Saturday, June 27, 2009
They Keep Blooming in Meadow #1
Reggie along RedRock Road in Island Park, Idaho Saturday morning.What a beautiful morning! Reggie and I headed out on foot from RedRock RV Park in Island Park, Idaho for meadow #1 again hoping to find a few new species of wildflowers. Meadow is a bit of a misnomer since it is a combination of meadow and shaded forest. Well, we weren't disappointed in our search for newly blooming plants since our last visit.
A small stand of Spotted Coralroot on the forest floor. The first to catch our eye was the Spotted coralroot. Yesterday I had found the Striped Coralroot up the forest road (about 1/4 mile from this spot). They are very similar plants, being non-photosynthetic and red, but this new one is spotted on the "flower" rather than having stripes. One has to please you, either you like spots or stripes, or maybe both ? It's a little hard to see the shape of the "flower" but you can see the spots easily enough. The flower seems to have brown sepals with a spotted white "tongue" hanging out. Some have a spot of yellow which is most likely the reproductive parts.
Spots on the coralroot give the non-photosynthezing plant it's name.The next newly blooming plant I found was the Cliff drymocallis (Drymocallis pseudorupestris). This is from the Rose family and used to be classified as the "sticky cinquefoil", but was found to belong to another group. This white flowered little plant is easy to recognize with its hairy buds and white to cream flower. This plant can also be found in the sagebrush behind the RV Park later. I noticed that I found this 2 days earlier than I did last year.
Cliff drymocallis
Cliff drymocallis leavesAnother lovely little plant just starting to bloom here is the Wooly sunflower (Eriophyllum lanatum). It's also known as "eriophyllum". It has a lovely yellow/orange flower, like a sunflower. It's part of the aster family. The leaves are covered with fine hairs that give them a wooly look or sliver color. This is another Lewis and Clark first discovery plant!
Wooly sunflower or "eriophyllum"
Wooly sunflower or "eriophyllum"The common Yarrow (Achillea millefolium) is starting to bloom, but not quite yet. It looks very attractive prior to blooming however. Soon it will be all over the place with it's bright white cap of tiny flowers. Yarrow has a lot of medicinal uses due to the chemical alkaloid achilleine present in it.
Yarrow
YarrowAnother flower that is starting to pop up here is the distinctive Slender Cinquefoil (Potentilla gracilis), or at least, one that looks very similar to it. The 5 petaled yellow flower is a tall plant that grows in single stalks.
Slender Cinquefoil
There's always a couple flowers I can't identify yet. I've searched a while for this identification without luck. Eventually I find them out. This is a small plant with a florescence of tiny flowers at the top of the plant. It was sprinkled with dew here.
Unknown plant in meadow #1
I'll leave you with a picture of the Oregon Grape (Berberis repens). We've seen this before, but this red leafed version is particularly beautiful to me. Please come to RedRock RV Park in Island Park, Idaho and see these beautiful flowers for yourself. You might sneak over to Yellowstone National Park while you are here where most of these flowers find a home also.
Slender Cinquefoil There's always a couple flowers I can't identify yet. I've searched a while for this identification without luck. Eventually I find them out. This is a small plant with a florescence of tiny flowers at the top of the plant. It was sprinkled with dew here.
Unknown plant in meadow #1I'll leave you with a picture of the Oregon Grape (Berberis repens). We've seen this before, but this red leafed version is particularly beautiful to me. Please come to RedRock RV Park in Island Park, Idaho and see these beautiful flowers for yourself. You might sneak over to Yellowstone National Park while you are here where most of these flowers find a home also.
# posted by RV Guy @ 4:43 PM 
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