interesting bits

Showing 13–24 of 106 results

  • 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

  • Boechera retrofracta / reflexed rockcress

    • spring blooming crucifer (brassica)
    • white or lavender, pendent, bell-shaped flowers
    • many flowers on a single stalk (raceme)
    • hairy rosette and stem leaves
    • usually in rocky, sagebrush communities

  • Bromus tectorum / cheatgrass

    • short bunchgrass, 2 to 30 in at floweirng
    • panicle with all florets to one side; long awns
    • early season growth, flowering, seed drop
    • florets green, turning purple as seeds mature
    • highly invasive!

  • Calypso bulbosa / eastern fairy-slipper

    • pink/magenta/mauve/purple orchid
    • lighter lower lip highlighted with purple veins; star-like petals and sepals
    • pointy bract behind flower
    • single oval, wrinkled leaf at ground level
    • about 6 inches tall

  • Camassia quamash / small camas

    • immediately visible for its star-shaped blue flowers and yellow anthers
    • flowers borne on a spike-like raceme, opening from the bottom up
    • multiple flowers open at one time
    • leaves are grass-like, growing from a bulb
    • large seed capsules with ca. 30 roundish black seeds, ripe in late summer

  • Capsella bursa-pastoris / shepherd’s purse

    • small crucifer with terminal clusters of teeny white flowers
    • rosette of small, maybe toothed, leaves
    • very distinctive, notched, triangular fruits - like shepherd's "purses"
    • found pretty much anywhere that has/had bare soil

  • Cardamine hirsute / hairy bittercress

    • small brassica/crucifer with compound leaves
    • teeny white, 4 petal flowers with 4 stamens in racemic clumps
    • a widespread weed, including gardens and lawns

  • Castilleja spp. / paintbrushes

    • vibrant, red (or yellow) inflorescence (bracts)
    • widespread, but confusing... five or more species in the area

  • Cerastium arvense / field chickweed

    • Erect or trailing stems, if you can see them amongst the competition
    • Clusters of 1 to many white flowers with 5 deeply cleft petals
    • Petals much longer than the green sepals
    • Opposite, linear, sessile leaves - not very long
    • Cylindrical seed capsules with 10 teeth at top

  • Cercocarpus ledifolius / curl-leaf mountain mahogany

  • Chaenactis douglasii / Douglas dusty maiden

    • leaves "woolly" or hairy; intricately divided
    • leaf and lobe tips curled or twisted
    • flowering stems coated with "cobwebby" hairs
    • flower heads of white/pinkish tubular disk florets in a glandular cup
    • forked styles protrude past tubes
    • often in rocky areas and crevices

  • Chara contraria / Chara

    • plant-like rooted aquatic alga
    • green "stem" with whorls of green "leaves"
    • rough feeling due to carbonate encrustations
    • river bottom but other waters, including stock tanks

Showing 13–24 of 106 results