Wildflower Report

Weekly Wildflower Report
for week of June 11, 2009
Story and photos by Kathy Darrow

Late spring wildflowers are at their peak right now in the East River Valley, with eye-popping displays of deep purple dwarf larkspur and crimson paintbrush lighting up the sagebrush hills from Almont to Round Mountain. Now is the time to explore the Jacks Cabin summit trails, where the sweet smells of antelope bitterbrush and white phlox fill the air, mule’s ear sunflowers are beginning to bloom, and patches of hot pink locoweed brighten the landscape.

Valley commuters may also be distracted by the huge white flowers of white evening primrose (Oenothera caespitosa) along Highway 135 between Gunnison and Jacks Cabin cutoff. These showy flowers begin flowering, as they are named, in the evening, and stay open all night to attract night-flying pollinators, especially sphinx moths. By noon the following day most flowers are finished and new buds are ready to bloom as dusk falls. These plants are amazing for their ability to adapt to a broad variety of climates, from the hot Sonoran desert of southern Arizona, to the high plains of Wyoming, as well as here at 9000 feet in the Rocky Mountains. They prefer disturbed, rocky and well-drained soils, which is why they are so abundant in the relatively fresh road-cuts on our newish stretch of highway.

If you have time to pull off the road and explore on foot, you’ll find equally spectacular mounds of bright purple creeping penstemon (Penstemon crandallii) that are invisible when moving at 55 mph. This is the earliest blooming of a dozen or so types of penstemon that are native to the area, and can be found later in the season up to 10,000 feet up at Long Lake and Irwin.

Along the Gunnison and Taylor Rivers, chokecherry and red osier dogwood are in full glory, promising to provide succulent fruit for birds and bears in a month or so. Wet meadows along the Gunnison and East rivers are full of blue iris. Just north of Roaring Judy, there is a huge population of sweet coltsfoot (Petasites sagittatus) that has already gone to seed, with bright white fluffy seedheads throughout the wet meadow. These are early blooming members of the sunflower family, with pale yellow flowers and huge, fuzzy arrow-shaped leaves. If you don’t mind getting your feet wet, you can find them blooming now in the wet meadows near the confluence of Coal Creek and Slate River.
Way up in Gothic, we’re already seeing red columbine blooming in the shadows of spruce and fir. Out in the meadows, yellow violets, rock jasmine, dwarf bluebells, buttercups and golden draba are the low-growing predecessors of the more celebrated mid-summer meadow wildflowers like sunflowers and blue columbines.

These are just a few of the highlights of what is already a spectacular wildflower season here in the “Wildflower Capital of Colorado.” I invite you to contribute your special sightings to this season’s Wildflower Report. Send photos and info to wild_kat@cox.net, and we will let others know what and where the best blooms are in the valley.

Kathy Darrow is a natural history writer with a special interest in botany, and author of the book “Wild About Wildflowers: Extreme Botanizing in Crested Butte” which can be found at local booksellers in the valley. To contribute your special wildflower sightings to the Weekly Wildflower Report, e-mail Kathy at wild_kat@cox.net.