spike

Showing 13–24 of 43 results

  • Chenopodium album / lamb’s quarters

    • green, nobbly inflorescence - many nob-like flowers
    • leaves grey-green, more or less triangular
    • leaves may feel cool to the touch
    • widespread weed, especially in disturbed habitats

  • Dactylis glomerata / orchardgrass

    • perennial bunchgrass
    • branched inflorescence with lowest branch well below the others
    • spikelets wedge-shaped, flattened in tight clusters
    • florets green to red/purple tinged; grey-brown when seeds mature
    • introduced and widespread, but not in wet areas

  • Delphinium bicolor / low larkspur

    • short plant with a spike of purple flowers
    • individual flowers have a pronounced spur out the back
    • leaves are few, round, deeply lobed, about the size of a quarter
    • widespread throughout the valley and on the hills
    • appears and blooms soon after snowmelt

  • Delphinium nuttallianum / upland larkspur

    • Bright blue flowers, sometimes whitish or other color petals in center
    • One or several flowers per stalk
    • Long spur "behind" the flower
    • Leaves mostly low on the stem - divided into several or many lobes
    • Open meadows, near streams, with sagebrush, any elevation
    • Beginning soon after snowmelt and sometime persisting into September

  • Elymus trachycaulus / slender wheatgrass

    • cool season bunchgrass; no rhizomes
    • flower spikes very narrow and linear; overlapping spikelets tightly pressed to stem
    • flat, medium-width leaves; somewhat bluish
    • beautifully straw colored in fall
    • common but rarely abundant; many habitats

  • Eriophorum angustifolium / narrow-leaved cottongrass

    • limited to bogs/fens with standing water
    • "just a pointy-leaved plant" until the fruit develops
    • fruits are big white, cotton-like tufts

  • Erythranthe guttata / seep monkeyflower

    • yellow flowers with red spots in clumps of 5 or more
    • flowers large for the plant, but otherwise "normal" size
    • two "lips" - lower lip larger than upper, each with 2 petals
    • found in wetlands of all kinds

  • Goodyera oblongifolia / western rattlesnake plantain

    • basal rosette of blue-green leaves with a white midvein
    • single, leafless inflorescence stem
    • greenish-white, stalkless flowers, often in a spiral
    • the flowers have a hood, a short, pouch-like lip, and 2 flaring sepals
    • usually found on the floor of coniferous forests

  • Hackelia spp. / stickseeds in general

    • very small blue flowers
    • inflorescence elongates with single flower at top
    • more and more branches through the season
    • nasty stickseed fruits mature below apex

  • Hordeum jubatum / foxtail barley

    • attractive roadside grass
    • long, silky, glistening awns; red, green, purple-ish
    • awns and bracts are sharp and barbed... potentially dangerous to dogs

  • Huechera cylindrica / coral bells

    • oval-shaped leaves growing in clumps/tufts - all basal
    • leaf edges with small lobes or teeth
    • teeny pale yellow, creamy, green or pink flowers on a leafless stem
    • flowers more dense at top of spike than lower down
    • in woods, on cliff-side ledges, rocky slopes and subalpine meadows

  • Koeleria macrantha / Prairie Junegrass

    • short, tuft-forming bunchgrass
    • leaves short and basal with raised veins
    • grows in early spring; flowers in June/July
    • spike-like cylindrical inflorescence, 2-5" long, tan or purple
    • scattered distributions, esp. in rocky or sandy forests or plains

Showing 13–24 of 43 results