Diffuse knapweed (Acosta diffusa)

The Green Mountain Dog Park this morning was very dried up. The 100 degree heat has taken its toll. Diffuse knapweed (Acosta diffusa) and alfalfa (Medicago sativa) are blooming.

 peavine (Lathrys latifolius)

Indian hemp (Apocynum sibiricum)

It's over 100 degrees outside and that has curtailed my long walks for a few days. The alien  peavine (Lathrys latifolius) is blooming everywhere. I also found a lot of Indian hemp (Apocynum sibiricum) blooming last week along Clear creek in Prospect Park in Wheat Ridge. Weber distinguishes this species from A. cannabinum, however USDA PLANTS database has them as the same thing. Because the leaves on the plants I observed did not have petioles, I went with A. sibiricum for identification here.

 Locoweed (Oxytropis lambertii)

Waxflower (Jamesia americana)

Spurless blue columbine (Aquilegia coeruela daileyae)

Cutleaf evening primrose (Oenothera coronopifolia)

Sunday afternoon, Fathers' Day, was a trip to Reynold's Ranch. A lot of the flowers are looking pretty tough right now, probably from the heat and wind. The spurless columbine (Aquilegia coeruela daileyae) is almost done blooming for this year. I only saw 2 of them. There used to be more. Other blooming plants were cutleaf evening primrose (Oenothera coronopifolia), waxflower (Jamesia americana), locoweed (Oxytropis lambertii), wild onion (Allium geyeri), and Polemonium foliosissimum. Other things I saw were bedstraw, a white upine, and blue-eyed grass.



Polemonium foliosissimum.

Winged buckwheat (Pterogonum alatum)

Buckwheat basal rosette

Iris missouriensis

Field of iris

One of Saturday's unkonwn plants is winged buckwheat (Eriogonum alatum or Pterogonum alatum). The basal rosette of leaves and small, yellow flowers were the keys to figuring it out. We took a drive up to South Park to escape the heat in the city. We saw field after field of wild iris (Iris missouriensis), carpeting the wet meadows with purple.

Skunkbush sumac (Rhus aromatica)

Bushy eriogonum (Eriogonum effusum)

wild licorice (Glycyrrhiza lepidota)

musk thistle (Cardus nutans) with ladybugs

Saturday morning dog walk to Rattlesnake Ridge showed us Bushy eriogonum (Eriogonum effusum) with its tiny, white flowers-the first time I've caught this plant in bloom. We also saw wild licorice (Glycyrrhiza lepidota) and musk thistle (Cardus nutans) in full flower. The thistle has a lot of ladybugs on its flowers. Prickly pear (Opuntia macrorhiza) is about to start blooming. Skunkbush sumac (Rhus aromatica trilobata) has set its fruit now. There were a couple of unknown flowers that I need to identify before posting.

American bistort (Bistorta bistortoides)

Shooting star (Dodecatheon pulchellum)

Columbine (Aquilegia coerulea)

Last evening we took a drive up to Bailey and then made a stop at meyers Ranch on the way home. I saw some new bloomers in both places. Meyer's Ranch has shooting stars (Dodecatheon pulchellum), columbine (Aquilegia coerulea), and American bistort (Bistorta bistortoides) blooming now. You can see the leaf sheaths on the bistort, a characteristic of the Polygonaceae family to which it belongs.

The park in Bailey has meadow anemone (Anemonidium canadense), Phacelia alba, and scorpion weed (Phacelia heterophylla) sporting flowers.

Phacelia alba

Meadow anemone (Anemonidium canadense)

Scorpion weed (Phacelia heterophylla)



False indigo (Amorpha fruticosa)

Hoary alyssum (Berteroa incana)

Sunday afternoon trip to the Chatfield State Park dog ponds turned up false indigo (Amorpha fruticosa) in bloom and attracting the attention of a lot of bees. Hoary alyssum (Berteroa incana) was also in full bloom. On the way home, I saw a couple of prickly pear cactus (Opuntia macrorhiza) blooming. I didn't get a picture today.