Part 3

Lily Family Wood Lily, Lilium umbellatum, PURSH

The flower, of flaring trumpet shape 3 inches in diameter, is formed of 6 petals and sepals, all alike, (perianth segments) tapering at both ends. Color varies from rose-red to red-orange. Stem 15 to 30 inches high, bearing a single flower (occasionally 2 or more) and several whorls of leaves, comes from a round bulb. Picking the flower usually kills the bulb. Grows in rich soil in partial shade near streams, montane zone. Blooms July.

This is one of the most sought-after and breathtaking of our mountain flowers. It used to grow in abundance, then almost disappeared due to excessive picking. Now it is returning in secluded sylvan places. It prefers moist, shady banks where its brilliant color lights the shadows like a flame. The young flowers, with their big dark anthers, are the brightest. As they fade, the anthers shrink and turn dull orange and the flower has a tendency to become spotty. If you have the good luck to find these lilies, stop and enjoy them in their woodsy background—but do not pick any to take home.

Lily Family Mariposa, Calochortus gunnisonii, WATS.

Flower, more than 1 inch in diameter, is formed of 3 perianth segments, which are narrow, greenish and sepal-like, and 3 segments which are broad, showy and petal-like. On the inner surface of these latter, near the base, are large, hairy glands of dark color. Stem is slender, 8 to 20 inches tall, with few linear leaves, and comes from a deeply buried corm. Grows in fairly heavy clay soils on open grassy slopes in foothills and lower montane zones. Blooms June-July.

The name mariposa recalls to us the high flat tableland of Mesa Verde with thousands of these delicate lilies floating above the other flowers like butterflies, as the Spanish name implies. Our species is one of the most beautiful, with its tall stem and subtle coloring resembling a small white tulip with grass-like leaves. Other species are creamy, yellow, orange, pink, lavender, gray; some of them quite small, with pointed hairy petals. Journeys to many interesting places will go with a search for the mariposa in its infinite variety of color, shape and habitat.

Lily Family Glacier Lily, Erythronium grandiflorum, PURSH

Flowers, 1½ inches across of 6 bright gold perianth segments, all alike and strongly re-curved, nod, singly or in twos or even threes, at the top of a naked scape which rises from the deep-seated bulb. The 6 stamens, each tipped with a large yellow anther, surround a prominent green style and hang downward. Plant is about 10 inches high, with only two broad green leaves which sheath the base of the scape. Grows in sub-alpine zone extending through montane zone. Occurs only on the west side of the Continental Divide (except for a few limited areas immediately on the east side). Blooms immediately after snow melts, which is June in high places.

Below the snowbanks on Mt. Audubon, near Thunder Lake in Rocky Mountain National Park, on slopes near Rabbit Ears Pass, and in many places on the western side of the range, early summer brings one of the finest flower shows in the west, which it is no exaggeration to call the “field of the cloth of gold.” The glacier lily (also called avalanche or snow lily—or, oddly enough—the dogtooth violet) begins to bloom right at the foot of snow banks and follows the retreating ice up the mountainsides. We have seen acres where it was hard to walk without stepping on several plants, particularly in the northern mountains of Wyoming and Montana.

Orchid Family Yellow Lady’s Slipper, Cypripedium calceolus, L.

Flower, usually solitary, is shaped like a Dutch shoe about 2 inches long. The sac-like toe part, formed by one of the 3 petals, is bright yellow with greenish sheen, the other 2 petals, much narrower, extend to the sides and are often twisted and streaked with brown. Plant is about 10 inches tall, with broad lance-shaped green leaves which enclose the lower part of the flower stem. Grows on moist but not wet slopes in montane zone. June.

In not too open aspen glades in middle elevations, a privileged seeker after beauty may find this yellow lady’s slipper, largest of our native orchids. It is one of several species of Cypripedium (the name meaning shoe of Venus) and is sometimes called moccasin flower. A smaller, daintier orchid, the pink Calypso bulbosa, is more widely known. This latter likes half sunny edges of our lodgepole forests, being quite dependent on the humic acid of the needles. Often in large groups along the remnants of a decayed tree trunk, they make an entrancing sight, resembling fairy dancers. These are but two of about a dozen orchids that grow wild in Colorado.

Four o’Clock Family Prairie Snowball, Abronia fragrans, NUTT.

Individual flowers are formed of a slender calyx tube, 1 inch long, flaring at its mouth into 5 white, petal-like lobes to make a tiny salver ¼ inch across. They have no true petals. Numerous such flowers are clustered to form the surface of a ball about 2 inches in diameter. Plant has reddish stems, somewhat hairy, that creep on the ground, with fleshy (succulent) green leaves arranged in opposite pairs. Grows in plains on sandy soil. Blooms May-June.

Every plains child knows the prairie snowball—inhabitant of vacant lots in towns, and of dry wind blown flats “in the country.” The cluster of starry flowers is indeed round as a snowball and as white—the dark green leaves are in sharp contrast with the bright red stems. The fragrance, almost cloying it is so sweet, perfumes the air of early summer, especially as evening coolness comes. The reddish-purple sand verbena of the southwestern deserts and coastal sand dunes, Abronia villosa, is also of this genus. The resemblances are quite apparent.

Buckwheat Family Sulphur Flower, Eriogonum umbellatum, TORR.

Numerous flowers, each formed of 6 minute yellow perianth segments, are grouped in round tight clusters at the ends of slender pedicels, several such clusters radiating to form a flat-topped head (umbel) 4 inches across. These heads are borne on erect hairy leafless stems (scapes), 8 to 15 inches tall. Oblong leaves about 1½ inches long, form a green mat on the ground. Grows on open dry slopes of foothills and lower mountains. Blooms June-September.

Many Species of Eriogonum are found in Colorado, some of them resembling the one pictured, and some with very different growth habits. This common sulphur flower is one of the finest. Even in bud it is brilliant, for the gold of its flowers, often touched with red, shows before it is quite open. The soft sulphur yellow of the mature flowers gradually changes to shades of orange, maroon and brown as they dry rather than fade. They linger on their stems indefinitely and are fine to mix with grasses and seed pods for a fall bouquet—they might even trim an autumn hat!

Buckwheat Family Sand Begonia, Rumex venosus, PURSH

Flower parts are minute except the three inner sepals which rapidly develop into conspicuous red to rose-colored wings or vanes about ½ inch wide, attached to the seed. These vanes, with their seeds, develop into compact clusters 2 inches or more in diameter. Leaves are oval or oblong, fleshy and dark green, on short stout branches which are often prostrate. Grows in plains. Blooms May-July.

This is just an ordinary dock closely related to the pest you dig from your lawn, but a good example of a common wayside weed brightening the bit of world in which it grows. That bit of world, for this particular dock, is usually an ugly one, as it seems to choose the poorest soil it can find, the cinders beside a railroad track—or the gravelly edge of a country road. No one notices the small, insignificant flower, but its hour of glory comes with the brilliant rose and red seed vanes that call out gaily to every passerby. In the plains of western Colorado another dock, Rumex hymenosepalus, is also spectacular growing to a height of 2 feet or more with a great column of rose-colored seed vanes.

Purslane Family Spring Beauty, Claytonia lanceolata, PURSH

Flower is ½ inch across of 5 pale rose-colored petals, notched at the end and with veins of darker shade. Sepals are only 2; plant is 6 inches or less in height, with succulent stems and rather broad lance-shaped leaves which rise almost as high as the loose raceme of 3 or more flowers. Grows in rich soil montane and foothill zones. Blooms immediately after snow melts which is late May to July, or much earlier on warm slopes.

The plants of this species that grow in foothill locations often have quite bright rosy color. They are great favorites, as their first blooms hint that winter is nearly over and spring on the way. They have been reported as early as January, and by mid-March they are often abundant under scrub oaks on sunny foothill slopes. The east side of the Hogsback near Golden is a good place to find early ones. The plant pictured above has the pale color and general growth habit of those that grow high in the montane zone. It often forms a carpet or ground cover of pale pink bloom in the fields of glacier lilies. Another species, Claytonia megarhiza, has a big root, to store food and moisture, and grows in the alpine zone. We have found plants of it on the big flat summit of Pikes Peak where other signs of spring are few.

Pink Family Moss Campion, Silene acaulis, L.

Flowers, ⅜ inch across, of 5 bright purplish-red petals, notched at the end, spread from the top of a tubular calyx so that the whole flower forms a tiny salver. Stems and leaves are so dwarfed and tightly grouped as to give the appearance of a cushion of green moss 3 to 8 inches across, studded with little reddish stars. Grows in alpine rocky areas extending to peak summits. Blooms late June-early July.

This is one of the alpine flowers we share with all the alpine and arctic lands of the Northern Hemisphere. High mountain ridges are its home here, and if we travel north we keep finding it at progressively lower elevations until it reaches the low barren lands of the arctic. Always it is where winds are cold and climate is too rough for trees. You might take it for a pad of green moss if it were not for its red flowers, often in the form of a circlet near the plant’s edge. Close examination shows a full-fledged plant, however, with leaves, stems and a stout tap-root well buried in what soil there is below and around the rock it presses against. Another member of the pink family that grows as a mat against our timberline rocks is sandwort, Arenaria sajanensis. Its flowers are white, and the plant less densely compacted. Related to both of these alpine pinks are the numerous chickweeds of foothills and mountains. They have low slender stems and their petals are white and deeply notched at the end.

Buttercup Family Pasque Flower, Pulsatilla ludoviciana, HELLER