May flowers

For several reasons (not to be considered adequate excuses) I have not posted many of the flowers that have bloomed in May this year. I will try to catch up a bit.

False Solomon’s Seal ~ Smilacina racemosa

Field Chickweed ~ Cerastium arvense

Heart leaf Arnica~ Arnica cordifolia

Rusty Saxifrage ~ Micranthes ferruginea

Ballhead Waterleaf ~ Hydrophyllum capitatum

Several photos of the Waterleaf have been included because it is rather special to me. I have encountered it in only two locations in all of my wanderings, these growing along an old logging road that runs below Big Hole Peak at an elevation of about 5,200 feet. It’s in a rather secluded location and few people around here ever get to see it.

 

Catching up ~ 1

I have been trying to post photos of the various wildflower species found in this region this spring but I’ve gotten behind. This will be the first of three posts of the species I didn’t mean to ignore. Each is unique and pretty in its own right.

Feathery false lily-of-the-valley, Plumed solomon’s seal ~ maianthemum racemosum

Tall Western Groundsell ~ senecio integerrimus

Starry false lily-of-the-valley, Star-flowered solomon’s-seal ~ maianthemum stellatum

Lemon Weed, Western Gromwell ~ lithospermum ruderale

Prickly Currant ~ ribes lacustre

Field Chickweed ~ cerastium arvense

Alaska Saxifrage ~ saxifraga ferruginea

Mid May wildflowers

You know it will be a pleasant hike when it starts out like this:

Munson Creek

Oregon Grape ~ Berberis aquifolium

Howell’s Pussytoes ~ Antennaria howellii

A Dandelion was competing with some undergrowth for light and its stem was nearly two feet long.

Lemonweed, Western Gromwell ~ Lithospermum ruderale

This Pacific Trillium is about at the end of its blooming time and has turned pink.

Field Chickweed ~ Cerastium arvense

Heart-leaf Arnica ~ Arnica cordifolia

Arnica bud

In the last few days…

Many, many years ago, someone driving along Highway 200 tossed out the core of a pear and the seeds took root. The little tree was too close to the highway and the highway crews cut it down year after year. And each year at least a little part remained on the side furthest from the road. This year there is a branch that has formed what may be a new trunk, far enough from the roadway that it might survive. It has grown to about 8 feet high and is just covered with the most beautiful blossoms.

Pear blossoms

More species of wildflowers have also begun to bloom, some very early, I think, but surely very welcome!

Meadow death-camas ~ Zigadenus venenosus

Field Chickweed ~ Cerastium arvense

Slender Hawksbeard ~ Crepis atrabarba

Peak Saxifrage – Micranthes nidifica

Field Pussytoes ~ Antennaria neglecta

Upland Larkspur ~ Delphinium nuttallianum

Early May wildflowers.

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

Fairy Slipper, Calypso orchid ~ Calypso bulbosa

Marsh Valerian, Northern Valerian ~ Valeriana dioica

Hooker Fairy-bells ~ Prosartes hookeri

Kinnikinnik ~ Arctostaphylos uva-ursi

Field Chickweed ~ Cerastium arvense

Arrowleaf Balsamroot ~ Balsamorhiza sagittata

Black Hawthorn ~ Crataegus douglasii

Holboell’s rockcress ~ Boechera pendulocarpa

Menzies’ fiddleneck ~ Amsinckia menziesii

Meadow death-camas ~ Toxicoscordion venenosum

Large-flowered Tritelia ~ Triteleia grandiflora

Today’s flora & fauna

On today’s walk with the canine member of the family:

Prairie Smoke, Old Man’s Whiskers, Purple Avens, Geum triflorum

Field Chickweed, Cerastium arvense

Early blue violet, Viola adunca

Long-flower Bluebells, Mertensia longiflora

Bighorn Sheep, Ovis canadensis