Wildflowers in the San Juan Mountains
With the help of Petersen's guide to Rocky Mountain flowers and some kibitzing
from Missy, I think I have identified most of the flowers I
photographed.
We also saw flowers that I was unable to photograph for various reasons,
including the fact that we had to keep going on the trail and not stop every few
minutes. I saw one or two Lupine and many kinds of Paintbrush which I did not photograph.
| Unidentified flower, maybe related to the cinquefoil or shrubby
cinquefoil but it has thing leaves. |
 |
| These may be the same as those above, just at a lower elevation. |
 |
| And this is another unknown flower.
Okay I started by photographing unknown or unidentified flowers.
|
 |
| And this is grass...
unidentified also.
|
 |
| These are King's crown, also known as sedum rosea or
Roseroot.
It has a basically flat top.
It is similar to Queen's crown or Rosecrown that has a rounded top.
|
 |
| This is a Little Sunflower.
|
 |
| On the right is a closeup of Larkspur. It is a beautiful purple
flower seen on the hillsides and in many fields.
It is usually tall, 1-4 feet tall.
|
 |
| These are white Engelmann Asters. |
 |
| These Yarrow have feathery leaves and are fairly small. |
 |
| It took a while to identify these flowers. I determined they were a penstemon.
They are called Dark Penstemon and were found in many different places
along our route.
|
 |
| These are Sticky Geraniums, also know as Pink Geranium.
The leaves are very similar to cultivated geraniums.
|
 |
| Cinquefoil
We also saw shrubby cinquefoil in the lower elevations, but I have that
in my front yard, so I didn't take any pictures of it.
|
 |
| I can recognize the wild strawberry plants, even though the white blooms, and all the fruit are long gone this late in the season.
The red runners extend towards the road and in every direction.
|
 |
| This is Purple Fringe or Silky Phacelia. They are generally small in the
alpine zone, larger in lower elevations. It is also known as Scorpionweed.
They look almost fuzzy with the streamers from the blossoms sticking
out.  |
 |
| American Bistort looks like a tuft of cotton, especially in
the higher elevations where most of the plants are very short, and they
float above the landscape like little cotton balls. |
 |
| From a distance the red stems help identify the Parrot's
Beak. |
 |
| These are tiny little flowers, so I set my keys in the
photo.
They are usually found in moist spots.
I haven't found their name. |
 |
| Mountain Bluebell covered many of the fields and grew on the roadside. |
 |
| Mountain Gentian or Blue Gentian. We don't see these very often. These
are beautiful and larger than many of the flowers we saw. Not taller, but
the flower itself is about two inches long/tall. |
 |
| Owl Clover with a Blue Gentian in the foreground. |
 |
| Fireweed was blooming in many different places, along dirt road as well
as highway.
|
 |
| Purple Columbine is Colorado's state flower. We saw a few White
Columbine as well, above timberline.
|
 |
| Loveroot is a member of the Parsley family. (I've always thought this
was Yarrow, but with more detail investigation it is obviously Loveroot.)
It also is related to Poison-hemlock.
|
 |
| Bull Thistle |
 |
| I seem to have more trouble identifying yellow flowers than any others.
I could not figure out what these are from my flower books. |
 |
| I thought I had seen this in my flower book, but the leaves were all
wrong. |
 |
| This picture is blurry, so it doesn't help with flower identification.
Still pretty, though. |
 |
| Tansy Aster
|
 |
| The leaves look like the mint family, the flower composite. I have no
idea what this is nestled among the rocks. |
 |
| White Paintbrush |
 |
| Moss Campion is very short but spreads along the ground as a ground
cover. |
 |
| Pink Clover |
 |
| These are about four feet tall with very large, broad leaves. They are
more often in marshy areas, sometimes in moist fields. |
 |
| I don't know what the flowers look like, but the berry fruit sure looks
appealing. |
 |
| Harebell also known as Mountain Bellflower |
 |
 |
Field of flowers with Larkspur, Mountain Bluebells and yellow flowers
and white flowers. |
Four-wheeling and camping Silverton trip July 2006
