Today is March 3rd. The snow has been falling off and on for the past two days, it is 6F, and I am officially ready for spring, warmer weather, sunshine-y hikes, and wildflower blooms. To pass the time, I spend the grayest part of the day looking through photos from previous adventures and reflecting on some of my favorite native plant finds. Voilà, the topic for March's blog post is born: "My Top 10 Native Plant Finds of 2017." And yes, that's two years ago. I'll come up with a list for 2018 during the next snowstorm.
2017 was a good year for me floristically speaking. I backpacked in the Lost Creek Wilderness where I saw several endemic and rare species, led educational hikes in the Indian Peaks Wilderness, and co-led a trip to the Bighorns (WY), Beartooths (MT), and Yellowstone N.P. for work. Also, as I was still working on the wildflower book with the Denver Botanic Gardens, I justified many day hikes by telling myself that I needed to be out photographing native plants. All of these adventures produced a lot more than 10 really good plant finds. However, after much deliberation about which species to include, I finally whittled the list down to a mere 10 species.
#10 Anemone narcissiflora double-flowered form
One of my most unusual finds occurred around July 4th, along the Continental Divide above Bowen Lake. We had left the well-developed montane forest behind, and were hiking a trail that wound through wet meadows, dry meadows and tree islands. As I passed by a tree island, I noticed a small population of 7 plants with cream-colored marigold-like flowers. I stopped in my tracks. The leaves screamed Ranunculaceae and Anemone in particular, but the flowers were like nothing I had ever seen in the wild. This plant bewildered me all afternoon. When I reached cellphone service I texted a photo to my co-worker Mike who put an end to the mystery: the plant was Anemone narcissiflora.
But the flower doesn't look anything like Anemone narcissiflora, you say. Below is a photo of how this flower usually develops (photo borrowed from Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center, an organization that does really good things).
So what is going on here? The short answer is that a mutation is present in this population that caused the many stamens of these flowers to develop as petals. (See photo above to appreciate the numerous stamens, a characteristic of the buttercup family.) Furthermore, either the petals were so numerous as to completely obscure the pistil, or the pistil did not develop. As a result, these flowers are probably of not much use to pollinators, although if I were a fly I might find shelter and warmth in their tissue-y depths. They sure are attractive, though!
In the wild the double-flowered mutation is not common, perhaps even rare, but in commercial horticulture many plants are selected to produce double flowers. Examples include roses, double lilacs, carnations, and anemones. Unsurprisingly, the cultivated double-flowered plants aren't the best bet for pollinators, as their nectary reward is often difficult to access. So, if you're concerned about pollinators, which you should be, include many natives in your landscape and be mindful about which nativars you plant.
Here's a close up of the double-flowered Anemone 'Uber-Narcissus':
Now that I've gotten your attention, I will throw in several plants that might be considered "acquired tastes." An instructor at a writing workshop I recently attended compared this rhetorical technique to putting broccoli in chocolate cake. Enjoy some broccoli.
#9 Adoxa moschatellina
The first acquired taste is Adoxa moschatellina (common name Moschatel or muskroot). I found this 2-inch tall plant growing in a moist, shady, spruce-fir forest at the base of a granite boulder that was the size of a tiny house. I was delighted. (Those who know me best know that I appreciate weird plants with green flowers.) Moschatel is a circumboreal species which is uncommon, or at least difficult to find, in Colorado. Unfortunately the photo does not show this unique feature, but the inflorescence is actually a tight cluster of 5 flowers (lending to one of its common names, 5-faced bishop). The top flower typically has 4 petals and the lateral flowers have 5 petals each. The flowers smell musky and apparently like garbage according to Nature Gate. I didn't attempt to smell them because I was afraid the spider (left of center) might attack me.
#8 Neottia cordata
Here is another weird plant with green flowers that I saw in Rocky Mountain N.P. around July 4th: Neottia cordata (formerly Listera cordata) or heart-leafed twayblade. One of the most wide-spread orchids of North America, this species is found throughout much of Canada, the Rocky Mountains, the Cascades, the Olympic Mountains, the Great Lakes region, and in New England (BONAP). In Colorado, this plant can be seen growing in shady, moist upper montane/subalpine spruce-fir forests, often in colonies, and often in utopian plant communities consisting of other weird, green-flowered species such as Mitella pentandra (5-stamened mitrewort), Corallorhiza trifida (green coral-root orchid), and Pyrola spp. (wintergreen).
If you look closely at this 4-inch tall native orchid you will see that the lower petal is forked, resembling a snake's tongue. That feature is how you can tell this species apart from the other 2 twayblade species in Colorado (to me their lower petals more resemble the wings of a lacewing insect).
#7 Viola biflora
On the same epic Rocky Mountain N.P. hike as above, I saw a little yellow Viola peaking out of the foliage in a riparian area. I did a double take because in Northern Colorado at this elevation (upper montane/lower subalpine), I expected to only see Viola that were purple, violet, or white. This lovely violet was none other than Viola biflora or Arctic yellow violet.
This species made my top 10 list because I had never seen it before and also because it has a weird distribution. It is found in the Arctic and in high latitudes in Europe and Asia, where it is widely distributed. It also occurs in Alaska, the Yukon Territory, Queen Charlotte Islands and Vancouver Island in British Columbia, AND in the Southern Rockies of Colorado (Flora of North America). BONAP shows where disjunct populations occur in Colorado.
#6 Polemonium brandegeei
In 2017, I also spent 4 days in the Lost Creek Wilderness and my write up about that trip is found here: https://telesonixtimes.wixsite.com/telesonixtimes/single-post/2017/11/01/LCW. In the subalpine and alpine elevations of the 27-mile Lost Creek Loop, I came across Brandegee's Jacob's-ladder, a plant that ranges from the Rockies in northern New Mexico through Wyoming. The flowers, which are cream-colored and trumpet-shaped, are pollinated by both hawkmoths and hummingbirds.
#5 Aquilegia saximontana
On my LCW backpacking trip I also saw for the first time in the wild, the rare and endemic Aquilegia saximontana. This species is found at elevations greater than 9,000 ft in a handful of counties in the northern and central part of Colorado. Here it is growing in Pike's Peak granite. The flowers are nodding, so I upturned one with my thumb, which also proved good for scale: the flowers are tiny, with short, hooked spurs and are a darker purple than the more common and widespread Colorado Columbine, Aquilegia coerulea.
#4 Androsace montana (Douglasia montana); common name Mountain Douglasia
Finally, both a primrose and a cushion plant, suggesting that you can have your cake and eat it too. As I was verifying nomenclature for this species (apparently I don't do enough of that at work), I noticed that many sources still cling to the scientific name Douglasia montana. Douglasia would be a genus endemic to North America, but alas, it appears to have merged with the genus Androsace. A lovely genus in its own right, Androsace spp. (common name rockjasmine) are primarily found in Arctic-Alpine habitats in Asia, Europe, and North America.
As a side note, if you're interested in the etymology of the genus Douglasia, it was named after a prominent Scottish botanist who explored the western U.S. and who also has many plants named after him including Douglas-fir (formerly Picea douglasii, now Pseudotseuga menziesii). If you're in the mood for a story with a very tragic ending, read his bio:
https://oregonencyclopedia.org/articles/douglas_david/#.XJAjEi2ZM1g.
Or, just stick with photos of pretty flowers. This photo was taken in the Beartooth Mountains of Montana, on an exposed alpine ridge on one of the most scenic drives in the United States.
#3 Lilium philadelphicum
In mid-July of 2017, I found myself in the Indian Peaks Wilderness, previewing a hike I was going to lead for the Botanic Gardens the following week. I had a notebook in which I was quickly jotting down the names of plant species. This caused another hiker's plant-nerd radar to go off and she struck up a conversation with me. Turns out she was a hobbyist photographer, a plant lover, and a member of the Colorado Native Plant Society. We had a nice conversation about native plants and before parting ways, she told me the location of a population of wood lilies that she had seen a few hours earlier. With her impeccable directions, I was able to locate these showy plants and spent some time furiously photographing them.
#2 Cypripedium fasciculatum clustered lady's slipper orchid
My 2nd best native plant find of 2017 was on the same epic Rocky Mountain National Park hike where I saw the Neottia cordata and the Viola biflora. We chose this hike for a number of natural amenities including stunning scenery, diverse plant communities, various riparian habitats, and glacially carved valleys, and it did not disappoint.
Seven miles in, we stopped for a picnic lunch at a lake before reluctantly returning the way we came. As we were hiking through a dark spruce-fir forest, made darker by an imminent summer rainstorm, I came across a plant right next to the trail I had failed to notice on the way up: a brown lady's slipper orchid. Some consider this plant unattractive and refer to it as the ugly brown orchid, but I was so happy to have found it that I shrieked, leading my hiking companions to wonder if something was wrong. Things could not have been better, in fact.
According to Wildflowers of the Pacific Northwest:
This orchid is "Dependent on mycorrhizal fungi in forest duff and upper soils throughout life. Grows in moist to dry, deeply shaded to partly shaded, mixed evergreen woods through mid elevations. Plants become very old in areas not disturbed, and any disturbance, including picking, can kill the plants outright."
I realize this post is heavy on the orchids, but native orchids are so cool. This brings me to my number 1 native plant find of 2017, which also happens to be an orchid.
*Drumroll*
#1 Amerorchis rotundifolia (Galearis rotundifolia)
As I mentioned earlier, in late June of this year, I had the opportunity to co-lead a botany-themed trip to Wyoming and Montana. One of my absolute favorite finds of this trip was the roundleaf orchid, which is a rather pedestrian-sounding name for one of the most beautiful plants I've ever seen. A population of this species was growing in a forested wetland in the Beartooth Mountains of southern Montana, with companion plants Equisetum, Linnaea borealis, Pyrola asarifolia, Platanthera huronensis, Galium and Arnica to name a few. This flower took my breath away.
I have to say that Minnesota Wildflowers has the best description for this plant. I imagine the author sitting in a stuffy room attempting to write a dry, technical description of A. rotundifolia. But as he studies an herbarium specimen, his mind wanders to the time he saw the charming orchid in the wild. With a big smile on his face and a flourish of his pen he writes the following description: "A very cheerful and merry clown-like flower with a pink hood, white draped side arms and purple polka-dot pantaloons on." Right on, Minnesota Wildflowers.
I'll end this post with a close up of the merry, clown-like flowers on the inflorescence of the Amerorchis.
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