This is virgin's bower. It is in the same family as what us tame people call "clematis". I had read about virgin's bower, but never seen it, and never knew that it is, in fact, wild clematis. How unexpected and delightful. 
More v.b. because I couldn't get enough photographs of it.
It's amazing how trees grow in the mountains. They find all sorts of ways to get around rocks, snow and ice. Hence the interesting shapes. They grow in and around solid rock, breaking it up yet cementing it together with their roots. There's a lesson in there somewhere.
This is bracted honeysuckle. Doesn't smell like honeysuckle, but that's what the book says.
Lupines. In the wild. Very thick up there this time of year, and beautiful. Everything was blooming, it seemed.
Lupines, gallardia, all sorts of different white flowers that are hard to distinguish in the photo (cow parsley, yarrow, wintergreen, pearly everlasting and bear grass were all abloom) and mallows are in there as well. And crane's bill geranium, let's don't forget them. And yellow columbine.
These are glacier lilies. They are nodding together with the common European dandelions, which are not to be confused with Japanese dandelions, which grow only in Japan and are white/yellow. Anyway, glacier lilies only bloom just after the snow melts away from the plant that has been growing under the snow. Like croci, only up higher. We were up high. Oh, yeah.
More v.b. because I couldn't get enough photographs of it.
It's amazing how trees grow in the mountains. They find all sorts of ways to get around rocks, snow and ice. Hence the interesting shapes. They grow in and around solid rock, breaking it up yet cementing it together with their roots. There's a lesson in there somewhere.
This is bracted honeysuckle. Doesn't smell like honeysuckle, but that's what the book says.
Lupines. In the wild. Very thick up there this time of year, and beautiful. Everything was blooming, it seemed.
Lupines, gallardia, all sorts of different white flowers that are hard to distinguish in the photo (cow parsley, yarrow, wintergreen, pearly everlasting and bear grass were all abloom) and mallows are in there as well. And crane's bill geranium, let's don't forget them. And yellow columbine.
These are glacier lilies. They are nodding together with the common European dandelions, which are not to be confused with Japanese dandelions, which grow only in Japan and are white/yellow. Anyway, glacier lilies only bloom just after the snow melts away from the plant that has been growing under the snow. Like croci, only up higher. We were up high. Oh, yeah.
These are carpets of yellow monkey-flower, according to the pathetic Rocky Mountain Nature Guide I have. It says they are in the snapdragon family, and were all over these hillsides on the Loop trail.
I thought this was orange agoseris, but I'm not so sure now. I did see orange agoseris, but I believe I took this pic to identify the flower, and can't find it! HELP. If I don't name this flower, I will probably die trying, and that wouldn't be pretty, now would it?
And last, but definitely NOT least, bear grass. It's actually a lily. Blooms once every 3-7 years and is fragrant only when there are a lot of them. One on its own doesn't do much for the olfactors. There was a lot of bear grass blooming this year, much more than we've ever seen. It was just beautiful.
No comments:
Post a Comment