May 25, 2011
Wildflowers of spring (5)
Pink Trillium ~ Trillium ovatum 5/10
Saskatoon, Serviceberry ~ Amelanchier alnifolia 5/17
Ground-ivy, Creeping Charlie, Gill Over the Ground, Field Balm ~ Glechoma hederacea (Mint) 5/17
Upland Larkspur, Nuttall’s Larkspur ~ Delphinium nuttallianum 5/18
Indian Paintbrush, Common Red Paintbrush ~ Castilleja miniata 5/18
This bud is actually pretty early for here. The species will bloom on into late summer, especially higher up the slopes.
Miner’s Lettuce ~ Claytonia perfoliata 5/19
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Montana Outdoors 
Wow, wow, wow!! Great shots! Beautiful flowers!
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Comment by Barbara — May 26, 2011 @ 10:16 am
Thanks Barbara. It seems like the variety is endless. I love this time of year!
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Comment by montucky — May 26, 2011 @ 10:50 am
Hi Montucky, I like that photo of the Paintbrush the best but all are great! Have a wonderful day!
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Comment by wildlifewatcher — May 26, 2011 @ 11:27 am
I’m sure I will post more photos of the paintbrush later when they are in full bloom. They are favorites of mine.
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Comment by montucky — May 26, 2011 @ 8:45 pm
Your macro photography is beautiful. The number of flowers you have already taken photos of makes me jealous, I have to wait untill the snow is gone from the high country before I’ll be able to see anything close to that many flowers on this side of the divide!
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Comment by Jim — May 26, 2011 @ 12:24 pm
Thanks Jim. There are still many that haven’t yet bloomed. I will look forward to your photos when yours start to bloom: I know you will have many species there that we don’t have over here.
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Comment by montucky — May 26, 2011 @ 8:46 pm
I know it’s showy and tourists love it, but I’m still a fan of Indian Paintbrush.
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Comment by knightofswords — May 26, 2011 @ 2:00 pm
So am I. It has been a favorite ever since I was a kid.
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Comment by montucky — May 26, 2011 @ 8:47 pm
Thanks for the pink trillium, montucky. Is it the same species as the white ones, and was this flower white when it first opened?
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Comment by Kim — May 26, 2011 @ 2:40 pm
Yes, it is the same species, and it was white when it first opened. When I first heard that they did that, I was doubtful, but I marked the locations of several and checked their progress until I saw the change. Kind of like how the Yellow bell changes to deep orange, then red.
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Comment by montucky — May 26, 2011 @ 8:49 pm
What a colorful lot of photos! They are all beautiful, but that larkspur is just stunning. I wonder if I could grow that here?
I wish we had that trillium, too.
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Comment by sandy — May 26, 2011 @ 2:45 pm
I don’t know if it would grow there. Its normal distribution is only in the west in quite arid locations, and I don’t know if it could be transplanted. It isn’t very popular here because it contains delphinine, which is poisonous to cattle and also highly toxic to humans.
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Comment by montucky — May 26, 2011 @ 8:57 pm
Gorgeous! I loved the first photo because I knew the name of the flower without peeking at your description. š Spring is such a special time of year.
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Comment by Emily — May 26, 2011 @ 7:13 pm
Spring is indeed a special time, Emily. In these parts, it seems that all of the country celebrates the season!
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Comment by montucky — May 26, 2011 @ 8:58 pm
I don’t remember any of these from years past. Are they new species to your portfolio? I like them all, but love the last one!!
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Comment by kcjewel — May 26, 2011 @ 7:42 pm
I think I posted most of them in the past, but probably different views. It seems that wildflowers always present themselves differently from time to time and year to year, depending on many variables. Perhaps that’s why I love them so much. I think that also makes them difficult to identify.
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Comment by montucky — May 26, 2011 @ 9:02 pm
How wonderful shots!!!
Me and my wife admired those lovely flowers. Many of them were familiar, but some not.
In our garden we have:
Amelanchier laevis or Amelanchier grandiflora
Amelanchier spicata
Delphinium sp., Larkspur, Knight’s Spur
Thank taking us to this lovely tour.
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Comment by sartenada — May 26, 2011 @ 11:55 pm
Wow, you have a lot of them!
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Comment by montucky — May 27, 2011 @ 10:56 pm
What beautiful wildflowers these are. I especially like the unique looking and beautiful Upland Larkspur.
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Comment by Anna — May 27, 2011 @ 2:20 pm
Larkspur are pretty easy to spot. They like open, dry hillsides and their deep color stands out.
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Comment by montucky — May 27, 2011 @ 10:59 pm
I thought each one was my favorite until I saw the one after it. The larkspur are so vibrant. And the Miner’s Lettuce, so delicate.
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Comment by Candace — May 28, 2011 @ 1:12 am
That’s kind of what it’s like hiking around this time of year. Each flower you come across is so pretty all by itself.
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Comment by montucky — May 28, 2011 @ 8:02 am
Your wildflower pictures are always to gorgeous, you pick up so many details. It challenges me to go out and see what I can come up with.
Wildflowers have just begun to bloom, so maybe I will have something to share soon.
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Comment by bearyweather — May 28, 2011 @ 12:57 pm
It’s just a fun time of the year to be out in the woods: the flowers are a big plus. I will be interested in seeing what your wildflowers are like!
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Comment by montucky — May 28, 2011 @ 4:11 pm
Your flower images continue to just blow me away… it’s time to put them all into a book! Having photographs to go by when out looking at wildflowers would be so much more useful than most of the books I’ve seen with their sketches that often are NOT all that useful!
Indian Paintbrush is lodged forever in with other childhood memories… it was one of the few flowers both my parents knew when we were growing up in WY/MT and they always pointed it out to us… your image of it is wonderful!
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Comment by Victoria — May 30, 2011 @ 6:19 am
I’ve thought about a book, one arranged by blossom color, but I probably have photos of only half of the wildflowers in western Montana, and I know over east there are hundreds more. It would take a team to do a credible job of it. I have collected a lot of photos in a set on Flickr and often I have to refer to it myself from time to time.
The Paintbrush caught my fancy when I was a kid and they have been very special ever since. They are just starting to bloom now, and will be around now until fall.
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Comment by montucky — May 30, 2011 @ 8:38 am
It’s so interesting to see the varieties of trillium you have compared to the Midwest–alike, but then again, totally different. We have a grand white, a dark purple and a purple nodding trillium–nothing pink though. That’s priceless!
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Comment by Bo Mackison — May 31, 2011 @ 3:37 pm
I love all of the trilliums. They are through blooming at the valley level, but a couple days ago up around 5000 feet they were just starting. That extends my enjoyment of them, and when most of the snow melts up around 7000 feet, they will be blooming up there too.
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Comment by montucky — May 31, 2011 @ 10:07 pm
I’ve never seen a trillium that shade of pink. We have the light pink one, and I have seen the dark red ones, but this one is almost purple.
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Comment by kateri — June 1, 2011 @ 10:27 pm
THese are white when they first bloom, then turn pink at the end of their cycle. There are shades in between.
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Comment by montucky — June 1, 2011 @ 10:39 pm
Geez Montucky, you are really good at capturing the images of flowers. Really colorful and breathtaking.
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Comment by Preston — June 2, 2011 @ 9:28 am
Thanks Preston! I’ve been really working on wildflower photos for several years now. They are so pretty that it’s rewarding to photograph them.
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Comment by montucky — June 2, 2011 @ 11:41 am