Wildflowers at 70 MPH: Montana Blues

My wife and I moved from Boulder, Colorado to the southern coast of Washington during the first week of May, but we didn't just move, we took a vacation. The first leg of our trip took us from the high plateau to Devil's Tower, Wyoming. We really didn't know what to expect as far as wildflowers were concerned; we had seen a small variety of them during April around the bottom of the Rocky Mts. And we were surprised and pleased to find a few more around Devils' Tower. But now we were on our way to Yellowstone, driving across Wyoming and up into Montana ... the eastern entrance to Yellowstone wasn't open for the season yet.

There didn't seem to be a whole lot along the interstates, just a few odds and ends, but at some point, in Montana, we began to spot the color blue in the form of lupine. After so many lupines in California during the previous spring and summer, who would have thought it possible that I might see still more new species? Well, I did, and here it was, Silky Lupine (Lupinus sericeus). (It would prove to be but the first of several new species I would encounter in the Pacific Northwest, including an endangered species in Oregon, but we'll get to that by and by.)

After seeing it here and there, I finally pulled over onto the shoulder of the highway, jumped out, and had a look. This was clearly a new lupine; I knew this because of the slender leaflets, which were nearly as thin as those of Spider Lupine (L. benthamii), but not quite as slender. What I had here was something brand new to me, and my, ahem, fans know how intoxicating a I find lupines, particularly new lupines.

Silky Lupine is found east of the Cascades, from southern British Columbia down into California, and eastward to the Rocky Mts. and south into New Mexico. In Washington, where I would soon get a gluttonous dose of it, Silky Lupine is the predominant lupine in the ponderosa pine and sagebrush ecosystem.

It grows to about three feet in height, its flowers range in color from blue to lavender, and the stems and leaves are covered with silky-white hairs. These give the plants a gray or silvery look. (Yeah, I did wonder if this wasn't just more Silver Lupine (L. argenteus. It wasn't.)

Yippee! A new lupine!!

But these weren't the only blue wildflowers we were spotting; there

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