Saturday's wildflower adventure to Rogers Pass began at the Moffat Tunnel at 6:30 a.m. My hiking buddy and I had a long hike ahead of us and wanted to be below treeline again before the afternoon thunderstorms hit; So, I buried my camera in the depths of my backpack to discourage the photographing of all plants I might find interesting and/or beautiful, which is practically every plant. I would remove it only if I saw something unique or rare which would keep the hiking pace up. This tactic was effective and I did not touch my camera until several miles into the hike when I saw some cool clubmoss, which belongs to the genus Lycopodium. The common name clubmoss stems from the fact that these plants resemble true mosses. However, true mosses are nonvascular plants while clubmosses are one of the most ancient vascular plants (plants with specialized conducting tissues -- xylem and phloem). Having evolved around 410 mya these plants dominated the flora of the Carboniferous period along with gigantic horsetails and ferns. Although today's Lycopodium spp. are reduced in size, ancient Lycopodium used to grow to 100 feet tall. The species in Colorado is Lycopodium annotinum (stiff club moss). It is a locally abundant evergreen that, upon first glance, resembles spruce and fir seedlings as it creeps along shady forest floors below the very trees it resembles.
Now that we were several miles into the hike and would soon be climbing to subalpine and alpine heights, I kept my camera out. Good thing, because I saw some Mitella stauropetala var. stenopetala (side-flowered miterwort) of the saxifragaceae. I had only seen it once before near Steamboat Springs and for a small stretch of the Rogers Pass hike it was locally abundant. This wildflower is difficult to photograph as the stem connecting the basal rosette of leaves to the inflorescence is quite long. Plus the plant grows in a dim environment. So, I upped the ISO speed of my camera, set my shutter speed to 1/60 and hoped for the best: that the required aperture would be small enough to capture both the flowers and leaves in focus. I wasn't successful, but here is the photo of this really cool plant anyways. One of these days I'll start carrying a tripod, which will slow down my hikes even more...
Soon we reached some cascades, which were lined with Primula parryi and Mertensia ciliata. The hiker in front of us stopped to take several photos, as did we, and as did the two hikers behind us. Water is a welcome sight during the hot, dry, wildfire-filled summer of 2018.
Below is a closer look at Primula parryi (Parry's primrose). Thanks to its intense magenta flowers, this plant is a real crowd-pleaser and can cause traffic jams along our trails.
BFFS of the Ranunculus Family: Trollius albiflorus (white globeflower), Caltha leptosepala (marsh marigold), and Ranunculus sp. (buttercup).
By and by we left the shady forest and entered the subalpine transition zone -- a land of tree islands amongst a sea of grasses, sedges, and wildflowers. The white flowers are Bistorta bistortoides (American bistort).
Below is one of the three alpine lakes on the way up to Rogers Pass. Probably because it was the weekend after the 4th of July, many backpackers were swarming around the established camping area looking for sites. There weren't enough to go around and I saw hopeful backpackers trampling wildflower-covered hillsides in search of a flat spot to pitch a tent. I hoped they wouldn't pitch a tent on a rare native orchid.
The purple flowers are Phacelia sericea (silky phacelia)
Hymenoxys and Arenaria fendleri (Fendler's sandwort)
Our destination was the ridge below the tallest point in the photo
My hiking buddy taking a break during the steep switchbacks.
It was on these steep switchbacks that we encountered a lovely plant with enormous flowers consisting of sunshiny yellow disks surrounded by deep purple rays. I thought to myself that if flowers could smile, this one would be smiling with delight underneath the deep blue alpine sky. At the time I was unsure of the ID, but I had a hunch that this plant was either rare or endemic or both. Machaeranthera pattersonii crossed my mind for a split second and I made a mental note to look that species up when I got home. I did and saw that M. pattersonii was lumped under Dieteria bigelovii. A Google image search of this species yielded photos of semi-scraggly, almost weedy-looking plants that did not resemble the graceful beauty I saw on the alpine hillside. An Erigeron on steroids was my next guess. So, I consulted the Erigeron section of Ackerfield's Flora of Colorado, which only led me down a rabbit hole lined with 44 Erigeron that all looked alike. I gave up and texted a photo to my colleague Mike who told me it was Machaeranthera pattersonii.
Below is an informative and humorous read about the taxonomical debate to recognize Machaeranthera pattersonii as a distinct species.
http://prairiebreak.blogspot.com/2013/03/disaster-star-by-any-other-name.html
Seeing this beautiful aster in the alpine would lead me to believe that it should have its own identity. If, in the future, plant genetic studies support this, then Machaeranthera pattersonii would be both rare and endemic to Colorado. How cool would that be? I guess we'll just have to stay tuned.
More Machaeranthera pattersonii:
Looking into a glacial cirque
Soon we arrived at the pass, which showcased two alpine plant communities: dry meadows and fellfields. Here are the exposed roots of a cushion plant, which was growing in the fellfield.
Fellfield community with a mosaic of rocks and bun and cushion plants. Over the ridge is the town of Winter Park. James Peak is the monarch to the left.
Fellfield plants: Geum rossii (alpine avens), Paronychia pulvinata (alpine nailwort), and Minuartia obtusiloba (alpine stitchwort)
Some of the alpine wildflowers we saw.
Silene acaulis and Phacelia sericea
Wildflower extravaganza
Our destination and lunch spot. Around this time, clouds began to appear from the north, south, east, and west and so after a brief lunch we reluctantly turned back. I say reluctantly, but my feet were starting to hurt and I was tired and I don't think I should have hiked much farther.
Our timing was perfect as we made it down to treeline right as the sky became dark and the afternoon thunderstorm began.
I'll end on this note: one more photo of alpine springbeauty because this was a particularly cute specimen I came across.
* * * END * * *