The thing about photographing wildflowers is that you have to be there when they are blooming, which means lots and lots of trips into the woods, the meadows, the trails and along the streams – sunshine or rain. That’s my story and I’m stickin’ to it!
In spite of a cold spring and below normal rainfall here in western Montana, the wildflowers are blooming, but about two weeks later than usual. This morning there was fresh snow on the mountainsides a thousand feet above the valley floor.
Western Gromwell, Lemonweed ~ Lithospermum ruderale
Western Serviceberry, Saskatoon ~ Amelanchier alnifolia
Field Pepperweed, Field Peppergrass or Pepperwort, Field Cress ~ Lepidium campestre
After a winter with large amounts of snowfall (the high country around here still has 140% of normal snowpack) and lots of cloudy/rainy days this spring, the forests are very dry. The rain we’ve had has been mostly light showers with not much water volume, and the flowers which depend on April rain are doing poorly, at least in this specific area. These were taken on a couple of short hikes recently and the selection was not very good.
Round-leaved Violet ~ Viola orbiculata
In an area that usually abounds with violets, this and the following one were found only on a small hillside where water from snow melting at a higher elevation was trickling out of the ground.
Canadian White violet ~ Viola canadensis
Woodland Strawberry ~ Fragaria vesca
Mule Deer ~ Odocoileus hemionus: (A fellow wild plant aficionado)
Heart-leaf Arnica ~ Arnica cordifolia
Pacific Trillium ~ Trillium ovatum
These are Pacific or Western White trilliums that are in the final stages of their boom, when they turn pink. It took me awhile initially to realize that the pink ones are not from a different species.
