Wildflowers of spring (1)

Spring this year in western Montana has been/is anything but usual; very cold, damp, extremely heavy snow up high, and in most cases the wildflowers have been blooming about two weeks later than usual for each species and I have been trying to catch and post as many photos of them as I can. Because they are so small and precious and so often overlooked, yet so intricate, diverse and beautiful it seems that the least I can do is to try to give them a little attention. I’ll try to post a few each day with the date photographed and my best attempts at ID’s until I catch up (or we get the first snow of next winter).

Sticky Currant ~ Ribes viscosissimum ~ 4/22

Suksdorf’s desert-parsley ~ Lomatium suksdorfii ~ 4/22

Midget phlox ~ phlox gracilis, Microsteris gracilis ~ 4/23

Early Blue Violet ~ Viola adunca ~ 5/4

Small Bluebells, Long-flowered Lungwort, Trumpet Bluebells ~ Mertensia longiflora ~ 5/4

Western Stickseed ~ Lappula redowskii ~ 5/5