Part 3

Individual flowers, about ½ inch wide, are formed of 5 dissimilar petals, usually magenta red, sometimes other shades from rose to purple. The banner bends back slightly and carries markings of lighter color near its base; the 2 lateral petals are plain and angle forward; the 2 lower petals form a narrow keel. Numerous flowers, attached at the calyx base along the upper third of a naked stem, form a showy spike 10 inches or more tall, several of which rise from one root crown. Leaves, pinnate, with numerous green leaflets, rise also from the root crown and are about half the height of the flower spikes. Grows in foothills and higher parts of plains zone. Blooms May-July.

The many members of the pea family going by the names of loco, vetch, milk vetch, etc., are usually considered crass weeds and are in disrepute because some of them are poisonous to stock. They often grow in soil containing traces of selenium, and are doubly harmful in that case. Where other browze is good, animals usually leave the toxic ones alone, except the occasional horse that becomes “an addict” and is “locoed.” In spite of these obnoxious qualities, there are few plants that give more bright and decorative touches to the plains.

Pea Family Golden Banner, _Thermopsis divaricarpa_, A. NELS.

The individual flowers are about ¾ inch across, each formed of 5 dissimilar golden petals. The top petal is an upright banner, with a wing petal on each side and in the center the 2 keel petals folded together. A dozen or more flowers are attached by short pedicels to the upper part of the stem, forming a loose raceme. Plants, of one or several erect leafy stems from a root crown, are 1-2 feet tall. Grows in foothills and montane zones. Blooms April-July.

Several closely allied species share the name of golden banner, and among them cover a very wide range in all parts of Colorado from the plains well into the mountains. They spread both by seeds and by root-runners resulting in quite large colonies. They seem to be unpalatable to livestock so, in spite of their attractive looking leaves, they stay fresh while other plants around them look browzed. Everywhere they are gay and decorative. A bright field of them near the Platte River, bowing to the wind, banks of them in open glades of the Greenhorn Mountains, and pale yellow clumps along the trail to Lulu City, are prized flower memories.

Loasa Family Stickweed, _Mentzelia nuda_, T. AND G.

Flowers, about 2 inches wide, are formed of 10 narrow, creamy, petals which spread wide and surround a radiating cluster of 100 or more pale stamens as long as the petals. Plant is 2 to 4 feet high of white shiny stems branching freely from one main stem, and rather sparsely covered with deeply indented, light green leaves of a peculiar rough texture. Grows on plains and low foothills. Blooms July-August.

The leaves of this plant are covered with minute barbed hairs which cling to cloth so firmly that a spray of several flowers placed upon a coat lapel will stay almost as dependably as if fastened with a pin. They have the feel of fine-grained sandpaper. The flowers are very responsive to light conditions. All through the morning and well into the afternoon they are tightly closed, then about four o’clock, or a half hour earlier if clouds reduce the light, they spread into full bloom. This opening proceeds so rapidly that the movement of the petals is quite easily seen. In a period of twenty minutes or less a colony of the plants will change its whole appearance from inconspicuous weeds to a gorgeous display of big pale stars. A related species, _Mentzelia decapetala_, has even larger flowers of deeper cream color. It waits until after sundown to open.

Cactus Family Strawberry Cactus, _Echinocereus triglochidiatus_, ENGELM.

Flowers are brilliant scarlet, 2½ inches across, with a conspicuous group of green stigmas in the center. Plant is a single, erect, cylindrical, dark-green joint or stem about 5 inches high, several to many of which often group closely together forming a mound. The stems are strongly ridged and carry sharp spines in clusters. Grows in rocky or gravelly soil on plains and into foothills, southwestern Colorado. Blooms May.

This is related to some larger _cacti_ that grow in Arizona, and there get the name of hedgehog. The name pincushion is broadly used for all the small round _cacti_ of our area even though they are not too closely related to each other. The bright, strawberry-red flowers of the plant shown above quite set it apart from the pincushions of eastern Colorado plains. Among these are hen-and-chickens cactus, _Echinocereus vividiflorus_, with small, greenish-yellow flowers, also, spiny stars, _Coryphantha vivipara_, a round little cactus with shiny purple flowers. These plants are so like the prairie sod in color as to defy search when not in bloom. Ball cactus, _Pediocactus simpsonii_, of foothills and montane zones, is quite a perfect globe in shape, 3 to 6 inches in diameter, and has small pink flowers closely grouped at the top of the globe.

Cactus Family Grizzly Bear Cactus, _Opuntia trichophora_, BRITTON AND ROSE

Flowers are 3 inches or more across, usually light-yellow with fine sheen, several of them erupting from the edge of a flat, oval joint. Plant spreads over a circular area, about 2 feet in diameter, and is made up of numerous connected flat joints, of light-green color, all heavily armored with pale, sharp spines, some of which, in old plants, may be flexible and hair-like. Grows on clay soil in foothills and plains of middle and western Colorado. Blooms June-early July.

Several species of Opuntia closely resemble each other. Some of them, including a few found in Colorado, bear soft, juicy fruits which are quite good eating when the prickles on the skins are removed, so all of them are called prickly pear. The one shown above grows freely on the high grassy flats of the San Luis Valley. It bears dry, hard fruits, as do most of our Colorado species. The prickly pears, like all the other cacti, accumulate moisture, when they get a chance, in the soft pulp of their round or jointed stems. Then, over periods of drought, this moisture is used to produce flowers, to mature seeds and to keep the plant alive. The whole plant shrinks visibly if the times between drinks are long. But for the defensive armor of their spines, few of them would survive, because in a thirsty land every hungry cow is looking for moisture too.

Evening Primrose Family Yellow Evening Primrose, _Oenothera brachycarpa_, GRAY

Flowers are cadmium-yellow, fading old-rose, 2½ inches across, of 4 wide petals. The 4 narrow sepals bend back and at their base merge into a hollow tubular stem. The style branches at its tip into 4 conspicuous slender stigmas. Plant has little or no main stem; leaves are dark-green, strap-shaped, 3 inches long. Grows in foothills, but only where soil is somewhat marly. Blooms May-June.

Look for this one of our numerous evening-primroses about Memorial Day. Soil formed from the disintegration of Niobrara shale such as we find along the Hogsback near Denver, or along the Boulder-Lyons road, is its preference. The plants are rather ragged, but the flowers draw all our attention to their soft, clear yellow as they spread open in the sunshine. They last but a day—fading into soft rosy colors. The white members of this family are much better known. Several such species common on the plains are so responsive to early summer rain that within days after a good shower all our roadsides and even vacant lots will be gay with their short-lived beauty.

Evening Primrose Family Fireweed, _Epilobium angustifolium_, L.

Individual flowers, 1 inch across, are formed of 4 wide-spreading, magenta petals, and are attached by longish pedicels to a central stem, so that the whole flower cluster (inflorescence) is a loose raceme forming the top foot or more of a tall leafy shoot, several of which rise from a woody root crown. Leaves are narrow, 2 inches or more in length. The entire plant is often 4 feet or more tall. Grows in sunny openings in montane zone. Blooms June-August.

Webster’s Dictionary describes fireweed as “any of several weeds, troublesome in clearings or burned districts.” To use “troublesome” in connection with this great “willow-herb” of the Rockies seems most unkind. We are grateful to have it rush into devastated areas to cover scars with its bright pink to magenta blossoms. The whole plant reddens as it ages. The flower matures into a long thin pod which splits and curls releasing feathery seed carriers. A less common low growing species with larger flowers and broader leaves, _Epilobium latifolium_, also grows in the area. It is a real find. A few grow not far below Loveland Pass.

Heath Family Pipsissewa, _Chimaphila umbellata_, NUTT.

Flower, ½ inch across, formed of 5 rose-pink petals that bend back and surround, at the center, a conspicuous bright green ovary which is tipped with a disc-like stigma. The 10 prominent stamens, spreading from near the base of the ovary, look like short claws. Plant is 8-12 inches tall, bearing a cluster of several flowers at its top. Leaves are shiny and evergreen with saw-toothed edges, arranged in whorls along the woody stems, but most numerous at the base of the plant. Grows in moist acid soil under pine or spruce trees in montane zone. Blooms late July-August.

The members of the heath family like shade, acid soil and moisture. These conditions they find in the woods of the Northwest, where a great variety of them, including rhododendrons and azaleas, grow in abundance. Colorado has its share of the smaller heaths for those who look for them in shady spots and along mossy trails near mountain streams. The trail to Calypso Falls in Rocky Mountain National Park is good hunting, not only for pipsissewa, but for the pyrolas and for the tiny white wood-nymph, _Moneses uniflora_, all of them heaths. Kinnikinnick, _Arctostaphylos uva-ursi_, is a heath of prostrate growth habit quite common on mountain slopes. Bright red berries remain among its evergreen leaves until Christmas.

Primrose Family Brook Primrose, _Primula parryi_, GRAY

Individual flowers, almost ½ inch across, are formed of 5 brilliant, crimson, spreading corolla lobes which join at their base into a narrow tube; dark shadings and yellow markings at the throat of the tube give the effect of a round eye. A dozen or more flowers, each on a nodding pedicel, are clustered at the top of a stout dark stem which rises from a whorl of deep-green, broad, lance-shaped leaves. Plant is about 10 to 20 inches tall. Grows in sub-alpine zone or slightly higher. Blooms June-early July.

This spectacular primrose grows at the edge of cold streams, or often on rocky-mossy hillocks right in mid-stream. One never forgets the picture of their beauty—the flower clusters so rich in color, the alpine background, the mat of moss and deep green leaves. Too bad for such a plant to spoil any part of it with a most disagreeable fragrance, yet that does remove any temptation to take them home. On the higher tundras, a charming find is the tiny fairy primrose, _Primula angustifolia_, similar in color, though not so vivid. A single short-stemmed flower is usually all that this plant carries.

Primrose Family Shooting Star, _Dodecatheon radicatum_, GREENE

Individual flowers, ¾ inch across, are formed of 5 crimson, rather narrow, petals or corolla lobes which flare outward and backward, but unite at their base into a short tube. From this tube 5 conspicuous anthers, over ¼ inch long, grouped together like a sharp straight beak, protrude forward. Ten or more flowers, each on a slender pedicel, nod in a cluster at the top of a stout scape which rises 10 to 15 inches high from a basal mat of dark-green, oblong leaves. Grows along streams and in wet meadows, in montane and sub-alpine zones. Blooms June-early July.

Both the coloring and the shape of this little flower are fancy indeed. It is small wonder that such names as shooting-star and bird-bill have been given it. The crimson of its petals contrasts strongly with its conspicuous almost black “bill,” and between these colors is a little circlet of white, often shaded with yellow markings. A whole meadow of such flowers is a sight well worth a trip to South Park, or to other of our high meadow areas, where shooting-stars can be found in profusion. In blooming season they follow the wild iris and, in turn, they are followed by the low, red lousewort, _Pedicularis crenulata_, all of which can in favorable seasons give fine mass color effects.

Gentian Family Fringed Gentian, _Gentiana elegans_, A. NELS.

Flowers are 2 to 3 inches long, of 4 deep purple-blue petals, fitted together to form a square column for over half their length, then, in sunlight, flaring outward to exhibit fringed tops and upper edges. Each flower is at the end of a stem which bears several pairs of oblong, opposite leaves. Plants are about 12 inches high of several erect stems branching from near the base. Grows in sub-alpine wet meadows. Blooms August-September.

The lush hay meadows of Colorado’s upland parks are bright through the summer with a succession of flowers. Late in the season come the gentians. There are several species of these (we have counted a dozen on a single trip), some of them quite uninteresting, weedy plants. The queen of them is the fringed gentian, growing in abundance along the edge of these high hay meadows, and even persisting in the stubble after haying is past. A few of them last into late September. The flowers close up under cloudy skies, but to find masses of them full-open on a sunny day, when they display their fringed petals and large golden stamens, is a heart-warming experience to be treasured for flowerless days ahead.

Milkweed Family Milkweed, _Asclepias speciosa_, TORR.

Individual flower is a rosy, 5-point, star about ⅜ inch across, at the center of which is a group of 5 small appendages curving inward and forming a crown around the style and stamens. Numerous flowers cluster together into a ball about 3 inches in diameter. Plants are about 3 feet tall with thick broad leaves, the flower clusters borne at the top of the stem and in axils of upper leaves. Grows on plains, especially along ditch banks. Blooms June-July.

The common weeds are too often taken for granted and not appraised for their real beauty. This milkweed is in such a group—a coarse-growing plant along country roads, often dust covered, yet with flowers of fine delicate color and real charm whether we examine them singly or fix our attention on the compact cluster in which they grow. As autumn comes the dry leaves do not drop, but cling to the stem, rattling in the wind. The rough seed pods, often four inches long, turn a rich brown, and finally split open revealing a filling of lustrous, silky, down from which is gradually released the seeds—brown-clad paratroopers with the most airy-fairy parachutes in the world.

Morning-glory Family Bush Morning-glory, _Ipomoea leptophylla_, TORR.

The flowers, shaped like pink trumpets with maroon striations, 3 inches long and 2 inches across the mouth, are scattered freely along the outer third of the stout yellowish stems which form a thick bush 2 feet or more high. New buds coming out each day keep the plant in bloom for the morning hours of several weeks. Leaves are narrow and linear, 2 inches long; the root is large and spongy. Grows in sandy soil on plains. Blooms July.

This morning-glory is no clinging vine, even though its flowers—like those of its cultivated relative on the back yard fence—do open only in the coolness of dawn and wither in the heat of noon. For all the sturdiness of individual plants, with their roots going “clear to China,” they do not seem to multiply rapidly and colonies of them may be miles apart. There are some fine bushes on the sandy hills along the Denver-Parker road, but the colony is becoming smaller rather than expanding. The common bindweed, _Convolvulus arvenis_, is a member of this same family. Its ability to spread rapidly along roads and into cultivated fields makes it a serious pest.

Waterleaf Family Purple Fringe, _Phacelia sericea_, GRAY

Numerous purple flowers, each ¼ inch in diameter, crowd at and near the top of an erect hairy stem, making a cylindrical flower spike 3 inches or more in length. The 5 stamens of each flower are tipped with bright golden anthers and stick out farther than the petals, giving the effect of gold-headed pins radiating from a purple cushion. Plant is 6 to 12 inches tall of several leafy stems from a woody crown, the leaves divided into numerous narrow lobes. Grows in rather dry soil, montane to sub-alpine zones. Blooms May-July.

Many other species of _Phacelia_ live in desert places where we have learned to know and admire them, but our first acquaintance—and last love—is this purple fringe of the montane zone. Its color is deeper, more velvety, and the pollen of its anthers brighter gold than most of its desert brethren can boast. It keeps, however, considerable tolerance for dry places, so that fresh road-fills are gay with it. The mountaineer who views his flowers only from a car has no excuse for not knowing this one.

Borage Family Alpine Forget-me-not, _Eritrichium elongatum_, JOHNSTON

Flowers, ⅜ inch in diameter, are formed of deep-blue (occasionally white) petals, spreading into a little flat disc and joining at their base into a short tube. Minute golden crests in the throat of this corolla tube, often bordered by white, give the effect of a central eye. Plant is formed of a tough woody root crown bearing several very short leafy shoots with flower clusters at the top. Entire plant is compact, covered with short silky hairs, and rarely 3 inches high. Grows on flat spots between rocks in alpine zone extending clear to peak summits. Blooms late June-early July.

The plant “association” pictured above is such as we find on Trail Ridge. It has bright lichen, sedum, polemonium and alpine forget-me-not—the kind of miniature garden that makes high altitude flower hunting so much fun. The woody base of the forget-me-not is built to stand the cold of long winters. The flowers—tiny and delicate for so rugged a habitat—are of heaven’s own blue. Their exquisite perfume is elusive. Only once have we found them in such abundance that the fragrance called out to tell us where they were hiding. Their range is wide, however, and in the short blossoming season there is a good chance of finding a few on the slopes of any of our high peaks.

Phlox Family Sky Pilot, _Polemonium viscosum_, NUTT.

Numerous violet-blue flowers, each about ½ inch across, of 5 rounded corolla lobes joining in a funnel-like tube, are clustered into a head about 2½ inches in diameter, which nods slightly on its erect stem. Plants are about 8 inches high, with numerous bright-green, pinnate leaves cut into many narrow leaflets. The leaves may be erect or may interweave somewhat at the base of a close group of several plants. Grows in rocky places, alpine zone. Blooms late June-early July.

The sky pilot, growing among rocks up where the sky seems very near, reflects its blue and so is supposed to direct our thoughts upward. This same feeling is embodied in the name of another species of _Polemonium_, Jacobs ladder, _Polemonium pulcherrimum_, the staggered leaves of which may represent the steps by which we climb. Sky pilot seems very much affected by the particular season. In a dry summer, it is straggly and manages to produce only a few blooms of faded blue. In a good year, large clumps of sturdy erect plants make patches of deep color, accented by their golden stamens. The leaves have a strong, offensive odor, but the flowers are honey sweet.

Phlox Family Scarlet Gilia, _Gilia aggregata_, SPRENG.

Individual flower, 1½ inches long, is formed of a slender trumpet-like, bright-scarlet (sometimes coral pink) corolla flaring at the mouth into 5 narrow lobes. Numerous flowers attached by short pedicels, are carried in small groups along one side of the green stem. Plant is about 18-24 inches tall, usually of one main stem, with sometimes a few branches. Leaves are deeply cut into thin linear subdivisions, usually curved. Grows in plains and foothills zones. Blooms June-August.

In many otherwise barren areas, the red gilia or sky rocket plant spreads its blaze of color in large patches or hangs, a single wand of bloom, over the edge of the trail. It keeps blooming through the summer, a few stragglers holding on till Labor Day. In early September we have found them in the Wet Mountain Valley brightening the brown of the autumn grasses. A white species, _Gilia attenuata_, tends to grow at lower elevations—the red higher in the foothills. The pale pink and coral plants are probably hybrids.

Figwort Family Indian Paintbrush, _Castilleja integra_, GRAY

The true flowers are slender, two-lipped tubes of pale or greenish color about 1 inch long. They are surrounded and often completely hidden by the conspicuous, brick-red, modified leaves (bracts) which form a flower-like cluster at the upper ends of the stems. The bract colors in this species vary considerably through several shades of red. Plant is 8-15 inches tall composed of several leafy stems, very tough and woody at their lower ends, rising from a woody root crown. Grows in foothills and higher plains, extending upward through montane zone. Blooms June-July.

In the early summer, this spectacular plant may be seen in the prairie stretches along the highway between Denver and Colorado Springs—or a bit later in the season—literally carpeting the drier areas of South Park. In higher altitudes, particularly in the well-watered vales of Engelmann Spruce, there are other species with bracts of brilliant shades of rose and maroon. In those same high gardens and on above timberline there is a yellow paintbrush. The fortunate flower hunter may even be rewarded by a yellow one tipped with red—or red edged with yellow.

Figwort Family Penstemon, _Penstemon unilateralis_, RYDB.

Individual flower is about ½ inch wide and somewhat longer, formed of a bell-shaped, lavender-blue corolla which flares at its mouth into 5 lobes separated into two groups. Numerous flowers, in groups of 3 or more, are closely arranged along one side of the top half of each stem, several stems rising from a root crown. Plant is 2 feet or more tall, with narrow tapering leaves, opposite each other in pairs. Grows in foothills and montane zones. Blooms late June-July.