When the chokecherries blossom there are big white splashes across the landscape everywhere. I caught a few last night just before the sun went down.
The blossoms fill the trees,
and the trees line the river banks.
Oh, and it pays to stay alert: there are other things that lurk among the chokecherries too! (This shot was more [...]
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Posted in Flowers, Montana, Nature, Outdoors, Photography, Photos, Pictures, Wildflowers, tagged Blue Camas, Camassia quamash, Common Camas on May 30, 2008 | 14 Comments »
This spring I looked all over for the Common Camas or Blue Camas. It’s evil sibling the Death Camas was everywhere but the blue eluded me until on May 25th I was happy to find just a few in the most unlikely place and got these shots (from under an umbrella). It seems that camas [...]
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The forecast for the afternoon yesterday included a storm front coming in from the south and sure enough in the late afternoon the clouds began piling up. How I love to see those summer thunderstorms come rolling in!
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Posted in Flowers, Montana, Nature, Outdoors, Photography, Photos, Pictures, Wildflowers, tagged (Castilleja miniata), Common Red Paintbrush, Indian paintbrush on May 28, 2008 | 20 Comments »
Monday on a trip to see if the snow had cleared off the road enough to get to the trailhead leading into the Cherry Peak roadless area (it has!), I was surprised to see the Indian Paintbrushes blooming already, especially at that altitude.
The full rich color of these particular flowers is because they have blossomed [...]
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Posted in Cherry Peak roadless area, Coeur d'Alene Mountains, Montana, Nature, Outdoors, Photography, Photos, Pictures, tagged Cherry Peak roadless area, Coeur d'Alene Mountains on May 27, 2008 | 8 Comments »
Yesterday a short drive in the Jeep enabled me to find out that the road to one of my favorite trailheads is now passable, and so today I had to see how far up the trail itself I could go before being stopped by the snow. As it turned out, about 3 miles, but far [...]
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Posted in Flowers, Montana, Nature, Outdoors, Photography, Photos, Pictures, Wildflowers, tagged Calochortus tolmiei, Tolmie star-tulip on May 26, 2008 | 18 Comments »
Following a hunch yesterday, I paid a visit in the rain to the lower part of Munson Creek to see if the Tolmie Star-tulips were blooming yet. It’s still a little early, but there were already three blossoms showing: later there will be hundreds in that location.
From what I can tell, this little flower is [...]
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There were a couple of rainy hours available just before dinner today and I decided to spend them searching for a favorite wildflower, the Tolmie Star Tulip. It is still a little early in the season for them, but at the lower end of Munson Creek I was able to find three in bloom (photos [...]
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Posted in Flowers, Montana, Nature, Outdoors, Photography, Photos, Pictures, Wildflowers, tagged (Penstemon angustifolius), Broadbeard beardtongue on May 24, 2008 | 9 Comments »
It was standing in the rain on a steep bank between the river and the meadow, in a place in which I wouldn’t have been except for a date I had with a big trout (fish don’t mind the rain, you know), and it was love at first sight!
With wildflowers, if you aren’t in exactly [...]
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Yesterday in a light rain that started early and continued all day, these bloomed for the first time at the Clark Fork valley level (elevation 2,500 feet):
Sticky Geranium, Geranium viscosissimum
but about 5 miles away it still looked like this (elevation 5,600 feet). About a half mile from here I got my first look at a [...]
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Posted in Flowers, Montana, Nature, Outdoors, Photography, Photos, Pictures, Wildflowers, tagged Big sagebrush (Artemesia tridentata), Chokecherry (Prunus virginiana), Douglas wild hyacinth (Brodiaea douglasii), Goatsbeard (Tragopogon dubius), Hawthorn (Crataegus), Large-flowered false dandelion (Agoseris glauca), Wayside gromwell (Lithospermum ruderale) on May 22, 2008 | 10 Comments »
It’s incredible what a little warm weather does to the blossoming progress of wildflowers. Here are some that I’ve seen in the last two days near here.
Big sagebrush Artemesia tridentata flowers. This is a critical plant for sustaining deer and elk during the winter months. It is even more nourishing than alfalfa! I read recently [...]
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