I have been trying to post photos of the various wildflower species found in this region this spring but I’ve gotten behind. These are the latest few, and I will post more in the next few posts to try to catch up.
Pinkfairies, Deerhorn, Ragged robin ~ clarkia pulchella
Alaska Rein Orchid ~ piperia unalascensis
Spotted Coralroot ~ corallorhiza maculata (a wild orchid)
This morning before the temperature climbed too far toward its eventual high in the 90’s I hiked a ways (about two and a half miles) up the Munson Creek trail (USFS trail # 372) toward Big Hole Peak. Almost at the start I noticed that the array of wildflower species there was remarkably different from the ones on the Spring Creek trail on which I hiked just two days ago and which is only about 9 miles to the east. Interesting, and not entirely explainable by a steeper trail and a slightly higher elevation.
Today’s post will feature the purples.
Western Mountain Aster ~ Symphyotrichum spathulatum
As the name “Nodding Onion ~ Allium cernuum” implies, these could be detected by smell before their appearance.
Wild Bergamot ~ Monarda fistulosa, well known for its pleasant smell.
It’s hard to resist a picture of the “Bluebell-of-Scotland, Harebell ~ Campanula rotundifolia” when they pose so nicely.
Pinkfairy, Deerhorn, Ragged Robin ~ Clarkia pulchella
Four summers ago I encountered my first Clarkia high on a steep mountainside beside a little forest road that went nowhere. There at the very end of the road, while I was trying to turn the Jeep around in a space about a foot longer than it was, I saw it; just one blossom. Today a mile up a trail that isn’t there and about three miles from that first sighting I discovered a hillside full of them. This is the year to celebrate the Pinkfairies!
