The yellow violets were blooming in the bubbling water of a spring that was flowing right out of a steep hillside. At the base of the hillside the water accumulated into a tiny stream and at the very edge of that, the white violets bloomed. A fairly subtle difference in habitat, but yet quite a distinct one.
With a few warm days recently and plenty of rain the wildflower blooms are coming rapidly now, as though they are trying to catch up to the season. I’m still trying to post to document them but feel like I’m losing ground.
Some time ago I posted a photo or two of Alpine Springbeauties, one of the very early wildflowers in this area. Not long after, I discovered another variety, the Siberian Springbeauty and forgot to post a photo of them. This was the first year in which I’ve seen them and thought they were really pretty.
Siberian springbeauty Claytonia sibirica
Purslane family
Found at the east shore of Dog Lake on the Salish – Kootenai Indian Reservation in western Montana on May 4, 2009
Montana Outdoors 