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Tag Archives: Thompsons paintbrush

This month started out unseasonably hot and we worried that the green hills would soon be brown. The weather gods have taken care of that worry. There has been rain most everyday for the last couple of weeks, it seems. Maybe I only remember the wet days and have forgotten that some were sunny? I have gotten used to wearing my rain gear. Yesterday by the time we returned to the car, my shoes sloshed. But still, it was gorgeous – green lush grasses and lots of wildflowers still in bloom. Our dogs enjoyed the temperature and ran and ran and ran.

 

Mary Ann has told me about these delicate flowers that are found along the lower part of the trail

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Geum triflorum also known as prairie smoke or old man’s whiskers

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A large patch of balsamroot

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Old aspen trees

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Frida

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This majestic pine tree is slowly dying

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Aphids on a Lomatium seed head

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Another seed head without aphids on the same plant

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Looking back, to the south. You can see tiny Deadhorse Lake in the distance

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Tiny yellow composites with bitterroot buds surrounding

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Blue penstemon and the yellow composite

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And with a buckwheat

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Same type of buckwheat with tightly closed buds

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Blue gray sky. Green hills. In the foreground, the pale pink spots are all bitterroot about to bloom.

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Frost Lake, known by other names is just one of several lakes that dot these hills

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Grouse droppings

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Thompson’s paintbrush

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This is the height of the wildflower season on our hill. The elevation of our house is about 1850′ and the colors of spring can be fleeting in this arid climate. Yesterday, before the wind came up, I was particularly struck with the beauty and diversity of this dry site’s wildflowers. Last week’s warm weather has been replaced with the more expected breezy and cool weather of spring.

 

Balsamroot, Balsamorhiza sagittata – the signature spring flower of for this valley

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Thompson’s paintbrush (I think), Castilleja thompsonii

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Calochortus sp (sometimes referred to as Cat’s ear)

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Agoseris sp., again I am not sure

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I am pretty sure this is bastard toadflax (not a pretty name for a delicate flower), however where I have seen it before it was more of a salmon color. Comandra umbellata

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Columbia puccoon, Lithospermum ruderale

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Bitterbrush, Purshia tridentata

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Lupine, Lupinus sp

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And another view of balsamroot, looking down-valley to Balky Hill and beyond

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