June 15, 2011
Wildflowers of spring (12)
Unknown (Possibly a species of Primrose?) 6/10
Red Osier Dogwood ~ Cornus stolonifera 6/11
Hookedspur Violet, Early Blue Violet ~ Viola adunca 6/12 (Couldn’t resist posting another photos of this one!)
Common Red Paintbrush, Scarlet Indian Paintbrush ~ Castilleja miniaata 6/12 (These seem to be early this year, and maybe a little brighter than usual too.)
High Mountain Cinquefoil ~ Potentilla flabellifolia 6/12
Hound’s Tongue, Gypsy Flower ~ Cynoglossum officinale 6/12
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Montana Outdoors 
Your paintbrush looks almost the same as the most common one we have in central Texas, Castilleja indivisa, but ours flowered and disappeared a couple of months ago, thanks to the difference in latitude between Montana and Texas.
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Comment by wordconnections — June 16, 2011 @ 5:23 am
That one has a very limited distribution I see. How interesting. It must be a species that does much better in a hotter climate. The paints here have just recently begun to bloom at the lower elevations and are perhaps a month away from blooming at the higher elevations. On a hike today I reached a spot where the trail was still blocked by snow and up there the only flowers blooming were glacier lilies and spring beauties..
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Comment by montucky — June 16, 2011 @ 11:46 pm
More beauty in your Spring ! Love this Early Blue Violet and Gypsy Flower. I have never seen this one, how pretty it is !
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Comment by isathreadsoflife — June 16, 2011 @ 6:33 am
The violets are having a very good year: I have never before seen them so plentiful. I think the gypsy flower blossom is pretty too, but the plant is an invasive and is very much disliked. In this paricular area there isn’t enough of it around to be too much of a problem though.
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Comment by montucky — June 16, 2011 @ 11:49 pm
They’re all so pretty, especially the Violet… love that shot! =)
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Comment by Tricia — June 16, 2011 @ 7:22 am
I know I’ve posted photos of them before, but I can’t resist taking more photos of them and I liked this one too.
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Comment by montucky — June 16, 2011 @ 11:50 pm
I can’t believe there are so many wild flowers. thanks for sharing them with us. Beautiful pictures.
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Comment by Mary Wallace — June 16, 2011 @ 8:37 am
Thanks Mary. Until I began to photograph and catalogue them I didn’t realize just how many there are either. I’m still finding ones that I’ve never noticed before too.
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Comment by montucky — June 16, 2011 @ 11:52 pm
If you see that houndstongue anywhere you are welcome to pull it (before it goes to seed please!)
They are considered noxious weeds in Montana, and their leaves are toxic to horses.
After all the rain, it’s easy to get most of the big taproot out, though I don’t think it matters if you get it all, since they are biennials that grow the rosette in year one, go to seed the second year and die.
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Comment by Kim — June 16, 2011 @ 11:57 am
I see it only infrequently in this area.
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Comment by montucky — June 16, 2011 @ 11:53 pm
Great DOF with that violet… it’s beautiful!
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Comment by Stacey Dawn — June 16, 2011 @ 12:34 pm
Thanks Stacey!
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Comment by montucky — June 16, 2011 @ 11:54 pm
i would say that is a primrose, too.
How large is the gypsy flower? That color is really pretty.
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Comment by sandy — June 16, 2011 @ 1:52 pm
The individual blossoms of the gypsy flower is about the size of a dime but the plant can get up to three feet tall. The blossoms grow in clusters.
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Comment by montucky — June 16, 2011 @ 11:57 pm
Hi Montucky, Today’s favorite is that Paintbrush. Vivid scarlet red. How lovely! Have a super day!
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Comment by wildlifewatcher — June 16, 2011 @ 1:55 pm
That’s a favorite of many people. I did a post on them way back in 2007 and WordPress “stats” shows that it has had over 3,200 viewers.
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Comment by montucky — June 17, 2011 @ 12:02 am
We used to have a lot of Paintbrush in our yard, blloming along with Lupine, Arrowleaf Balsamroot, Penstemon, etc. For some reason they have almost completely disappeared.
Last year I found two lone blooms, which the deer promptly nipped off. Good to see that they aren’t going extinct in your neck of the woods.
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Comment by Kim — June 17, 2011 @ 7:47 am
Thisseems to be a good year for them here as well as all of the wildflowers.
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Comment by montucky — June 17, 2011 @ 9:16 am
The violet and potentilla are my favorites… do you have a new lens? If not, ur perfecting your DOF as far as my eye is concerned!
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Comment by kcjewel — June 16, 2011 @ 6:25 pm
No, same lens, it’s just that I’m slowly learning to use it. Photographing wildflowers is a problem in that they are usually so low to the ground that I can’t use a tripod and therefore have to keep the speed at least at 1/60, rather limiting the apertures I can use. I keep working at it! Thanks!
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Comment by montucky — June 17, 2011 @ 12:06 am
What a wonderful fireworks of flowers. Your macros are awesome. All, except one was unknown to me, the last one Cynoglossum officinale. It has also same name in Finnish than in English. My favorite is Castilleja miniata.
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Comment by sartenada — June 16, 2011 @ 10:16 pm
Thanks Matti! There are still many species of wildflowers that haven’t yet bloomed.
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Comment by montucky — June 17, 2011 @ 12:08 am
hello,
i have just found you recently. your photographs are so clear and honor the beauty and spirit of what you shoot beautifully! As in wow!
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Comment by Tammie — June 16, 2011 @ 10:58 pm
Thanks Tammie! I really love wildflowers and try to present the beauty that I see in them as accurately as I can. Thanks for visiting!
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Comment by montucky — June 17, 2011 @ 12:10 am
Great close-up photography and all the flowers are lovely. I especially like the Red Osier Dogwood.
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Comment by Anna — June 17, 2011 @ 1:59 pm
Yes, the dogwood blossoms are pretty and I also like the red branches, especially along streams.
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Comment by montucky — June 17, 2011 @ 9:39 pm
all gorgeous as usual. must be plenty of water with melted snow. we are at about 7″ rainfall for the year;usually about 21″ by now….
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Comment by silken — June 17, 2011 @ 9:26 pm
Water is very plentiful here this year and there is still quite a bit of snow still high on the mountains. I wish other parts of the country could have some of it: I know you’re dry down there. The little canyon beside our house still has a little water running in it which is very unusual for this time of year. We only get around 17 inches of liquid a year though.
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Comment by montucky — June 17, 2011 @ 9:43 pm
It’s still amazing the varieties of wildflowers there are (bad sentence structure, I know). And the fact that you know most of the names!
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Comment by Candace — June 18, 2011 @ 1:10 pm
The variety amazes me too.There seems to be no end to it. Now that I’ve found several pretty good resources, identifying them has gotten easier, but it’s still time consuming.
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Comment by montucky — June 18, 2011 @ 8:55 pm