonecrop – Sedum lanceolata – clusters of 2-3” stems with pudgy ¼- ½ ” succulent leaves grow on rocky sites. The sepals are deep orange but the 5-petaled flowers are yellow when fully opened.

Yellow Paintbrush – Castilleja flava var. flava– is frequent on sageflats right now. Growing up to 18”+ tall, it presents yellow flowers held out above the axils of greenish-yellow divided bracts. 

The yellow-green calyx is narrow with two short-pointed side lobes and longer slits back and front.  The mature corolla of 4 fused petals extends beyond the calyx of sepals, often leaning out.  The galea is clearly longer than the lip.The anthers are tucked inside and the stigma will extend out a bit. Leaves are divided into sparse thin lobes. 

As with many of our paintbrushes, this species is a hemiparasite. Its known host plant is not surprisingly sagebrush – Artemisia.

And still flowering strong, are Desert Paintbrushes – Castilleja chormosa – in a class of its own for its brilliant, glowing,scarlet color of it bracts and sepals. Its hard to pick the best picture!

In the first fall, the dissected leaves of Scarlet Gilia – Ipomopis aggregata – form frilly looking, unimpressive rosettes for the first winter.

Come spring stems sprout up to 3-4 feet by end of June and flower. Most plants then die, essentially being biennials.

The seeds will produce, with luck, the next cohort of Scarlet Gilias to greet the next year’s hummingbirds and moths.

Blues:

Nuttall’s Larkspur – Delphinium nuttallii – is an early-spring larkspur of only about 6-8” high.  The leaves are palmately divided, reminiscent to a bird’s foot. The flowers are deep blue. Delphinium flowers are intriguing. 

Take a close look, and if not in the national park, maybe pick one flower and with all due respect dissect it with some friends as a learning opportunity.  Observe the outer flaring 5 colorful sepals. The uppermost one forms a spur out the back. Of the 4 petals, 2 whitish ones with nectar lines stand upright, firm, and extend tubes back into the spur, holding nectar; the two blue petals with whitish hairs droop below and provide a landing pad for pollinators. They also cover the cluster of anthers. 

Hidden within the anthers are three stigmas that will mature after the anthers have released their pollen to prevent self-fertilization. Nectar held in the two spurs encourages long-beaked birds – hummingbirds – or long-tongued insects to reach deep inside going back and forth between the two tubes, thereby hitting their heads or body on the dangling anthers or later upon the stigmas. Nuttall’s Larkspur differs from Low Larkspur – D. bicolor (photo below) – having all similar-sized sepals and the slits (notches) in the two lower petals are >1/4 of their length. I have seen these up in Yellowstone. Buttercup Family/Ranunculaceae

Two Lupines – Lupinus spp.

A couple of weeks ago, large 1-2’ blue lupines amassed along cobbly river basins such as seen from the highway while crossing Gros Ventre River or Spread Creek, and from the park road by Jenny Lake and into Lupine Meadows. 

Large-leaf Lupine – Lupinus polyphyllus – has many palmately divided leaves and flower stalks with wide-open blue pea-like flowers. The back of the “banner” is more or less smooth.

Just emerging in sageflats are Silky Lupines – Lupinus sericeus.  These differ in having

many silvery hairy leaves, forming slightly smaller flowers with obvious silky hairs on the back of the upright petal or banner. 

All lupines are poisonous with alkaloids that are more concentrated in early growth or in seeds.  Being legumes, lupines also can fix their own nitrogen.  Some Paintbrushes – Castilleja spp. – actually attach to lupines underground and draw off alkaloids to reduce herbivory.

Mat-root Beardtongue – Penstemon radicosus – is in small1-1.5’-tall patches. All Penstemons have opposite leaves and tubular flowers with 4 anthers curled up inside and one tongue-like staminode—a sterile, often hairy stamen–that lies on the floor of the flower. 

We have many penstemons, this one keys out to Mat-root Beardtongue because of the glandular hairs on sepals and petals (and all over the plant), the sepals that narrow to a point, and 1 mm smooth anthers arranged end to end inside.

There is no cluster of leaves at the base of the 18” stems.

Low Penstemon – P. humilis – is technically a very similar species: It has even smaller anthers .5-.8 mm and clusters of elongate leaves at the base.

Some botanists can recognize the gestalt of each species. I still have to key them out–more fun than crossword puzzles or wordle!.

These species, like many penstemons, are pollinated by bumblebees. Snapdragon/ Scropulariaceae now in the Plantain Family/ Plantaginaceae

Sticky Geranium – Geranium viscossissimum – is opening its 5 pink to blue petals, attracting a range of pollinators who can land easily and follow the nectar guides to the center of the flower.  Male anthers shed pollen first, then they dry up and a few days later the 5 pinkish stigmas expand ready to catch pollen brought from another flower.

Leaves are palmately divided into sharp-tooted leaflets.

Glandular hairs make the stems sticky. These hairs trap tiny insects, from which plants obtain nutrients! Geranium Family/Geranicaceae

Lewis’ Flax – Linum lewisii – is common along hillsides and roads right now. Its sky-blue saucer- shaped flowers wave atop 2′, slender stems arrayed with narrow leaves. 

Long, strong fibers have made this species and particularly its European cousin Common Flax – Linum usitatissimum  – truly very useful for making cordage, linen, canvas, etc. The oil linseed oil, and flax seeds are used as a dietary supplement. Linoleum also comes from flax. Lewis’ Flax is named after Merriweather Lewis of the Lewis and Clark Expedition. The historical herbarium specimen is dated July 7, 1806, Montana. Flax Family/Linaceae

Whites:

Meadow Death Camus – Toxicoscordion/Zigadenus venenosus – is indeed poisonous. Plants contain a neurotoxic steroidal alkaloid called zygacine. Dried plants remain toxic for at least 20 years. (USFS)  Look for 6-12”-long, narrow basal leaves and a taller raceme of many white, slightly yellowish (from nectar glands) flowers.

The plants grow up from storage bulbs. Formerly Lily, now Bunchflower Family/Melanthaceae

Often seen among pussytoes or fleabanes, Bastard Toadflax – Comandra umbellata  – grows to 4-6”. Plants have alternating bluish green, smooth, lanceolate, 2” leaves. The pinkish buds open into white flowers clustered at the tops; each flower has 5 sepals (no petals) with 5 anthers, and one inferior ovary what will produce a hard urn-shaped drupe. 

This native plant serves as an alternate host of the Comandra Blister Rust which infects lodgepole pines in our area. (It is not the same as the introduced white pine blister rust that plagues 5-needled white pines such as whitebark pines.)  Bastard Toadflax also is a hemiparasite which draws nutrients from a variety of species including pussytoes, asters, wild strawberries, sedges, aspens, and roses to name a few.

The taxonomists are mixed on which family it belongs to. Dorn places it in the Sandlewood Family, and currently Rocky Mountain Herbarium has added in the fully parasitic Lodgepole Pine Dwarf Mistletoe – Arceuthobium americanum.

Others have put Bastard Toadflax in yet its own family Comandraceae.  In any case it is an odd-ball genus has few close relatives in North America, despite its broad range across the continent into Europe.

Congested Sandwort – Eregomone/Arenaria congesta – holds up bunches of several white flowers, each with 5 petals, 10 anthers, 3 styles, all atop of wiry 5-6” stems with opposite narrow leaves. Just beginning to bloom. Pink Family/Caryophyllaceae.

Evening Primroses – Oenothera caespitosa – have huge white flowers that fade to pink and fold up by midday. The fragrance is wonderful, worth getting down on hands and knees. They depend on hawkmoths for pollination. Evening Primroses grow only here and there on usually very dry slopes. It is a bonanza to find this plant. Evening Primrose Family/Onagraceae.

The flowers will keep coming in a variety of combinations to enjoy. The north end of Flat Creek Road, Antelope Flats, the Park Road, Wally’s World, Cache Creek trails are all places to see an abundance of favorites.

Frances Clark, June 19, 2023

As always we appreciate corrections and comments.

May 25, 2023

Many new flowers have emerged this past week with our warm (70s), sunny weather and now rain. Those mentioned in the last posting, such as Spring Beauty – Claytonia lanceolata, Utah Buttercups – Ranunculus jovis, and Yellowbells – Fritillaria pudica – are blooming strong in the north end of Teton National Park.

New flowers are emerging in sage flats and up slopes:

 Shooting Stars – Dodocatheon conjugens  – grow only a few inches high. 

Five pink petals fold back and five dark anthers ring the protruding single stigma. These plants are buzz pollinated. 

A bee comes in, clings to the tiny clefts at the base of the petals, vibrates its wings at a certain frequency, and thereby releases pollen onto its belly.  It flies to another flower where the stigma is sticking out, and the stigma dabs up the pollen—pollination!

Woodland Stars – Lithophragma spp.- are patchy along the northeast corner of the Antelope Flats loop, but likely elsewhere as well. Members of the Saxifrage Family, they have sticky hairs and 5-petaled, white flowers. We have three species to look for. 

The most frequent now is Fringe-cup Woodland Star – Lithophrama glabrum.  Note the white petals each have 3-5 lobes. Also, 8-12” plants have hairy, red bulbils in many of the axils of the divided leaves. The bulbils help the plant spread vegetatively, a bonus in hard spring times when pollinators are scarce.  

Two other species to look for:

Slender Woodland Star – Lithophragma tenellum also has 3-5 lobes to each petal, but no bulbils.  Also, the stem leaves tend to be pinnately (feather-like) divided.

Little-flowered Woodland Star – Lithophragma parviflorum – typically has only 3 divisions to its petals. The cup-like calyx tends to narrow gradually to its base. Stem leaves are palmately divided.

Ballhead Waterleafs – Hydrophyllum capitatum – are flowering beneath their overarching divided leaves.  You have to lift the leaf to see the hairy snowball-like cluster of many white flowers with elongated anthers.  A fun discovery!

Yellow Violets – Viola spp. – First, let’s just enjoy the yellow violets that are emerging! Amidst a bunch of leaves, yellow “irregular” flowers come forth.  “Irregular” means there are two similar sides like your face. 

Note the lines that draw the pollinator into the center of the flower. The insect perches and then pushes its head inside to seek nectar, which is held in the back of the flower; thus, the insect picks up or drops off pollen during its maneuver to reach a sugary reward or pollen itself.

Several yellow violets look similar and can be tricky to ID. Many identification keys use proportions and dimensions of the leaves but leaves are highly variable. Taxonomists separate different kinds/species based on highly technical features: fruit shape, seed details, and genetics. Experts acknowledge the complexity of the matter. 

Without getting into the botanical weeds, we place this species as a variety of Nuttall’s Violet, likely Viola nuttallii var. praemosa or just V. praemosa.

Goosefoot Violet – Viola purpurea var. venosa – has distinctively lobed leaves, like a webbed goosefoot. The flowers tend to come out a bit later than the Nuttall violet complex.

Wyeth Biscuitroot – Lomatium ambiguum – is emerging along the Park Road and and will become more prominent in the next week or two. Its umbels of sharp-yellow, tiny flowers have rays that are uneven in length.  Look for the swollen bases (petioles) of the leaves: they are the beginning of a single divided leaf. 

The linear leaflets are irregular in shape, length and arrangement—truly ambiguous in its growth pattern.

Also in the Parsley family (note the umbels!), Nine-leaf Biscuitroot – Lomatium simplex, formerly L. triternatum var. platycarpum – is growing taller. Compared to L. ambiguum, its umbels are more regular, the flowers a paler more lemon yellow, and the leaves are clearly pinnately divided into similarly sized segments.  This species has at least three common names.  Common names are like nick names – often very localized among friends vs. the botanical names which are like formal legal names. 

Up Josie’s Ridge – (many of these plants are found elsewhere)

Josie’s Ridge, which runs west of Snow King, rises 1000’ above Jackson. 

The dry, open lower elevation hosts a wonderful array of varied-blue shades of Hood’s Phlox – Phlox hoodii. Elsewhere flowers tend to be white. The difference may be some genetic variation or due to soils. Anyone know the answer?

Take a moment to catch a whiff of the sweet fragrance or get down and put your nose into the bouquet. It is often the fragrance of a flower that draws in the insects from a far, before they notice the color – just as you may first smell a bakery down a side street before you see the sign.  In other places they are beginning to fade in our weekend heat, but again are fresh at higher elevations.

Tucked in more shady areas grow Western Valerians – Valeriana occidentalis. Note the candle-arbor arrangement of the flower clusters.  White petals are in 5’s. 

Stem leaves are opposite and mostly pinnately divided, while the basal leaves are in more of a bunch and can be whole. Plants grow to up to 2.5′ tall. 

Valerian root of herbalists is from the European species Valeriana officinalis. It is known as a mild sedative to reduce anxiety and help sleep.  As a general rule, different species in the same genus can have significantly different chemical properties and can have different effects on individuals. Be very cautious when wild collecting for herbal treatments.

Mountain Bluebells – Mertensia oblongifolia – grow in occasional patches. 

The dangling tubes of flowers start off pink and then become blue and open up when ready to be pollinated. Pollinated flowers drop off.

As one climbs up the step switchback trail, one is rewarded by plentiful American Pasque Flowers – Anemone/Pulsatilla patens var. multifida.

Seasonal favorites, these members of the Buttercup Family, have 5-7 blue sepals (no petals) that surround many anthers and many separate pistils.  The hairy divided leaves are opposite on the 12” stems. These are all-time spring favorites!

And later they are known as Phyllis Diller or Dr. Seuss plants when the pistils develop into fruits.

Diamond-leaf Saxifrage – Saxifraga rhomboidea – are scattered in the grasses. 

Each white tight flower head stands 6-8” above a cluster of slightly toothed, triangular basal leaves. The stems have glandular hairs.

Typical of the Saxifrage Family, each flower has two divergent stigmas that look a bit like a dunce cap when the pistils ripen into two follicles.

Don’t overlook the few Kittentails – Besseya wyomingensis – that stand about 8-10” high. 

The blue color of the 2-3” inflorescence is created by many stiff violet blue filaments of the stamens tipped with darker stigmas. Each flower has two stamens and one pistil with two minor bracts at the base. The leaves are soft hairy—actually most of the plant is “furry”—perhaps the source of the common name. In some places Kittentails have already gone to fruit.

The Latin Besseya is likely honoring the Mid-western botanist of the mid- to late 1800s, Charles Edwin Bessey, as was Bessey’s Locoweed (see below). Plant names, both common and scientific, have lots of stories behind them.

At the top Josie’s Ridge and also other dry sites, Scarlet Paintbrushes – Castilleja chromosa – are beginning to emerge.  Hard to miss.  The bright red flower clusters almost glow as the hairs catch the sunlight. All paintbrush flowers are complicated: the bracts and sepals, not the petals, usually provide the color to lure in pollinators – red often attracts hummingbirds.

They are now plentiful at the north end of Flat Creek Road.

On other dry knolls, ridge lines, and slopes, often mixed in with creamy Pursh’s Milkvetch – Astragalus purshii,

is another member of the Pea Family, Bessey’s Locoweed – Oxytropis besseyi. The leaves of the two species are very similar—pubescent and pinnately divided, mostly basal.  This Locoweed species has tightly clustered pink flowers with the familiar shape of many members of the Pea Family: upward facing banner, 2 side wings, and keel that protects the stamens and pistil.

Look closely to see the outward protruding point of the keel (vs. the curved-up tip of the Milkvetch). To remember this pointy feature and the Latin name of this genus, I think of being gored by an ox.  Oxys-tropis is Greek for ‘sharp point‘).

Both Milkvetches and Locoweeds are highly toxic to humans and other mammals.  All parts contain an alkaloid swainsonine that affects the central nervous system, reproductive system, heart, and intestinal systems, and lycocytes. It also affects behavior e.g. makes one “loco”.  Here is a link to more info.

In the time of compiling this What’s in Bloom, more flowers are happening.

Arrowleaf Balsamroot – Balsamorhiza sagittata – are running up the south side of East Gros Ventre Butte.

Nuttall’s Larkspur – Delphinium nuttallii – are flourishing out Flat Creek Road. 

So many more flowers are opening each day!

Frances Clark, Wilson, WY

As always we appreciate your comments and corrections at Tetonplants@gmail.com

On recent forays around Moose, Kelly Warm Springs, and out Flat Creek Road, eager botanists have found an array of early spring favorites. Often you have to get down on your belly to see the cool identification features (belly botany).  With so few flowers to date, this “What’s in Bloom” focuses on how much you can see if you really look.

Among sage flats or under open cottonwood stands:

Very early, and requiring a keen eye to find, are Turkey Peas – Orogenia linarifolia. The “peas” are underground bulbs. These starchy features are relished by squirrels and likely burrowing small mammals, such as voles and pocket gophers. 

The leaves are indeed linear as the botanical name implies – actually long lobes of divided leaves. The white flower clusters are barely an inch across and likely pollinated by tiny flies or gnats.  Turkey Peas are very small members of the Carrot/Parsley Family – Apiaceae.  Several more members of this family will be emerging this spring.  They can be tricky to ID, especially as the fruits are often the definitive key feature. Patience required.

Sagebrush and Utah Buttercups – Ranunuculus glaberrimus and R. jovis – are adding sunny sparkles to flats and slopes. 

Sagebrush Buttercups have simple leaves

while Utah Buttercups have 3-lobed leaves. The flowers are typically 5 petaled, but some have none.

The glossy look of buttercup flowers is a result of morphology and physics of the petals. See: Glossiness of Buttercups

 Spring Beauties – Claytonia lanceolata – are just unfurling their opposite leaves and expanding their white flowers—5 petals with 5 delicate pink anthers. 

Also, a challenge to discover, but definitely worth the effort, are Steer’s Heads – Dicentra uniflora. Look for the bluish, roundish leaflets and then for the expanding flowers only an inch or so off the often-pebbly ground. Their flowers epitomize the West!

The plants go from flower to seed within 3 weeks and the leaves soon disappear – they are termed “spring ephemerals” for their brief spring appearance. Research indicates that it may take 10 years from seed to the first flower.  The plants are also host plants for the larvae caterpillars of the Clodius Parnassian Butterfly – Parnassius clodius. 

A lot of cool info for such tiny plants. Tread carefully!

Yellowbells – Fritillaria pudica – are still scant.  In the Lily Family, the yellow flowers bear 6 yellow “tepals” held about 6” above ground.

Flying low where the spring sun is warming the soil and the wind is reduced, pollinators such as flies and bees search for early nectar and pollen as seen inside this flower.

Once a flower is fertilized, researchers say it’s petal color will change from yellow to an orange, signaling pollinators not to waste time visiting it: go to nearby flowers instead. This adaptation helps other members of the local yellowbell population to be fruitful. See if you can observe this change: carefully look inside for withered anthers and growing ovaries. I haven’t quite seen it myself.

Here and there, such as in South Park Feed Ground and near the park rotary, Cous Biscuitroots – Lomatium cous – are sprouting. Look for the dissected, deep green, mostly smooth leaves with reddish petioles and fists (umbels) of tiny sharp-yellow flowers.

At the base of each flower cluster or “umbel” are broad, rounded involucral bracts – a key ID species for this member of Carrot/Parsley Family.

Biscuitroots have swollen tubers which have been eaten raw or dried and pounded into flour that was used to make biscuits.  Fruits will be flat and split.

Also, in the Carrot/Parsley Family – Turpentine Spring Parsley – Cymopteris terebinthus – has finely dissected leaves with a tangy fragrance when crushed. The flowers are also yellow and arranged in umbels (think of the spokes of umbrellas), but here the involucel bracts are elongated and pointed. 

These plants will form quite large mounds of fine leaves and many winged fruits. Fruits are usually needed for definitive ID of members of the Parsley Family (Apiaceae). They are termed “schizocarps”–split fruits. Turpentine Spring Parsley tends to grow in shaley soils.

Dry rocky slopes and knolls, such as found in the hills on the east side of the Jackson Hole, feature special species:

One of the earliest and most common flowering plants are Hood’s Phlox – Phlox hoodii.  Related to garden phlox, Hood’s Phlox have small white-to-bluish flowers on very compact plants. Leaves are tiny, sharp, opposite, with “cobwebby” hairs. 

The tubular, fragrant flowers are furled in bud.  When the flowers unfold, a bee or fly which  is attracted by scent then color lands on the flared petals and then inserts its proboscis down into the tube for nectar, picking up or dropping off pollen grains during its visit.

Overall, the plants are smaller than the later-blooming Multiflora Phlox.

One of the smallest blooming wildflowers are Low Pussytoes – Antennaria dimorpha. Indeed, the mat-forming plants are less than an inch or two tall. 

Get down to look for the flower heads: Individual flowers are termed “disc” flowers and are arranged in composite heads. Male flowers produce pollen. Most of the plants I have been seeing so far are male. (photo below)

Female flowers produce delicate white stigmas surrounded by pappus hairs to catch pollen picked up by wind from any male plants nearby.

Like other pussytoes, plants are dioecious: male and female flowers are on separate plants. More species of pussytoes will be blooming soon.

Members of the Mustard Family (Brassicaceae) are often the earliest to bloom.  Twinpods and Bladderpods (formerly Lesquerella) are now all in the genus Physaria. Generally, the genus sports silvery, stiff, often spade-shaped leaves. Precise ID features include hairs(!) and fruits; and with fruits in hand, you may still need to count the number of seeds to know the species for sure.

But for now, just enjoy the cheerful color of the 4 yellow petals and the plant’s ability to grow on rocky, dry, infertile ground. If you have a 10x handlens, you may enjoy the fancy star-shaped hairs.

Also emerging are members of the Pea Family, Woollypod Milkvetch – Astragalus purshii.  The fuzzy, pinnately compound leaves are unfurling on rocky south-facing slopes near Kelly Warm Springs.

The pea-like flowers have white to cream banners and wings and purple-tipped keels. Fruits will be very hairy, short tough pods with sharp tips—hence “woollypod” milkvetch. Many fruits from last year are still lying about. 

A special find is Common Townsendia – Townsendia leptotes – These perennials in the Aster Family are slow growing with 1” flower heads surrounded by many tiered, pointed bracts.  The pubescent leaves are elongate and a bit fleshy. Growing close to the ground, plants tend to tuck in among small rocks.

The photo of the tap root was taken of a plant that was uprooted for some reason—did an elk take a nibble and spit it out?  Note the root extends deeply to reach scarce water.

Don’t be fooled:

A common rockcress – Boechera or Arabis sp. – can fool you and insects by looking like they have bright yellow flowers. The leaves of rockcress can host a yellow fungus Puccinia monoica.

Fungal spores land on a young mustard and invade the host’s tissue. Spores begin to grow using the nutrients from the plant thereby, sterilizing it so the mustard does not bloom. Instead, the fungus stimulates the formation of “pseudo-flowers”: mutated leaves that look like and even smell like flowers. This  alliance of plant and fungus produces a sticky nectar-like substance and yellowish pigments that reflect UV light to further attract pollinators. These pseudo-flowers have hundreds of small cup-like “spermatagonia” which contain the sex cells of the fungus.

Insects alight on these appealing pseudo-flowers and collect fungal sperm instead of pollen, and they carry it on to the next plant with the fungus, thus facilitating sexual reproduction of the fungus, not the plant! There is another stage of the rust’s life cycle: hyphae develop producing “aecia”, which produce spores. The spores then fly on the wind to infect nearby grasses – the “alternate host”.  After two more lifecycle stages–“uredia” and “telia” — on grasses, the fungus produces spores that infect the mustards again. Truly a complicated process all starting with the bright yellow pseudo-flowers.   See: https://www.indefenseofplants.com/blog/tag/Boechera

Uninfected  rockcress – Boechera sp. – may be blooming nearby, sporting bluish – not yellow – 4-petaled flowers. The 3-4” plants shown here were frequent up around Kelly Warm Springs. 

The one in the photo has been keyed out in Dorn to B. exilis; however, there is much dispute, and scant herbaria specimens to confirm this species’ identity…botanist’s dancing on the head of a pin and mustards are tough to ID.

Don’t overlook the flowering trees:

Aspens – Populus tremuloides – are blooming!

This wind pollinated species has male flowers on one plant, and females on another. Flowers are arranged in “catkins”: many Individual flowers with either anthers or stigmas are subtended by protective forked bracts edged with many hairs. The overall effect is trees festooned with fuzzy gray dangles. Male catkins tend to be longer and hang down, releasing their masses of pollen upon the wind from purple anthers.

Female catkins tend to be stiffer and slightly splayed outward, their bright red stigmas are ready to receive by pure chance any pollen grains. (two photos below)

The exhausted male catkins fall to the ground (and on your lawn) after they run out of pollen. Pick one up and take a closer look and see if you can find the old anthers held in little cups.

Amazing details!

Female catkins hold on. A month from now we will see who won the wind lottery. Leaves will emerge after the flowers have done their thing so as not to block the free flow of pollen. More on how aspens grow here

The new growth of Aspen’s larger relatives – Cottonwoods –  Populus spp. – is just popping. Cottonwoods also have male and female trees with a similar arrangement of flowers in catkins. Extraordinary what comes out of a simple brown bud.

Much more to come!  This is just a tease and a taste of wonderful botanical adventures before us.

Frances Clark

Teton Plants, Wilson, WY

P.S.  We always appreciate your corrections or queries.  Let us know at tetonplants@gmail.com – but note our response may be slow as we may be out in the field looking for flowers!

The nights are becoming cooler and definitely shorter. Insects of all sorts – bees, wasps, beetles, ladybugs, aphids, butterflies, moths, and caterpillars — are flitting, creeping, chomping, and pollinating our native plants as foliage browns and flowers fade. Chipping and white-crown sparrows along with juncos flush up from meadows as we hike through. They have been feasting on seeds. 

Some of us have made pilgrimages to expansive stands of fireweed; others puzzle over goldenrods and aster look-alikes; and many applaud yet another yellow composite just beginning to bloom along roadsides. Summer isn’t quite over.

Below are some of the final flowers to look for on your hikes and drives throughout the valley.  They provide interesting botanical puzzles.  Below, we have tried to help you sort them out if you are so inclined.  A 10x magnifier helps not only to identify the characteristics of the species, but also to reveal how many bugs and grubs are dependent on our native plants for survival. It is fun to botanize on these last lazy summer days.

Asters and their look-alikes

Taxonomically, “asters” have been split into several different genera over the years. Most of this differentiation is due to molecular studies, and not necessarily easy-to-see field characteristics. 

In general, “aster” flower heads display mostly blue, violet, lavender, to white ray flowers surrounding a center of many tiny yellow disc flowers. Leaves slowly become smaller as they alternate up the stem. Overall size of plants and leaves can vary considerably depending on growing conditions.

The bracts that surround the composite “heads” are key to separating the genera. Then focus on hairs, leaves, etc., to get to the species. 

Leafy-bracted Aster – Symphyotrichum foliaceum var. canbyi – is a common aster with large leafy bracts. 

The plants vary in size from 1.5-2.5+ feet all. Lower leaves on the upright stems are notably larger than the stem leaves. In this variety, stem leaves often “clasp” the stem. 

Note to botany nerds: Dorn lists 3 varieties of S. foliaceum for NW Wyoming. Flora of North America (FNA) says S. f. var. parryi is not here in Wyoming, nor is the very similar S. cusickii. 

Alpine Leafy-bracted Aster – S. foliaceum var. apricum – is found at higher elevations, such as the bowls above Ski Lake. These plants grow only about 1’ high and stems are “decumbent”, more sprawling at their base. Bracts are less leafy and are edged in purple.

Eaton’s Aster – Symphyotrichum eatonii – is usually found in moist places such as stream edges and springs. 

The many white-to-blue small flower heads cover the upper third of more-or-less 3-4’ plants.  Their bracts are not foliaceous.

The leaves are long and narrow and are “sessile”, sitting upon but not clasping the stem. 

Long-leaved, American, or Mountain Aster – Symphyotrichum ascendens – The many common names of this species are a good indication that this species is noticed by many in different places: the way a popular person may have several nick names among family and friends. Indeed, this plant is native across the western U.S. in a variety of habitats. 

It has been blooming along road and trail sides since early August. The easiest way to know this “typical looking aster” is to examine the leaves: the veins form elongate shapes. 

Engelmann Chaffy Aster – Eucephalus engelmannii – is common in the light shade of aspens, forest openings, and moist upper meadows.

Plants typically grow to 3-4’+ high, and the 3-5” leaves remain similar in size and shape as they spiral up the stem.

Bracts are tidy: neatly arrayed like shingles on a roof, and are smooth except for the fringed edges. The long white rays are relatively few: 8 -10. 

Elegant Chaffy Aster – Eucephalus elegans – is often overlooked as it is only about 1-2′ tall and grows amidst usually thicker foliage of other forbs. 

However, the violet-blue ray flowers and purple-tipped bracts substantiate the “elegant” in its name. A species worth looking for.

Blueleaf or Gray Aster – Eucephalus glaucus – was common along the trail to Mt. Elly at the time of writing. The leaves are notably “glaucous” – bluish gray. The ray flowers are lavender to white. The generic name of this species has changed at least four times since 1840 and is now deemed by Flora of North America to be in the Herrickia genus. 

Thick-stemmed Aster – Eurybia integrifolia – The bracts not only curve out pointedly, but they and the stems are covered with very sticky glandular hairs.

Furthermore, the hefty stems tend to zig-zag. 

The leaves are oblong, sessile to clasping, and get smaller as you go up. 

Sticky glands help to protect plants from small marauding insects who get stuck in the miniature forest of hairs. In some cases, such as sticky geraniums, the plant is able to absorb nutrients from the decomposing insects. I am not sure if that is the case here….a research opportunity for a master’s degree student.

Hoary Tansy or Spiny Aster – Machaeranthera canescens – is truly a late-summer into fall bloomer, with spine-tipped, bent-out bracts protecting the violet-blue heads.

Small, stiff, grayish hairs provide the “hoary” or “canescent” look. Plants grow in dry exposed locations, with relatively thin and sparse branches with mostly small, 1-2”, sometimes toothed, leaves. The leaves are spine-tipped, too.  A tough plant for sure. 

!Not an aster – an exotic invasive!

At first glance Spotted Knapweed – Centaurea maculata – might seem an innocent and lovely native aster. It is not. This species came over in the late 1800s in forage and ballast from Eurasia and has spread profusely throughout the U.S.  

These are outstanding competitors to our native plants. Considered a biennial or short-lived perennial, each plant can produce a 1000 seeds that readily sprout in spring and fall and remain viable in the soil for five years.  Seeds are easily carried by air currents along roads and water down streams. The plants have an advantage because their different life forms keep out the competition in disturbed locations. It was once thought they also had the advantage of cnicin, an allelopathic compound in the plants. However, this was analyzed and found not to be of sufficient toxic levels to affect their rivals in the field. Even without this edge, it outcompetes our natives. More info  

Teton Weed and Pest lists Spotted Knapweed as Priority three: regional infestation. It also lists several other knapweeds. Wear gloves when pulling it out as it is known as a carcinogen. Not a good plant.

Goldenrods

First of all, goldenrods do not cause allergies. The pollen is too heavy to fly in the air and up your nostrils. They have a bad rap as their masses of colorful blooms and thick growth often hide inconspicuous wind-pollinated plants that come out about the same time, such Lamb’s-quarters – Chenopodium spp. (Dorn indicates we don’t have ragweed (Ambrosia spp.) in Teton County).

The inconspicuous flowers of lamb’s quarters are hard to see.

Some Sagebrushes – Artemisia spp. – also release pollen upon the wind in the autumn.)

Goldenrods are one of the most important herbaceous plants for small wildlife. Up to 100 insect species thrive on this genus. Butterflies, such as coppers, sulphurs, and hairstreaks, suck up nectar. Bees of all sorts gather protein fats and minerals. Myriad midges lay eggs that form galls. Chickadees and woodpeckers subsequently eat the protein-rich larvae inside. Goldfinches, grosbeaks, and nuthatches eat the seeds. (Reference)

We have eight species of goldenrods (Solidago spp.) in Teton County. The three low-growing species with a bunch of leaves at the base, are relatively easy to identify. The five taller species with leaves that are typically “three-veined” present frustrating puzzles. Their tiny bracts and variable leaf and stem hairs tend to be diagnostic. The widespread Canada Goldenrod is notoriously variable. We will treat the different species more fully in a separate technical ID posting. 

For here and now, we emphasize two large species still in bloom that can be separated by the smoothness of their stems and bract details. Note: in any identification endeavor, look at several plants and parts to get the average or typical characteristics. 

Rough stems:

Canada Goldenrod Solidago canadensis – has a disputed natural range. Some people have heard that it is native mostly to the Midwest and Northeast and that Canada Goldenrod has “invaded” the rest of the country. Taxonomic experts report that while indeed it is a robust rhizomatous species, Canada Goldenrod is indigenous throughout much of Canada and the United States. Notably, it was introduced to Europe as an ornamental as early as 1645, where it has become an invasive exotic there. It can be aggressive in one’s garden. 

Canada Goldenrod plants grow 3-5’ high, with finely hairy stems. Plentiful leaves are elongate and sharply pointed with saw-toothed edges. Leaves are usually smooth to very finely hairy on top and slightly rough along the three main veins below. As with all goldenrods, there are many small heads of ray and disc flowers. Its miniature bracts are elongate and narrow. Ray flowers number 10-17, averaging 13. Moist places, fields.

Smooth stems:

Giant Goldenrod – Solidago gigantea – looks very similar in its size, leaves, and inflorescence to Canada Goldenrod. The main difference is that below the flower cluster, the stem is smooth and slightly powdery bluish gray (glaucous).

Leaves are smooth up top with only a few hairs on the main veins below.

For botany nerds: there are two other somewhat common look-alikes: Velvet Goldenrod – S. velutina – Stems tend to be hairy, the leaves less toothed, but the ray flowers fewer about 8. Dry locations – I have seen it up Death Canyon. Missouri Goldenrod – S. missouriensis – Stems smooth below flower cluster, leaves usually without teeth, but the leaves can feel rough along edges; the 3 nerves are not that clear. Bracts clearly widest at the base (oblong).  Rays 6-10, often 7 or 8. Good luck!

Other composite yellows

Showy Golden-eyes – Viqueria (Heliomeris) multiflora – are lining trails, bike paths and roads with their prolific, cheery yellow flowers. Growing around 2′, stems have opposite, smooth, narrowly oblong leaves 2-4” long.

Note the collective show of ray flowers often darkens toward the center of the flower head. Likely, this slight difference to our eyes is much more dramatic to insects with infrared vision.

The bracts form a simple whorl below the head.  

Golden Asters – Heterotheca villosa – are comparatively more humble, untidy looking plants with stubby, finely hairy leaves that alternate up the stems.  (The butterfly is Weidmeyer’s Admiral.)

The flowers are bright yellow on slightly long peduncles. This highly variable species ranges from the West Coast to the Midwest mostly in dry sunny locations. 

For botany nerds: In Teton County we have two ecotypes or varieties: One: H. v. var. depressa is found around the thermal areas of Yellowstone which I think I have seen around Storm Point.  The leaves are clearly hairy. The second: H. v. var. villosa is common, almost weedy, along GTNP roadsides and dry, sandy soils. The oblong stubby leaves and stems have fine hairs lying against the surface (appressed). They mix in with Gumweed along park roads.

Curly-cup Gumweed – Grindelia squarrosa – is one of my favorites for its unique bracts.

Each bract curls back to a point, and they fuse together to form a perfect cup, truly gummy in texture. This species likely originated beyond Teton County but has made its way in along dry road sides and other disturbed places where it seeds readily. 

This sticky resinous plant is full of chemicals unpalatable to wildlife but appealing to humans for a variety of medicinal purposes. Caterpillars seem to appreciate the flowers. Plants are about 2′ tall, with alternate, small, oblong, blunt leaves with a few teeth.

Odd-ball yellows

Owl’s-clovers – Orthocaprus spp. – used to be in the Snapdragon or Scrophulariaceae Family, but along with its relatives, paintbrushes (Castilleja) and louseworts (Pedicularis), the genus is now placed in the Broomrape or Orobanche Family. These three genera are hemi-parasites on other plants. Their specialized roots (haustonia) connect with their host’s roots and siphon off nutrients.

Owl’s-clovers are annuals that grow 6-18″ high, have small pouched flowers and small leaves . Hosts are unknown. We have two species in Teton County:

Yellow Owl’s-clover – Orthocaprus luteus – is usually single stemmed and the hairs stick out.

Tolmie’s Owl’s-clover – Orthocarpus tolmiei – grows along the trail to Ski Lake and above. It usually has several branches and the hairs are mostly pressed against the stems.

Finally

Mountain Bog Gentians – Gentiana calycosa – form patches of blue often on rocky slopes or talus at higher elevations, such as along the trail south of Teton Pass. The stiff, deep-green, shiny leaves are opposite, rounded, and very tidy looking. 

For half an hour I watched various bumblebees dive into the tubular flowers, wriggling down while the anthers shed pollen onto their hairy bee bodies. The bees follow nectar guides to the base of the flower. Just below are five holes that lead to wells of nectar reachable only with a long proboscis (tongue).

I noticed the bees back out, appearing to clean their long proboscis. In researching further, I read that a bumblebee has a long hairy tongue that laps up nectar. The tongue or proboscis is enclosed by two mandibles that fold under the bee’s body when it flies.

Watching longer, I noticed that some bees tumbled off the flower. Then they righted themselves and flew to another open flower, where a stigma maybe positioned to rub off the pollen to start the seed-making process. Very cool action between plants and insects.

While flowers fade, fruits form (a subject for another posting), and leaves will turn wonderful colors before winter arrives. Keep on botanizing!

Frances Clark, Wilson, WY

August 28, 2022