A Trip Back to Spring

By Eve Reshetnik Brawner

On Saturday, I had the great fortune to participate in a botanical field trip to Wyoming with a small group of rock gardeners – members of the Rocky Mountain chapter of the North
American Rock Garden Society. The exploration was led by the incomparable, world-renowned rock gardener and plantsman, Panayoti Kelaidis, whose knowledge of the high steppe region and alpine plants is encyclopedic.

Our first stop was along highway 287, where we examined the right-of-way strip – one of those places you would never think to look for interesting plants. Most were past bloom, but hiding in plain sight we found ground-hugging, 1/4” high mats of Paronychia sessiliflora (nailwort), Penstemons, Selaginella densa (prairie spikemoss), Senecio cana, and an Erigeron species, as well as blooming ‘buckwheats’ – Eriogonum arcuatum and E. flavum.

Bun plants, Southern WY

Venturing further into the wilds of southern Wyoming, we stopped near a small reservoir popular with fishing enthusiasts. Again, all of the plants were kept to less than knee-height by the wind and aridity, and at this point in summer, most were past bloom.

But Panayoti brought us there to see a remarkable plant community in an undisturbed strip between a fence and a path where cushion plants, what rock gardeners call ‘buns’, abound. This kind of plant community is affectionately known as a ‘bunnery’. There were quite a few different genera and species congregated there, including Eriogonum ovalifolium, Phlox bryoides, Eriogonum acaule, Astragalus spathulatus, Stenotis acaulis, and more. The characteristics these buns share are their very short, ground-hugging stature, tiny, densely-packed leaves, roughly circular form, either flat or domed, and their small to tiny flowers. If we had been there in June, we’d have seen a field of ‘dots’ of many colors. Out of bloom they can be quite difficult to tell apart.

Erythronium grandiflorum, Avalanche Lily

Highway 130, the Snowy Range Scenic Byway brought us to our final and highest elevation stop. Along the road, thousands of violet-purple Whipple’s Penstemon dominated the flora. At about 10,000’ we reached tree-line (in the CO Rockies it’s usually at about 11,00’). And because of the deep winter snowpack, peak alpine ‘spring’ bloom was happening in late July. Beside an alpine tarn, where a sliver of snowpack still persisted, we found bright yellow Avalanche Lilies (Erythronium grandiflorum) still blooming! Close by were fields of yellow Potentilla, intensely blue Mertensia viridis, violet Polemonium viscosum (Sky Pilot) and Penstemon whippleanus, several lavender Erigeron species (Fleabanes), cushions of pink Silene acaulis (Moss Campion), golden Solidago multiradiata (2025 Plant Select), and stunning clumps of Rocky Mountain Columbine! Some of the new-to-me flora in bloom were deep pink Allium brevistylum and white Arenaria congesta.

It was a long but very rewarding day with passionate and knowledgeable plant-lovers, new discoveries, fascinating plants and wonderful scenery. If this sort of outing interests you, you might want to look into becoming a member of the Rocky Mountain Chapter of NARGS. P.S., I take full responsibility for any plant mis-identifications and spelling errors!