Castilleja integra

Yesterday’s Wildflower Ramble

Monday was a perfect day (except for the smoke) for us to take a wildflower ramble in our favorite foothills open space. I had one particular goal: to find Fringed Puccoon (Lithospermum incisum) in bloom. This is a very small plant with foliage and stature that are anything but charismatic, so searching for it when out of bloom is a lost cause. Even when blooming, the light lemon-yellow flowers are only a half inch across. It’s been many years since I have found any Fringed Puccoon in these meadows, and I was hoping that the generous rains we’ve had this month might have coaxed them out of hiding.

We started by searching the roadside where I had first found them many years ago. After a half hour or so, this began to feel futile, so we went to check out other areas. First, we found Nuttall’s Delphinium (Delphinium nuttallianum) in bigger populations that usual, with intensely deep blue violet flowers. Then, Scutellaria brittonii. Stepping carefully around the almost ubiquitous poison ivy, we also visited clumps of Green Pitaya (Echinocereus viridiflorus), not yet blooming, and Mountain Ball Cactus (Pediocactus simpsonii), already finished blooming.

Iris missouriensis, Native

Across the road, the grassy field didn’t look very promising at first, but as we walked slowly through the meadow, eyes on the ground, we began to see the little treasures – Sand Lilies (Leucocrinum montanum), Spring Parsley (Lomatium orientale), Chiming Bells (Mertensia lanceolata) and Indian Paintbrush (Castilleja integra). Finally, a tiny dot of the right yellow appeared ahead of me, and I had found my first Fringed Puccoon of the outing. So I called out in delight, and Mikl, who had wandered off a short distance, responded a minute later “Here’s another one!”, and then “and another!” All told, we found about eight of them in our rambles, which felt like finding diamonds! And along the way, there were so many other beauties: Wild Iris (Iris missouriensis), Sidebells Penstemon (P. secundiflorus) and Foothills Penstemon (P. virens), Pasque Flower (Pulsatilla patens), Astragalus shortianus, Balsamorrhiza sagittata, Packer sp., another species of Spring Parsley, Golden Banner (Thermopsis montana or divaricarpa), as well as Native Hawthorn (Crataegus succulenta) and Saskatoon Serviceberry (Amelanchier alnifolia) and Boulder Raspberry (Ribes deliciosa). A very satisfying bounty of natural wonder sightings!

Fringed Puccoon