A little of Nature’s jewelry

 

Along with the wildflowers that brighten up springtime are these little plants which have no flowers but still have their own pretty display. I doubt that it is often seen because it only occurs in a rather brief part of spring, only when there has been dew during the night, the plants are small enough to be nearly hidden in some of the wide-bladed grasses, and the decorations disappear before noon. I always look forward to seeing them though.

Scouring Rush ~ Equisetum hyemale

Beginning again

The Buttercups that began to bloom just one month ago met sub-zero temperatures and heavy snowfall the very next day. Yesterday they began to bloom again.

Sagebrush buttercup ~ ranunculus glaberrimus

Flathead River on March 7

Quite a difference from only two weeks ago when ice chunks were piled up across the surface of the river from bank to bank, and quite different from this morning when clouds are sweeping in from the southwest bringing a rain/snow mix again.

Not today

I knew it would look like this, but it’s always worth a try: it’s only a few miles from home, and sometimes it’s nice to see a couple of favorite trail heads while they are still under the influence of winter. Today my pack stayed in the car: I didn’t try the snow packed trails to Blossom and Pear lakes on the Montana side of the pass nor test the even deeper snow up to Revett Lake on the Idaho side. In another month… but for now winter is still only a half mile higher than the valley.

Decorated by the morning dew

This year there are very few scouring-rush showing up and they are very small but they are decorated every morning just as they always are in spring.

Scouring-rush Horsetail, Common Scouring-rush, Dutch Rush, Prairie Scouring-rush ~ Equisetum hyemale

Spring Wildflowers

Eddy Peak in the Cherry Peak Roadless Area photographed from the Munson Creek trail head.

One of my favorite days of Spring usually comes on April 18th and for years on that day I have hiked two miles up the Munson Creek trail to an area where there is a large area of Trilliums in bloom. This year it has been cool and rainy with few sunny days and I suspected that the trilliums would be late so today I checked at the footbridge near the trail head where they bloom earlier and found they are just beginning. My hike will be put off another week or so because my favorite area is two thousand feet higher in elevation.

Pacific Trillium, (trillium ovatum)

Several other wildflowers have begun to appear now too:

Yellow Bell, (fritillaria pudica)

Dark-throated Shooting Star, (dodecatheon pulchellum)

Small-flowered Woodland Star, (lithophragma parviflorum)