highly visible

Showing 13–24 of 67 results

  • Castilleja spp. / two yellow paintbrushes

    • look like Indian paintbrushes (which they are), but yellow
    • inflorescence bracts possibly lobed
    • height ranges from less than 8" to about 15"
    • subalpine, alpine and tundra habitats, in clumps or spread out
    • linear leaves without lobes, 3 prominent veins
    • red to maroon, hairy stems

  • Ceanothus velutinus / snowbrush

    • waist-high, exposed evergreen shrub
    • aromatic in hot weather or when leaves are crushed
    • shiny (sticky) green leaves, ca. 3"; 3 prominent veins
    • 4" clusters of teeny white/cream flowers
    • in disturbed areas, particularly burned areas

  • Chamerion angustifolium / fireweed

    • bright pink flowers on tall inflorescence (raceme)
    • flowers mature from bottom to top
    • four petals
    • spiral leaf arrangement - lance-shaped leaves have smooth edges
    • pod-like seed capsule releases seeds to the wind

  • Cicuta douglasii / water hemlock

    • HIGHLY TOXIC
    • primarily on continuously wet soils, e.g. ditches, stream banks, pond margins, marshes.
    • white compound umbel inflorescence typical of the Apiaceae/Umbelliferae
    • multiply compound leaves with prominent veins ending in notches between lobes

  • Cirsium vulgare / bull thistle

    • very nasty spines all over, including stems
    • purple flower head over pear/egg-shaped narrow, spiny bracts
    • fruits are thistle-downy
    • disturbed areas, but also forest gaps, stream sides and seeps

  • Claytonia lanceolata / lanceleaf spring beauty

    • small, very early spring, ephemeral
    • 5 white or pink-ish petals with pink/purple stripes
    • pair of opposite leaves at mid-stem; lanceolate

  • Cornus sericea / red osier dogwood

    • shrub with opposite branching and red bark, brightest in fall/winter
    • common along streams especially
    • small white flowers, 4 petals, in clusters
    • white or blue-ish white berries in fall
    • opposite leaves with parallel veins

  • 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

  • Delphinium x occidentale / tall larkspur

    • white with blue center, long white spur (tail) out the back
    • flowers on tall racemes, up to 6 feet - more than 50 per stalk
    • highly divided/lobed leaves
    • flowers look a lot like garden larkspurs

  • Dodecatheon pulchellum / shooting star

    • five pink to lavender lobes projecting backwards
    • white or yellow petal bases above a squiggly purple ring
    • anthers joined into a projecting point; stigma projecting past the point
    • snowmelt to early spring
    • wet meadows to sagebrush communities

  • Ericameria nauseosa / rubber rabbitbrush

    • golden-yellow flower heads in profusion
    • small 5-petaled flowers
    • widespread shrub
    • very narrow, linear leaves
    • white sticky sap ("rubber")

  • Erigeron speciosus / aspen fleabane

    • prolific purple-ish flowers with many "petals" and a yellow center
    • forest openings and edges, meadows
    • late blooming - a "fall aster"

Showing 13–24 of 67 results