March 17, 2018
April 15, 2017
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)
March 14, 2016
Bells and stars
In between rain showers and snow flurries both of these species bloomed today
March 13, 2015
Woodland Star and friends
A few of the tiny wildflowers are beginning to emerge.
Small-flowered Woodland star ~ Lithophragma parviflorum (blossom size about 1/4 in – .64cm)
Spring Draba, Spring Whitlow-grass ~ Draba Verna (blossom size 1/8 in – .32cm)
April 4, 2014
Early little ones
Woodland Star ~ Lithophragma parviflorum
Such a tiny (about .25 inches across) blossom and so fragile that it floats on even the tiniest breeze, it is still one of the earliest and hardiest of the wildflowers. Things cannot always be understood at the first glance.
Yellow Bell ~ Fritillaria pudica
A Whitetail doe was grazing on the hillside just below this small blossom in the evening of the second day of its bloom: in the morning the flower was gone. Life can take a sudden turn in this world in which we live.
May 12, 2013
May wildflowers
After the late arrival of warm weather, the wildflowers in this part of Western Montana have been hurrying to catch up with spring. Here are more that have started blooming in May:
Miner’s Lettuce, Claytonia perfoliata
Unknown
Western Blue Clematis, Clematis occidentalis
Heart-leaf Arnica , Arnica cordifolia
Fairy Slipper, Calypso Orchid , Calypso bulbosa
Falsebox, Mountain Boxwood, Oregon Boxwood, Paxistma myrsinites
Blue-eyed Mary, Collinsia parviflora
Yellow Wood Violet, Viola glabella
Arrow-leaved Balsamroot, Balsamorhiza sagittata
Arrow-leaved Balsamroot, Balsamorhiza sagittata
Serviceberry, Saskatoon, Amelanchier alnifolia
Antelope Bitterbrush, Antelope-brush, Purshia tridentata
Antelope Bitterbrush, Antelope-brush, Purshia tridentata
Sticky Purple Geranium, Sticky Geranium, Geranium viscosissimum
Woolly Groundsel, Packera cana
Ground Ivy, Glechoma hederacea
Largeflower Triteleia, Triteleia grandiflora
Meadow Death Camas, Common Death Camas, Zigadenus venenosus
Small-flowered Woodland-star, Small-flowered Prairie-star, Lithophragma parviflorum
Holly-leaf Oregon-grape, Shining Oregongrape, Tall Oregongrape, Berberis aquifolium
Unknown shrub
Common Hawkweed, Hieracium lachenalii
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