widespread

Showing 1–12 of 47 results

  • Abies lasiocarpa / subalpine fir

    • narrow, tall, sharply tipped trees
    • cones purple and erect; disintegrate in the fall
    • needles flattened, soft and blunt tipped, brushed upward
    • needles sessile - no petioles or pegs
    • leaf (needle) scars round

  • Agropyron cristatum / crested wheatgrass

    • cool season grass growing in dense tufts
    • easily recognized by planar spike
    • spikelets overlap and are angled with respect to the stem
    • common

  • Alyssum desertorum / desert madwort

    • short crucifer with teeny leaves, no basal rosettes
    • short inflorescence with numerous teeny yellow flowers... short-lived
    • seed capsules mature by mid-July, ca. 40/stalk
    • disturbed sites of any kind
    • often in dense populations

  • Amelanchier alnifolia / serviceberry

    • erect shrub (3-18 ft), common in the Valley
    • usually several trunks
    • compact, fragrant white flower clusters
    • star-like flowers
    • smallish, light-green, oval leaves
    • small, edible blue "berries" by July
    • red/orange fall leaf color

  • Antennaria spp. / pussytoes

    • small clusters of white flowers, often fringed with red
    • flowers look like a cat's toes, sort of
    • newest leaves silvery/hairy
    • exposed, in many different habitats

  • Arctium minus / lesser burdock

    • purple to pink to lavender thistle-like flowers with hooked bracts
    • nasty hooked seed heads
    • very large, heart-shaped leaves
    • found in a wide variety of disturbed areas

  • 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)

  • Blitum nuttallianum / Nuttall’s povertyweed

    • ugly little creeping plant from a central stem
    • arrow-shaped leaves with two prominent lobes, especially on lower leaves
    • teeny clusters of teeny greenish flowers; no petals; in most leaf axils
    • widespread, but usually exposed and weed-like

  • 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

  • Castilleja miniata / scarlet paintbrush

    • bright red, or orange or sometimes yellow bracts that are mistaken for flowers
    • looks like a red feather duster, but only a few inches long
    • generally low, and along streams or roadsides on hills where there is moisture
    • leaves ovoid with prominent veins, no petioles

  • 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

  • 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

Showing 1–12 of 47 results