Part 4

Flowers, of 5 to 7 petal-like sepals, form a wide cup 1½ inches across, white or pale lavender within, and much darker lavender to purple, covered with silky hairs, on the outside. The numerous golden stamens are prominent. The flower buds, quite furry at this stage, spring directly from a buried root crown before the green leaves, divided into several lobes, appear. Grows in foothills, especially on gentle north slopes where extra snow has drifted. Blooms late March-April.

It goes also by the name of wind-flower, and often is called anemone. Whatever name you choose, it is one of the best-loved flowers of the Rockies. They are with us in March, going on into April, coming up through late snows—keeping themselves warm with their furs about them. The flowers start on short stems, but the whole plant grows quite large and “leggy” as the season advances, and finally the fluffy seed plumes offer their wares to every breeze. This same pasque flower is the state flower of South Dakota. A northern species, growing in Glacier Park and in Canada, Pulsatilla occidentalis, has larger flowers, of a creamy color. Its cluster of seed plumes is large and dense enough to resemble a dish mop.

Buttercup Family Globe Anemone, Anemone globosa, NUTT.

Flower, ¾ inch in diameter, of 5 to 9 showy petal-like sepals, usually deep red, occasionally yellow, forms a shallow cup around the numerous stamens and a conspicuous group of pistils which, after the flower fades, become a round thimble-shaped seed cluster. The pedicels, bearing the solitary flowers at their tips, are several inches long and covered with silky hairs. Plant is about 1 foot tall, with subdivided leaves near the base and on the sparingly branched stems. Grows in partial shade in montane zone. Blooms June-July.

This globe anemone, related to the better known pasque flower, is one of the many less conspicuous plants that add to the charm of a flowery hillside, yet reserve their more delicate beauty for those who take time to prowl. This particular specimen was found in a glade filled with columbines. We would probably not have seen it if we had not stopped to try one more columbine picture! Anemone canadensis is a somewhat larger plant with pure white flowers, rather woody stems and deep green foliage. It grows in shady places along foothill streams, but only where conditions are to its liking. In these spots it forms rather dense colonies.

Buttercup Family Nelson’s Larkspur, Delphinium nelsonii, GREENE

Flowers, ½ inch or more wide, are formed of 5 showy, dark blue, irregularly shaped sepals, enclosing at their base 4 much smaller petals of lighter color. The uppermost sepal extends backward as a slender spur ½ inch or more in length. About a dozen flowers on slender pedicels group around a central erect stem to form a loose raceme which often nods slightly at the top. Plant is 10 to 15 inches tall and bears rather few leaves each sub-divided into linear segments. Grows in foothills zone. Blooms late April to early June.

This small larkspur of the early spring looks much like the single larkspur of an old-fashioned garden. Its favorite location is near the base of a clump of scrub oak where a little snow has drifted in the winter giving that spot a bit of extra water. The intense blue of these flowers contrasts well with the leather brown color of last season’s oak leaves. When spring is farther advanced other taller larkspurs, such as Delphinium geyeri, called poison-weed by the stockmen, make a more spectacular showing on low foothills and plains. All of the larkspurs contain an alkaloid poison which is deadly to cattle and somewhat dangerous to other stock.

Buttercup Family Snow Buttercup, Ranunculus adoneus, GRAY

Flowers are an inch across, formed of several (3 to 15) broad, overlapping golden petals having the glossy sheen of butter. The sparse leaves are divided into linear lobes. These and the succulent stems grow a few inches tall, breaking out of frosty soil with flower bud ready to open. Grows on alpine and sub-alpine slopes near snow banks. Blooms when snow melts, usually June to early July.

The hardiness of the snow buttercup is its outstanding characteristic. It comes up through the snow because in the high altitude in which it lives its time for fruition is short. It pushes a stout knuckle of stem through the snow crust, attracting the sun’s heat by the dark color of its stem, then the knuckle straightens, lifting the already formed bud into an erect position. The bud opens rapidly and proceeds to spread out in the hole caused by melting. Of the many glossy members of the buttercup family, there are few of so rich a yellow, or which give such an appearance of being all flower with inconsiderable leaf and stem.

Buttercup Family Globeflower, Trollius laxus, SALISB.

Flower is 1¼ inches across of 5 to 10 (or more) pale cream petal-like sepals, with numerous yellow stamens and several pistils in the center. Numerous petals, so dwarfed as hardly to be noticed, surround the base of the stamens. Plants, 8 to 15 inches tall, often grow in groups and bear several flowers, each on its own slender stem. Leaves are dark green and deeply cut into 5 or more spreading lobes (palmate). Grows in moist rich soil in sub-alpine and alpine zones. Blooms late May-July.

When the snowbanks melt in the alpine country, hundreds of temporary runlets carry the snow water to timberline lakes and to permanent streams. In the wet soil along these runlets and near these lakes, globeflower is one of the common and very good looking plants. Both its foliage and its flowers are graceful and charming. Associated with it is usually marsh marigold, Caltha rotundifolia, which is also a member of the buttercup family. Our Colorado marsh marigold is not gold at all, but white—even a bluish-white. It grows with its feet right in the water. Its leaves are entire and are all at the base of the sturdy low plant. Its flowers are as large or slightly larger than those of globeflower. It makes an effective companion for its more dainty relative.

Buttercup Family Columbine, Aquilegia coerulea, JAMES

The flower is formed of 5 sepals and 5 petals, alternately arranged and all of them showy. The sepals are deep blue or sometimes quite pale, forming a wide saucer-like star 3 inches across; the petals form a white inner cup 1¾ inches across, and stretch back between the sepals as hollow, slender 2-inch spurs. Plants are 2 feet or more high of several delicate stems, usually carrying at their tops numerous flowers. The deeply cut leaves are mainly concentrated at the plant base. Grows in rich soil in montane zone, but extends into foothills and up to timberline. Blooms June-July.

Colorado’s queenly state flower speaks for itself much more eloquently than humans can speak for it. No portrait can do it justice. We have found it in the very glade near Palmer Lake where James first saw it and named it coerulea for its celestial blue. We have found it in countless aspen groves of the montane zone and finally on rocky scree near timberline (a more compact plant there—with flowers sometimes white or of a rosy hue). Always there is the thrill of real discovery—a new realization of its beauty. A less common and even more exciting find is the dwarf columbine, Aquilegia saximontana, that grows between rocks above timberline.

Poppy Family Prickly Poppy, Argemone intermedia, SWEET

Flower, 3 inches or more across, is formed of 6 brilliant white, paper-like petals, surrounding numerous golden stamens with, at the very center, a dark or even black stigma. Blossoms, in loose clusters opening over a long period, crowd each other slightly at the tops of the branching stems. Plant is 2 to 5 feet tall, with gray-green leaves divided into lobes, and with yellowish spines along the stems and leaf ribs. Grows in plains, foothills and lower montane zones. Blooms May-September.

These big coarse plants, which may be seen in small groups along our roads at culvert ends and in neglected fence rows, could be taken for some sort of thistle if it were not for the amazing flowers which they display in successive crops throughout the whole summer. The blossoms look like big circles of white crepe paper with a center of spun gold. As the season advances, the plants get ragged, but even in September a few fresh flowers will appear. Some resemblance can be seen between these blossoms and the Oriental poppies of our gardens, but only by study of their botanical structure can we find why they are put in the same family with golden smoke, Corydalis aurea, of our foothills, and the bleeding-heart of old-fashioned gardens.

Mustard Family Wallflower, Erysimum asperum, DC.

Flowers, ½ inch in diameter, are formed of 4 petals arranged like a Maltese cross, yellow to orange in color. They are clustered into a round terminal head, the lower flowers of which open first so that usually tubular seed pods (siliques) have formed near the base by the time the top of the cluster is in bloom. Plants are 8 inches or more high, of several stems from one root crown. Grows in foothills, extending down to plains and up through montane zone. Blooms May-July.

The mustards are legion. Fields of them add a yellow note to many western hillsides. They range from weedy poor relations, like shepherd’s purse, to tall, showy spikes of prince’s plume, Stanleya apinnata. Wallflower—despite its name suggesting a colorless personality—is one of the handsome children of the family. Its flowers, larger than most mustards, range in color from pale yellow, through orange, to rich bronze shades. By no means all of the mustards are yellow. The flowers of many of them are white, some, like the cardamine that grows in abundance along sub-alpine water runs, being a very showy, brilliant white.

Saxifrage Family Snowball Saxifrage, Saxifraga rhomboidea, GREENE

Individual flowers are ¼ inch or less across, each with 5 white petals, and are grouped in a compact, round-topped head about 1 inch in diameter which forms the top of a naked stem (scape). This scape rises to a height of 8 inches, or sometimes much less, from the center of a flat circle of oblong, leathery leaves. As the blossoms age, the flower cluster becomes loose and sprangly. Grows on moist slopes in sub-alpine and montane zones. Blooms May-July.

Saxifrage is another large family of quite varied sorts. Gooseberries and mock orange come within its membership. The numerous species of alum root, Heuchera, are also included, as are many little alpine and sub-alpine plants that grow out of rock crevices in our high mountains. Purple saxifrage, Saxifraga jamesii, with quite large red-purple flowers, and dotted saxifrage, Saxifraga austromontana, with tiny white flowers covered with pale dots, are among the best. All of these seem able to thrive on only a teaspoonful of soil in a rock crack, if only there is local moisture. The structural features that bring all these plants within one family are not obvious. The leaves of many of them are similar to the leaves of a gooseberry bush, though in some this resemblance is remote, and in others entirely absent.

Orpine Family Queen’s Crown, Sedum rhodanthum, GRAY

Individual flowers, ¼ inch across, are formed of 4 or 5 bright rose petals; numerous flowers being congested in a round head an inch or more in diameter terminating a leafy shoot, several of which rise from a woody root crown. Plant is 6 to 10 inches high, with narrow, gray-green, fleshy leaves crowded along the succulent stems. Grows in wet places alpine and sub-alpine zones. Blooms June-August.