Berries in the Fall

The wildflowers are fading fast and all the critters on the mountain are getting ready for winter.  There’s plenty of food in the grasses and seeds and some of the fruits left on shrubs provide some color for the landscape. 

Rose hips on the Wild Roses (Rosa woodsii) have turned bright red and will provide a nutritious food source for the winter. They’re high in vitamin C and you can infuse them to make a tea.  With the reds and yellows in their leaves, it makes for some bright red accents in the brown mountainside!

Chokecherries (Prunus virginiana) are a big food source for birds.  These shrubs have loads of white flowers in the Spring which results in lots of dark purple berries in the late summer and fall.  They’re popular with the birds, though, and can get stripped clean early in the winter.  Chokecherries have been used in jams, but they’re pretty tart.  If you try one, you’ll feel your mouth pucker up.  Native Americans combined the berries with dried buffalo meat to make pemmican, a powerbar for their time—lots of energy and easy to keep. 

The other berry you’ll see lots of this time of year is the Snowberry.  There are a couple varieties, Symphoricarpos albus  and S. occidentallis.  both small shrubs.  As the name implies these are the round white berries you’ll see on small shrubs in shady areas of the mountain.  The flowers bloom all through summer, so the berries can be found from July on.  They aren’t so edible, however, being described as “mildly toxic”.  Although deer browse on the shrubs, I won’t be making any berry pies from them, so enjoy them for their looks!

This is a good time of year for the animals on the mountain—time to stock up.  When heavy snows come it becomes difficult to browse and find food, so now’s the time to fatten up!

Fall Flowers

We're coming to the end of the wildflower season on Green Mountain.  Even though there's a month of summer left the Fall flowers are nearing full bloom  Liatris is al over the mountain with its purple spikes and there are a few Purple Tansy Asters (Machaeranthera canescens) can be found blooming.  But most of the Fall flowers are the gold of Goldenrod, Rabbitbrush and Snakeweed.

Rabbitbrush is the last color we'll have on the mountain but these bushes with their bright yellow flowers brighten up the brown grassy slopes of Autumn.  The species name is Chrysothamnus nauseosus, which makes it sound a lot worse than it is.  The only nauseating thing you might find is that it's often covered with insects anxious to get the last bit of sustenance before winter arrives.Here's a c;oseup of the flowers.

Rabbitbrush

Snakeweed forms small round clumps of bright yellow flowers, similar in color to Rabbitbrush.   This year they are numerous on Green Mountain.  We still have a few other flowers like Chicory and Alfalfa blooming, but by far the yellows dominate this time of year.

Wildflowers and Flutes

As summer winds down, the mountain is getting browner and the wildflowers fewer. Fortunately John and Tina Kulias captured some great moments on this summer and added John's Indian flute to enhance the mood. John makes flutes and you can find more of his music if you search meadowlarkflutes on YouTube.  Enjoy!

http://youtu.be/KQ-3UAU6tL4

A little botany lesson

One of the things that's interesting and frustrating about identifying wildflowers is that there are so many that look alike.  There.  I've said it.  After a while you can tell what some of the look-alikes  are by slight differences in color or height, but when you're first learning them it's nearly impossible.  There are a couple varieties of sunflower on Green Mountain right now that are really hard to distinguish if you only look at the flower.  The Bush Sunflower (Helianthus pumilus) starts blooming in June and is widespread.  But late in the summer, another sunflower, Goledeneye (Heiomeris multiflora), takes its turn.  I just saw the first Goldeneyes of the year this last weekend.  There's an easy way to tell the two apart, but it's in the leaves, not the flower.

Bush Sunflower (left) and Goldeneye (right)

The Bush Sunflower has hairy, rough leaves and stems.  If you rub a leaf between your fingers you can fell how rough it is..  Sometimes the hairs on the leaves catch dust and make the leaves look dirty.  On the other hand, Goldeneye's leaves are narrower, and are smooth and somewhat shiny.  Once you've stopped to look at one it makes it a lot easier to spot as your're walking by.  

Mid Summer

There are a couple signs that we've reached the middle of summer--besides the calendar.  The one that really tells me it's here is when Liatris (Liatris punctata) starts blooming.  This is the latest of the purple flowers that bloom on Green Moiuntain, and in the middle of the yellows and golds, these purple spikes  add some needed color.  They're starting to bloom all over the mountain  but haven't reached their peak yet.  Liatris is known as Gayfeather in some parts of the country.  

Liatris 

The other sign of oncoming fall is Goldenrod.  I saw a couple on Saturday, so they're just starting up.  We have a couple varieties on Green Mountain but they look pretty similar.  This one is called Rough Goldenrod (Solidago nana).  The other is Western  Goldenrod (Solidago occidentalis).  The main differences are just what the name implies--the Western Goldenrod can be 18" tall, but has a smooth leaf while the smaller Rough Goldenrod has leaves that feel rough if you run your fingers across them.

Rough Goldenrod

I found a few Nodding Onions (Allium cernuum) yesterday, too.  In the Spring we had a lot of Wild Onions, which have white flowers and stand erect, but this time of year you can occasionally find these Nodding Onions.  They're about the same size--like a small chive, but have pale purple blossoms that flop over.  Look for them in shadier spots, especially on north-facing slopes.  The photo below is a closeup of the small flowers.  The plants are about 8" tall.

Nodding Onion

Landscaping with Natives

The summer wildflowers are all that's left from a great Spring season.  There are lots of sunflowers, a few roses and yarrow, but that's most of it.  As you look out on the mountain, though you can get some good ideas of how to landscape your yard with native plants , which are more drought-tolerant and will give you some color after the spring blooms are gone.

A lot of these summer flowers leave their skeletons behind in the fall, but they can be interesting even as the snow falls on them.  We have several Black-eyed Susans and condflowers that come up each year which give us lots of flowers through the heat, but are interesting after they've dried, too.  

We planted some Little Bluestem a couple years ago.  This time of year it's only about 6" tall, but it will get up to 18" in the Fall and turns a deep orangish red.  If you have a bigger area, Big Bluestem will grow to 4-6', especially if it's getting some water!  

One smaller wildflower that comes in lots of varieties is the Buckwheat family.  We have several on Green Mountain.  The one that's blooming now is James Buckwheat (Eriogonum jamesii).  It's gold flowers are on an umbel, so they have a lot of color in a small area.  The other I'd recommend for a yard is Sulfurflower (Eriogonum umbellatum).  It blooms earlier, but both of these flowers keep their shape after they've gone to seed, and the plant turns a rust color that's still attractive. 

James Buckwheat

Sulfurflower

There are others I've mentioned before--Prairie Coneflower (also known as Mexican Hat in nurseries), Blanketflower, and Purple Prairie Clover that can give you Summer flowers and an interesting Fall and Winter garden, too.

Crested Butte Wildflower Festival

We just returned from a week in Crested Butte where the wildflowers are spectacular.  There are lots of places with whole hillsides covered in lupine or various sunflowers.  The Wildflower Festival (www.cbwildflowerfestival.com) ends today, but is worth planning a trip for next year.  They offer lots of different wildflower hikes and classes specializing in everything from medicinal and edible plants to photography, sketching, and batik.  If you'd still like to get away this summer, they offer lots of information for self-guided hikes.  

The 403 trail above Crested Butte

Beyond the wildflowers, CB is a colorful town with lots to do.  There's plenty of mountain biking and fishing, and art, music and food festivals.  But now we're back in Lakewood and I hope Green Mountain dries out so I can see what's been happening over the last two weeks!

Clustered Penstemon in Crested Butte

Some unusual wildflowers to look for

Now that the summer heat has started some of the more interesting flowers are showing up on Green Mountain.  We've been able to plant a couple of them in our garden, but wildflowers are notoriously difficult to get started.  For all the seeds they put out there aren't that many plants, and it seems lots of them like to find nooks between rocks or right up against the sidewalk when they do sprout.

The first one we'll look at is Prairie Coneflower (Ratibida columnifera).  It's fairly common on the mountain and can be found in nurseries.  It's known as Mexican Hat in garden shops.  It's in the aster family so it has the bright yellow ray flowers (which look like individual petals) around the outside.and a tall cone of disk flowers in the middle.  They may have some dark red mixed in with the yellow, but most of the natives are only gold.

Prairie Coneflower

Another summer favorite is Purple Prairie Clover (Dalea purpurea).  It has a similar form to the Coneflower with the long tall cone of ray flowers, but this one's not an aster, but is part of the pea family. Ringing the cone are a row of tiny purple flowers.  The first picture shows the whole plant with some golden asters mixed in.  The second is a closeup showing all the individual flowers with their yellow pollen-bearing anthers.  There is also a White Prairie Clover (Dalea candida), which is blooming in abundance in a few areas on the mountain.

Purple Prairie Clover with Golden Asters

Purple Prairie Clover closeup

While I was running on the Summit Loop Trail Saturday I found another flower that's unusual for Green Mountain.  This one is Miners Candle (Oreocarya virgata).  It's fairly common in the mountains, but I've only seen it on GM a couple times.  It's in the Borage family which means it has lots of hairs all over the stems.  If you brush against it your arms or legs against it you might feel the itch that come from the hairs.

We'll be heading to Crested Butte for a few days over the 4th.  Should be some great wildflowers up there so I may post a few pictures from up there next weekend.  Enjoy the holiday!

Some great summer flowers

Over the last week some of the really interesting summer flowers have started showing up.  The Mariposa Lilies (Calochortus gunnisonii) are all over the mountain.  They look good from a distance, but looking inside them is like looking in one of those sugar Easter eggs with a whole new world inside the calyx.  Lilies always have each flower part in 3's and you can easily see the three petals and six anthers the male, pollen bearing part) when you look inside.  The flower opens up to welcome pollinators and you there's lots of pollen to go around!

Mariposa Lily

The Prickly Poppies (Argemne polyanthemos) are just starting to open up, but I've seen them in several spots on both the north and south side along the trails.  Like the poppies in your garden the petals unfold from the bud into a papery white blossom that ripples in the wind.  Inside the petals are a bunch of bright yellow anthers (thus poly (many) anthemos (anthers) in the name.)  The pistil, or female part of the flower is the bright red button in the middle.

Prickly Poppy

One last white flower that is unusual, but doing pretty well this year is a White Larkspur (Delphinium carolinianum).  Some years there may only be a couple on the mountain, but they can be found in several places this year, including right above the Utah Ave parking lot.  The more common Larkspur is a small purple one that blooms very early.  This one is tall (up to 24" on GM) very pale purple to white, and has purple spots on the flower.  It's pretty distinctive with a spur coming out the back of the flower.  Look for it!

White Larkspur

Out on the Plains

The last three weeks I've had the opportunity to take a Native Plant Masters class at the Plains Conservation Center in Aurora.  This is a great facility way out east near E-470 and Hampden, but I wanted to compare what was in bloom out there with what we see on Green Mountain.  As I expected a lot of the flowers were the same although there were a couple that we don't see here.  Although it's pretty dry, there are a couple streams that provide some contrast, and lots of raptors soaring.  One flower that really seems to represent the plains is Sand Verbena (Abronia fragrans).  Attractive as it spreads across the dry dirt, it has a sweet fragrance to attract pollinators.

Sand Verbena

The other thing I found fascinated I touched on last time.  When we showed up for our first class on June 3, the whole area was bright yellow with Wallflower (Erysimus  asperum).  We were told that usually the Wallflowers are scattered around, like they are on Green Mountain, but the late snows in April apparently were just right to germinate all those Wallflower seeds just waiting for their chance.

Yellow Wallflowers cover the ground at the Plains Conservation Center

Like the Jeffco and Lakewood Open Space Parks the Plains Conservation Center has some good programs, and I'd recommend checking it out if you're on the east edge of town.

Summer Arrives

A couple weeks of hot weather and all of a sudden the Spring flowers are giving way to the Summer blooms.  Penstemon are still looking good although the Blue Mist are showing signs of the heat.  

Summer brings flowers with lots of yellow.  The Bush Sunflower (Helianthus pumilis) and Golden Aster (Heterotheca villosa) are all over.  The Common Sunflower (Helianthus annuus) isn't out yet that I've seen and usually we don't have as many as the Bush Sunflower except along roadsides.  It's easy to tell them apart because the Common Sunflower has a brown center.  One other Sunflower\-like late Spring flower is the Blanketflower (Gallardia aristata).  It's the most colorful of the bunch with a bright red center.

Common Sunflower

Bush Sunflower

Blanketflower

Another interesting little flower is the Sulfurflower (Eriogonum umbellatum) .  This is a kind of buckwheat and has flowers in an umbel (like an umbrella) and all the leaves are at the base.  These flowers will last for a month or so and another, larger, relative, James Buckwheat will take over as the Sulfurflowers fade.

One of the things I find interesting about tracking when things bloom is that some years a particular wildflower will be abundant, but the next year there will only be a few.  A couple years ago Yellow Sweet Clover (Melolitus officinale) covered the mountain.  I thought they would take over and choke out lots of the natives, but the next year and, ever since, they've been scattered around but nowhere near the profusion of 2009.

June's busting out all over!

What a great weekend...I counted 52 wildflowers that I actually saw blooming.  There are a few others that hide in various spots I didn't get to this weekend that are still out.  Let me know if there's something interesting you've seen.

The Penstemons are some of the showiest blossoms now.  The Blue Mist Penstemon (Penstemon virens) gives an iridescent blue while the Orchid Beard Tougue (Penstemon secundiflorus) stands taller with bigger flowers.  They'll be joined soon by the Tall Penstemon (Penstemon virgatus asa-grayi), which is also a bright blue.  

Orchid Beard Tongue

Tall Penstemon

Blue Mist Penstemon

 One other bright magenta flower that looks kind of like a Penstemon is Locoweed (Oxytropis lambertii).  It has flowers on stalks like the Penstemons but the leaves and flower structure show it's a member of the pea family.

Colorado Locoweed

Indian Paintbrush (Castilleja integra) has come out in the last couple weeks, too.  It's one of the easiest wildflowers to recognize with it's bright orange to red sepals.  No, those aren't petals--the actual flower is a small green tube that sticks out of the bright orange sepals.  If you pull one out and suck on the end you'll get a small taste of nectar if the bees haven't beaten you to it!

Indian Paintbrush--flowers are green spikes at top

One of the flowers that really brightens some hillsides right now is Groundsel (I won't give it a species name since they're confusing!)  These bright yellow flowers are all over on some of the northern slopes of the mountain.  This is one of the best displays of Groundsel in a couple years.

One more interesting little flower I mentioned the other day is the Meadow Death Camas (Anticlea virescens).  These little lilies (usually about 12") call for some "belly botany" so you can get down to their level and see the beautiful details in this miniature.

Meadow Death Camas

Hope you were able to get out this weekend.  If not, the evenings are long, so get out and enjoy!

Great hikes for this weekend

We're nearing the peak of Green Mountain wild flowers this weekend, still a little behind normal, but there are some spectacular areas on the mountain right now.

If you're up for a longer hike, the northeast side of the Halo Trail is covered with wild flowers--cinquefoil, and Fendlers Groundsel give a yellow backdrop while penstemon a and locoweed add blue and purple. There are a few death camas, a tiny lily, as we'll as onions and white fleabane (a small white daisy-like flower) and purple daisies.

If you just want a short hike, either east or west from the Utah parking area has lots of blooms and is great for a quick hike.

I'll post some photos when I get a chance, but wanted to update you on what's blooming!

Peas for Memorial Day

Memorial Day weekend is usually near the peak of wildflower viewing on Green Mountain, and even though we're about a week behind normal there are lots of flowers just opening up.

There are several members of the pea family blooming now.  Most peas bloom early in the season and some have seeds that look like little pea pods.  The most prominent one this weekend is Drummonds Milkvetch (Astragalus drummondii).  Some people think it looks like a white Indian Paintbrush, with stalks of white flowers above hairy leaves.  Some others you'll see are Ground Plum (Astragalus crassicarpus), Early Purple Vetch (Astragalus shortianus) and American Vetch (Vicia americana).  

Groundplum

Drummonds Milkvetch

Early Purple Vetch

The Groundplum and Early Purple Vetch hug the ground, while the Drummonds stands tall.  

 

American Vetch

The American Vetch is a different species from the other three. If you look at the end of the leaflets there is a tendril that can it uses to grab onto other plants for support.

The other two peas are more showy and may be more familiar.  Golden Banner (Thermopsis divaricata) make a bright gold splash on the hillsides. They  won't be around much longer so enjoy them now.  But the Lupines (Lupinus caudatus) have just started opening up in the last few days.  Along with the penstemons that will be opening soon, they're one of the showiest of the big flowers on the mountain.  Enjoy the weekend!

Golden Banner

Silver Lupine 

A weekend in the hills

I spent the last weekend in Crested Butte and couldn't make it up on Green Mountain to see what's happening. On the other hand, it's interesting to compare the two areas. Through the Gunnison valley the trees are just greening up, so I was surprised to see a few wildflowers blooming in Crested Butte. Chiming Bells, Mountain Candy Tuft and a few buttercups were flowering in the woods. Along a creek were some marsh marigolds, whose original genus name, Psychrophilla, means "cold-lover".

I'll update on GM as soon as I can get up there.

A really Green Mountain

We've been getting plenty of moisture this Spring but finally it turned from snow to rain.  Warm temps this weekend will really spur growth.  The grass is already 4-6" tall, and since the snow smashed the old grass down, the mountain is truly looking green.

Only a couple new blooms this week, but one of them is a rare one.  I've only seen Spring Beauty (Claytonia rosea) one other time, but I found it blooming high on the mountain on the northwest part of the Halo trail.  The other place I found it was in a cool ravine, so it surprised me.  

Spring Beauty (Claytonia rosea)

The other flower that finally made an entrance is usually one of the first, and usually is blooming by mid-April.  Musineon divaricatum, or Musineon to its friends, is another member of the parsley family, like Salt and Pepper.  It's flowers are bright yellow but have the same umbel shape.  They don't grow very high--up to 6-8", but can add some color in the early Spring.  If you compare the two parsleys that are blooming you can see the similarities, especially in the leaves.  Even though they're related to herbs we eat, don't try them--members of the parsley family can be poisonous!

Musineon (Musineon divaricatum)

Spring at last

Finally the snows melted and the flowers are starting coming out.  We're a week or two behind "normal" and about 3 weeks behind last year, when we had a dry, hot Spring.  A few of the earliest bloomers are prolific-- Yellow Violets and Yellow Alyssum (Alyssum parviflorum), especially.  The alyssum has some of the tiniest flowers you'll see, about 1 mm wide.  It's not a native but blooms early and goes to seed, really not bothering the natives.  Like all members of the Mustard family (Brassicaceae), it has four petals.

Yellow Alyssum (Alyssum parviflorum)

Another bright flower that's just coming out is the Mountain Ball Cactus (Pediocactus simpsonii).  The one I saw, on the trail leading up from Utah Dr, is just starting to bloom.  Several others had buds, so catch them this weekend--they don't bloom for long!  There are two other cacti on Green Mountain, Prickly Pear and Hedgehog, but they won't be out for another month or so.

Mountain Ball Cactus (Pediocactus simpsonii)

One more flower that's easy to miss is the Wavyleaf Dandelion (Nothocalais cuspidata).  My friend CG told me about this one, blooming on the trail, right above the Florida Dr parking lot.  It looks like a regular old dandelion at first, but has a more golden color and the leaves are long, thin and pointed, not like the ragged leaves you see in the yard variety.

A few daisies are starting to come out, Cutleaf and Easter Daisy, and a couple vetches, Ground Plum and Early Purple Vetch, but there should be a lot more by next week.  A few Chiming Bells are blooming, too.  

Looks like a warm weekend coming up, the snow, rain and warm sun should make for a Green Mountain.  Get out and enjoy it!

Invaders

The native wildflowers are still trying to recover from the recent snows, but one non-native invader is already flowering.  Myrtle Spurge (Euphorbia myrcinites) used to be sold in nurseries because it's a drought-tolerant succulent that thrives in Colorado. Unfortunately, it is also poisonous and spreads quickly, reducing native grasses and food plants.  I've seen it blooming already in many gardens in Green Mountain.  It's probably been there for years, and continues to thrive.  It has been designated for eradication as a List A Noxious Weed.  Here's what the Department of Agriculture says about it:

"Myrtle spurge contains a toxic, milky sap which can cause severe skin irritations, including blistering. This plant is poisonous if ingested; causing nausea, vomiting and diarrhea. Wearing gloves, long sleeves, shoes, and eye protection is highly recommended when in contact with myrtle spurge, as all plant parts are considered poisonous." 

It's not hard to remove when the soil is damp, and now's the time to do it, before it goes to seed!

Myrtle Spurge  (Euphorbia myrcinites)