Wildflower Report

Weekly Wildflower Report
for week of July 16
by Kathy Darrow

“Bread feeds the body, indeed, but flowers also feed the soul.” – ¬from the Koran

After a blessed streak of blue sky days during the official Wildflower Festival, we are equally blessed to enter the monsoon season that brings drenching afternoon rainstorms, essential for keeping the post-festival party wild and colorful. From tame flowers that grace town planters, gardens and baskets, to feral plants that line alleys and roadsides, and the truly wild native flowers that grace mountain peaks and valleys, everyone should be enjoying a very sweet Rocky Mountain high, if flowers are what turns you on.

Starting at the top, Angie Kray raves about the native plants on the tundra along Scarp’s Ridge above Lake Irwin. Over fifty alpine species are blooming, including alpine sunflowers, moss campion, Parry’s lousewort, sky pilot and alpine clover. Other places to catch the party on the tundra are at the top of Mt. Crested Butte and Paradise Divide. Or if you’re up for an off-trail adventure, climb any peak above 11,500 feet for the intoxicating botanical show, partly induced by hypoxia at high altitude.

Moving down from the tundra into lush subalpine meadows, Kevin, Rita and Helen Armitage report that the blue columbines and rosy paintbrush are about the best they’ve seen in decades up in West Maroon Basin. This is a legendary hike that first time visitors should put on the top of their list, and local residents should put on their schedules ASAP if you haven’t been up there yet this summer.

Tony Veit says he had to stop to catch his breath, not because he needed a break from riding uphill, but to gaze in amazement at the wildflowers blooming along Tony’s Trail and the Upper Upper Loop at the base of Crested Butte Mountain. Penstemons, paintbrush, geraniums and sunflowers are in full glory, thigh high and sometimes shoulder high through the aspen forests.
For the “extreme” botanists in the crowd, look around for the several parasitic and saprophytic plants blooming around the valley. Jennifer Rose found some pinedrops, a relative of the more common wintergreens, in the spruce forests above Horse Ranch Park. In the aspen forest along the Upper Lower Loop, you can see clumps of delicate spotted coral root orchid. In sagebrush meadows, look for ghostly broomrape, looking much like an albino penstemon. All of these plants lack the magical green formula, chlorophyll, which we are ultimately dependent upon for food. Instead they either feed off of decaying plant matter in the soil or join their roots with other plants to gain nutrients. Interestingly, the louseworts and Indian paintbrushes are all hemi-parasitic, even though they do have green leaves. Because of the adaptation of parasitism, these species are now thought to be more closely related to the completely parasitic broomrapes than with other plants in the snapdragon family (Scrophulariaceae) that they are traditionally included in.

Some of the most stunning displays of wildflowers are super easy to get to. Just drive up the winding roads above Crested Butte South (or step out your back door if you live there), where the sagebrush meadows are more colorful than I’ve seen them in fifteen years. If you want to see other versions of sagebrush dominated hills, drive up Cement Creek Road or up to Jack’s Cabin Pass and take a stroll. Lambert’s locoweed, yellow owl clover, Fendler’s buckbrush, arrowleaf balsamroot and Seuss-like seedheads of sugarbowls (aka Clematis hirsutissima) are some of the plants you’ll find that are unique to these incredibly diverse plant communities.

Mariposa lilies (Calochortus gunnisonii) are my personal favorite, also blooming in the sagebrush. This year, there are so many in some meadows that you can barely take a walk without stepping on one. In a year like this, you can begin to imagine how, as legend goes, the Mormon pioneers in Utah may have found sustenance partly from the edible bulbs of the closely related Sego Lily (Calochortus nuttallii). However, gathering bulbs is a tricky art, since they rest deep in rocky soils, so you may gain more energy from grooving on the “soul food” that these beautiful flowers offer.

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