Thursday, June 27, 2013

Rocky Mountain Wildflowers- Outdoor Hour Challenge June 2013


This months Handbook of Nature Study Newsletter was Wildflowers and Weeds. Living in a new place makes our nature study feel new. We are accustomed to seeing "old friends" when we go out to look at wildflowers and most everything we see is totally unfamiliar! We did find one "old friend" on our wildflower outings- the Indian paintbrush. Purple was the most predominant flower color. We found all the colors, on the Wildflower Color Hunt bookmark from the June newsletter, except light pink. Here is a look at what we found.


 Rocky Mountain Phlox Phlox multiflora
 Yellow Pea Thermopsis rhombifolia
 Unknown
 Vase Flower Clematis hirsutissima
 Subalpine Larkspur Delphinium barbeyi
 Lupine
Indian Paintbrush
Arrowleaf balsamroot Balsamorhiza sagittata

Dusky Beardtongue Penstemon whippleanus 
 Unknown
 Prickly Rose Rosa acicularis
Unknown 
Lupines and Arrowleaf Balsamroot


These were all found very near our home. We still have some work to do on identifying a few flowers. Along with looking at our local flowers, we did take a drive up to Rocky Mountain National Park and saw some very low lying flowers at the Alpine Tundra visitor center. I thought that we got a picture, but have been disappointed that I have not been able to find it. The wind was blowing so hard up there and the temperature was rather chilly, so it is possible that I didn't get a photo. Next time I will be sure to take a picture to share these amazing wildflowers that are able to survive in such a climate.

3 comments:

Barb said...

Wow! You have a lot of gorgeous flowers and so much fun seeing that you were able to identify so many of them. Thank you for sharing your wildflower study with the blog carnival.

Unknown said...

Wow, such beautiful flowers! Different from what we see up here in Wisconsin. Thanks for sharing.

Home Schooler said...

Such beautiful pics! Came over from the OHC newsletter! I could help you with a few of these, but the most interesting of those that you didn't have a name for is the honey suckle - just above the wild rose. I spent hours as a child picking those beautiful little red trumpets and putting the little end to my tongue for the sweetest little drop of honey! Sweet "sweet" memories.