spring
Showing 13–24 of 141 results
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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
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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
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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
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Balsamorhiza sagittata / arrowleaf balsamroot
- large, bright yellow, sunflower-like blossoms in early spring
- very large, more or less triangular basal leaves
- leaves appear silvery, or grey-green due to leaf hairs
- on open, fairly dry hillsides and ridges, often with sagebrush
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Barbarea vulgaris / yellow rocket
- showy yellow brassica with relatively large flowers
- leaves deeply lobed with larger terminal lobe, smaller toward top of stems
- common on roadsides and waste places in spring
- siliques about an inch long and curving upward, with beaks and pedicels
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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
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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
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Bromus inermis / smooth brome
- clump forming grass but clonally spreading
- erect, leafy
- in winter, leaves curl up (like ribbon)
- florescence is a nodding panicle, standing well above leaves
- spikelets bronze/purple at maturity; anthers yellow
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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!
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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
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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
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Carex spectabilis / showy sedge
- roadsides or in wet and seasonally flooded meadows
- showy inflorescences... yellow (stamens) above white (stigmas) on a purple background
- grass/iris-like leaves up to 2 feet tall
Showing 13–24 of 141 results