The Height of Wildflower Season

The combination of rainfall and sunshine that we've had over the last couple weeks has turbo-charged the wildflower season on Green Mountain.  A couple weeks ago we were having a good season, but were still seeing a lot of the early flowers and barely starting to see things like Penstemon and Locoweed.  In the last few days, the 80 degree temps have brought the mid-season flowers out and the rains have kept the early bloomers intact!

I mentioned that the Wild Onion and Death Camas were kind of hard to find.  Since then I've seen them al over, more onions than camas, but if you look closely for the little guys there are lots of them around.  

One of the other wildflowers we don't see too often on the mountain is going wild this year.  These are the Spiderworts, which are blooming in big healthy plants on the south side of the mountain. These are great flowers for your garden, too.

Western Spiderwort (Tradescatia occidentalis)

The following is a quick list of some of the more prominent wildflowers blooming this week on Green Mountain.  I spotted 79 species in a couple hikes and runs on the mountain, but these are the ones you're most likely to spot by color and common name.

Blue:  Blue Mist Penstemon; Chiming Bells; Flax;

Purple: Silvery Lupine; Spiderwort

Magenta: Locoweed

Orchid: Orchid Beardtongue Penstemon;

Pink: Sticky Geranium; 

Yellow: Golden Banner (a few left); Bush Sunflower; Butter and Eggs (Toadflax); Leafy Cinquefoil (looks like Potentilla); Whiskbroom Parsley

White: Drummonds Milkvetch; Prickly Poppy; Wild Onion; Mouse Ear Chickweed;

Those are a few of the most prominent--lots more to see!