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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Today’s favorite

Spotted Coralroot ~ Corallorhiza maculata

An unusual pair

I was going to post some photos of the Baldy Mountain trail from last week, followed by some more of the 345 trail and then a bunch of wildflower species that just began to bloom. But then I ran into this unusual pair today and couldn’t resist posting a few photos of them. (My apologies to anyone who has an aversion to arachnids.)

I don’t understand exactly what the relationship is, but I see that the spider even has some of the orchid’s maroon color marking on its back. The crab spider wouldn’t leave the blossom even though I spent a half hour lying prone trying to steady the camera enough for a focused photo using both forearms, one hand and my hiking staff as a makeshift tripod with the lens only a couple of inches away from him. They must have some kind of mutually beneficial pact.

Wildflowers blooming today,

well, at least on the lower part of the Spring Creek trail.

American twinflower ~ Linnaea borealis

White spirea ~ Spiraea lucida

Three-spot Mariposa Lily ~ Calochortus apiculatus

Orange Honeysuckle ~ Lonicera ciliosa

Spotted Coralroot ~ Corallorhiza maculata (an orchid)

Stalking and stalked

Spotted Coralroot ~ Corallorhiza maculata

These flowers are in the orchid family and are saprophytic. They do not have chlorophyll that most plants use for food production and therefore do not have green leaves. They derive their nutrients from decaying organic matter and because of their dependence on that they may be abundant in one part of a forest one year and completely absent there the next. Because they live in such close symbiotic association with soil fungi they cannot be be cultivated.

While I was slithering on my back through the tall grass like an inverted snake, stalking these wild orchids, I heard some noise in the thick brush off the trail which I first attributed to my dog, except that when I glanced up, she was quite close to me. It happened again a quarter of a mile further up the trail when I was in the prone position stalking a stand of Pipsissewa. I suspect it was a cougar just trying to figure out exactly who was slithering around in the middle of his living room. I would certainly do the same.

This morning’s wildflowers

With the temperature headed for one hundred today, early morning was the only time for a short hike and yesterday’s post on Jomegat’s Weblog reminded me that the Pipsissewa are starting to bloom, an event I would hate to miss. The wildflowers don’t mind the heat, especially along a wooded canyon trail. There were other flowers in bloom as well.

Bluebell bellflower, Bluebell-of-Scotland, Harebell, Campanula rotundifolia

Pipsissewa, Chimaphila umbellata

Oneleaf foamflower, Sugar scoop, Western foamflower, Tiarella trifoliata

Common selfheal, Prunella vulgaris

Twinflower, Linnaea borealis

Liverleaf wintergreen, Pink pyrola, Pyrola asarifolia

Nodding onion, Allium cernuum

Spotted coralroot, Corallorhiza maculata