Mid June wildflowers

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)

Lance-leaved Stonecrop ~ sedum lanceolatum

Oxeye Daisy ~ leucanthemum vulgare

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Clarkia

Pinkfairies, Deerhorn, Ragged Robin ~ Clarkia pulchella

First, the purples

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

Two Robins

American Robin ~ Turdus migratorius

Ragged Robin, (AKA Clarkia pulchella, Pinkfairies, Deerhorn) ~ Clarkia pulchella

Pinkfairies

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!

Clarkia Pinkfairies, Deerhorn, Ragged Robin, Clarkia pulchella, (Evening Primrose family)

Distrubution: USA (CT, ID, MA, MT, OH, OR, SD, VT, WA, WY); CAN (BC)                                                                                                                        

Wildflowers of summer (7)

Mock Orange buds ~ Philadelphus lewisii

Herbal Speedwell, Paul’s Betony ~ Veronica officinalis

White Clarkia ~ Clarkia pulchella

Grand Collomia, Large-flower Mountain-trumpet, Large-flowered Collomia ~ Collomia grandiflora

Snowbrush ~ Ceanothus velutinus