interesting bits

Showing 1–12 of 100 results

  • Allium schoenoprasum / chives

    • globe-shaped umbels of pink flowers with darker midveins (stripes)
    • hollow, tubular leaves and flower stalks
    • smells like onions
    • grows from bulbs in clumps or sometimes individually
    • wild in wetlands, fens, meadows; cultivated in gardens

  • Anemone multifida / cutleaf windflower

    • usually 5 bi-colored "petals" - esp. pink or white; many stamens
    • leaves deeply cut and re-cut in 3s with rounded or pointed tips
    • stems and lower leaf surfaces usually hairy
    • gone to seed, fruits have a troll-doll look
    • on calcareous ledges, in shallow crevices or rocky outcrops; dry mountain tops or near water

  • Apocynum androsaemifolium / spreading dogbane

    • short and spreading perennial
    • oval leaves with pointed tips, prominent veins
    • clusters of teeny, pink, bell-shaped flowers with recurved petals
    • conspicuous darker pink stripes on inner surface of corolla
    • exudes milky sap when stems or leaves are broken

  • Apocynum cannabinum / common dogbane

    • herbaceous perennial with red stems and long/narrow leaves
    • leaves have prominent veins
    • leaves and stems exude white latex if broken
    • white, bell-shaped flowers held erect in stalked clusters
    • seedpods long, thin and brownish; in pairs
    • often near streams or in moist places

  • Argentina anserina / silverweed

    • silvery, compound leaves on low, creeping stems
    • yellow, 5+ petaled flowers; lots of stamens
    • fens, other wetlands, but also roadsides

  • Artemisia ludoviciana / white sage

    • low, spreading perennial - up to 3 feet tall
    • silvery leaves and stems (hairy)
    • leaves lance shaped, but sometimes lobed
    • shoots die back in winter
    • aromatic

  • Artemisia tridentata / mountain big sagebrush

    • medium-sized grey-green shrub
    • highly aromatic
    • tall, spikey inflorescences with many clusters of invisible flowers
    • limited to drier habitats (not the Valley basin)

  • Astragalus miser / timber milkvetch

    • compound leaves with small, egg-shaped leaflets
    • teeny, pea-like flowers - bicolored but overall blue/purple
    • keel tip is purple and pointed
    • small, hairy seed pods
    • grassland, meadows, and other open communities

  • Astragalus purshii / woollypod milkvetch

    • low growing, silvery, compound leaves; no tendrils
    • magenta (or white) "pea-like" flowers with darker keel petal
    • "congested" inflorescence
    • found in very dry areas, not in shade

  • Balsamorhiza macrophylla / cutleaf balsamroot

    • large, yellow, sunflower-like blossom
    • large, dissected/lobed/compound-looking leaves
    • up to 40" tall
    • roadsides or hillsides with arrowleaf balsamroot and Wyethia

  • Bassia scoparia / burningbush

    • large, annual herb (forb)
    • leaves long-ish and narrow
    • inflorescence a highly branched spike with teeny green/yellow flowers
    • may form huge, invasive colonies
    • whole plant turns red in fall
    • a tumbleweed
    • especially in disturbed areas and wastelands in the Valley

  • Boechera pauciflora / elegant rockcress

    • small, insignificant brassica on rocky soils, with sagebrush
    • rosette of small, hairy, spatulate leaves
    • single flowering stalk, 6" or more tall, covered with clasping, hairy leaves
    • flowers 4-petals, purple (usually) flowers with yellow centers
    • may be seen after snowmelt parasitized with yellow pseudoflowers

Showing 1–12 of 100 results