Part 6

Evening Primrose Family Fireweed, Epilobium angustifolium, L.

Individual flowers, 1 inch across, are formed of 4 wide-spreading, magenta petals, and are attached by longish pedicels to a central stem, so that the whole flower cluster (inflorescence) is a loose raceme forming the top foot or more of a tall leafy shoot, several of which rise from a woody root crown. Leaves are narrow, 2 inches or more in length. The entire plant is often 4 feet or more tall. Grows in sunny openings in montane zone. Blooms June-August.

Webster’s Dictionary describes fireweed as “any of several weeds, troublesome in clearings or burned districts.” To use “troublesome” in connection with this great “willow-herb” of the Rockies seems most unkind. We are grateful to have it rush into devastated areas to cover scars with its bright pink to magenta blossoms. The whole plant reddens as it ages. The flower matures into a long thin pod which splits and curls releasing feathery seed carriers. A less common low growing species with larger flowers and broader leaves, Epilobium latifolium, also grows in the area. It is a real find. A few grow not far below Loveland Pass.

Heath Family Pipsissewa, Chimaphila umbellata, NUTT.

Flower, ½ inch across, formed of 5 rose-pink petals that bend back and surround, at the center, a conspicuous bright green ovary which is tipped with a disc-like stigma. The 10 prominent stamens, spreading from near the base of the ovary, look like short claws. Plant is 8-12 inches tall, bearing a cluster of several flowers at its top. Leaves are shiny and evergreen with saw-toothed edges, arranged in whorls along the woody stems, but most numerous at the base of the plant. Grows in moist acid soil under pine or spruce trees in montane zone. Blooms late July-August.

The members of the heath family like shade, acid soil and moisture. These conditions they find in the woods of the Northwest, where a great variety of them, including rhododendrons and azaleas, grow in abundance. Colorado has its share of the smaller heaths for those who look for them in shady spots and along mossy trails near mountain streams. The trail to Calypso Falls in Rocky Mountain National Park is good hunting, not only for pipsissewa, but for the pyrolas and for the tiny white wood-nymph, Moneses uniflora, all of them heaths. Kinnikinnick, Arctostaphylos uva-ursi, is a heath of prostrate growth habit quite common on mountain slopes. Bright red berries remain among its evergreen leaves until Christmas.

Primrose Family Brook Primrose, Primula parryi, GRAY

Individual flowers, almost ½ inch across, are formed of 5 brilliant, crimson, spreading corolla lobes which join at their base into a narrow tube; dark shadings and yellow markings at the throat of the tube give the effect of a round eye. A dozen or more flowers, each on a nodding pedicel, are clustered at the top of a stout dark stem which rises from a whorl of deep-green, broad, lance-shaped leaves. Plant is about 10 to 20 inches tall. Grows in sub-alpine zone or slightly higher. Blooms June-early July.

This spectacular primrose grows at the edge of cold streams, or often on rocky-mossy hillocks right in mid-stream. One never forgets the picture of their beauty—the flower clusters so rich in color, the alpine background, the mat of moss and deep green leaves. Too bad for such a plant to spoil any part of it with a most disagreeable fragrance, yet that does remove any temptation to take them home. On the higher tundras, a charming find is the tiny fairy primrose, Primula angustifolia, similar in color, though not so vivid. A single short-stemmed flower is usually all that this plant carries.

Primrose Family Shooting Star, Dodecatheon radicatum, GREENE

Individual flowers, ¾ inch across, are formed of 5 crimson, rather narrow, petals or corolla lobes which flare outward and backward, but unite at their base into a short tube. From this tube 5 conspicuous anthers, over ¼ inch long, grouped together like a sharp straight beak, protrude forward. Ten or more flowers, each on a slender pedicel, nod in a cluster at the top of a stout scape which rises 10 to 15 inches high from a basal mat of dark-green, oblong leaves. Grows along streams and in wet meadows, in montane and sub-alpine zones. Blooms June-early July.

Both the coloring and the shape of this little flower are fancy indeed. It is small wonder that such names as shooting-star and bird-bill have been given it. The crimson of its petals contrasts strongly with its conspicuous almost black “bill,” and between these colors is a little circlet of white, often shaded with yellow markings. A whole meadow of such flowers is a sight well worth a trip to South Park, or to other of our high meadow areas, where shooting-stars can be found in profusion. In blooming season they follow the wild iris and, in turn, they are followed by the low, red lousewort, Pedicularis crenulata, all of which can in favorable seasons give fine mass color effects.

Gentian Family Fringed Gentian, Gentiana elegans, A. NELS.

Flowers are 2 to 3 inches long, of 4 deep purple-blue petals, fitted together to form a square column for over half their length, then, in sunlight, flaring outward to exhibit fringed tops and upper edges. Each flower is at the end of a stem which bears several pairs of oblong, opposite leaves. Plants are about 12 inches high of several erect stems branching from near the base. Grows in sub-alpine wet meadows. Blooms August-September.

The lush hay meadows of Colorado’s upland parks are bright through the summer with a succession of flowers. Late in the season come the gentians. There are several species of these (we have counted a dozen on a single trip), some of them quite uninteresting, weedy plants. The queen of them is the fringed gentian, growing in abundance along the edge of these high hay meadows, and even persisting in the stubble after haying is past. A few of them last into late September. The flowers close up under cloudy skies, but to find masses of them full-open on a sunny day, when they display their fringed petals and large golden stamens, is a heart-warming experience to be treasured for flowerless days ahead.

Milkweed Family Milkweed, Asclepias speciosa, TORR.

Individual flower is a rosy, 5-point, star about ⅜ inch across, at the center of which is a group of 5 small appendages curving inward and forming a crown around the style and stamens. Numerous flowers cluster together into a ball about 3 inches in diameter. Plants are about 3 feet tall with thick broad leaves, the flower clusters borne at the top of the stem and in axils of upper leaves. Grows on plains, especially along ditch banks. Blooms June-July.

The common weeds are too often taken for granted and not appraised for their real beauty. This milkweed is in such a group—a coarse-growing plant along country roads, often dust covered, yet with flowers of fine delicate color and real charm whether we examine them singly or fix our attention on the compact cluster in which they grow. As autumn comes the dry leaves do not drop, but cling to the stem, rattling in the wind. The rough seed pods, often four inches long, turn a rich brown, and finally split open revealing a filling of lustrous, silky, down from which is gradually released the seeds—brown-clad paratroopers with the most airy-fairy parachutes in the world.

Morning-glory Family Bush Morning-glory, Ipomoea leptophylla, TORR.

The flowers, shaped like pink trumpets with maroon striations, 3 inches long and 2 inches across the mouth, are scattered freely along the outer third of the stout yellowish stems which form a thick bush 2 feet or more high. New buds coming out each day keep the plant in bloom for the morning hours of several weeks. Leaves are narrow and linear, 2 inches long; the root is large and spongy. Grows in sandy soil on plains. Blooms July.

This morning-glory is no clinging vine, even though its flowers—like those of its cultivated relative on the back yard fence—do open only in the coolness of dawn and wither in the heat of noon. For all the sturdiness of individual plants, with their roots going “clear to China,” they do not seem to multiply rapidly and colonies of them may be miles apart. There are some fine bushes on the sandy hills along the Denver-Parker road, but the colony is becoming smaller rather than expanding. The common bindweed, Convolvulus arvenis, is a member of this same family. Its ability to spread rapidly along roads and into cultivated fields makes it a serious pest.

Waterleaf Family Purple Fringe, Phacelia sericea, GRAY

Numerous purple flowers, each ¼ inch in diameter, crowd at and near the top of an erect hairy stem, making a cylindrical flower spike 3 inches or more in length. The 5 stamens of each flower are tipped with bright golden anthers and stick out farther than the petals, giving the effect of gold-headed pins radiating from a purple cushion. Plant is 6 to 12 inches tall of several leafy stems from a woody crown, the leaves divided into numerous narrow lobes. Grows in rather dry soil, montane to sub-alpine zones. Blooms May-July.

Many other species of Phacelia live in desert places where we have learned to know and admire them, but our first acquaintance—and last love—is this purple fringe of the montane zone. Its color is deeper, more velvety, and the pollen of its anthers brighter gold than most of its desert brethren can boast. It keeps, however, considerable tolerance for dry places, so that fresh road-fills are gay with it. The mountaineer who views his flowers only from a car has no excuse for not knowing this one.

Borage Family Alpine Forget-me-not, Eritrichium elongatum, JOHNSTON

Flowers, ⅜ inch in diameter, are formed of deep-blue (occasionally white) petals, spreading into a little flat disc and joining at their base into a short tube. Minute golden crests in the throat of this corolla tube, often bordered by white, give the effect of a central eye. Plant is formed of a tough woody root crown bearing several very short leafy shoots with flower clusters at the top. Entire plant is compact, covered with short silky hairs, and rarely 3 inches high. Grows on flat spots between rocks in alpine zone extending clear to peak summits. Blooms late June-early July.

The plant “association” pictured above is such as we find on Trail Ridge. It has bright lichen, sedum, polemonium and alpine forget-me-not—the kind of miniature garden that makes high altitude flower hunting so much fun. The woody base of the forget-me-not is built to stand the cold of long winters. The flowers—tiny and delicate for so rugged a habitat—are of heaven’s own blue. Their exquisite perfume is elusive. Only once have we found them in such abundance that the fragrance called out to tell us where they were hiding. Their range is wide, however, and in the short blossoming season there is a good chance of finding a few on the slopes of any of our high peaks.

Phlox Family Sky Pilot, Polemonium viscosum, NUTT.