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...next up on our trip from Boulder, Colorado to the coast of Washington was Yellowstone National Park. Like Devil's Tower, and along the interstates before it, we weren't sure what, if any wildflowers we might see there. Geysers? Sure. Stinky, sulfuric fart smells. Without a doubt. Bison? Grizzly bears? We hoped so. But wildflowers? We just didn't know.
As usual, we got to be surprised, and by some special stuff. A patch of deep pink in a dry, gravelly spot near Old Faithful was a new monkeyflower. Just down the road were some new violets and some new dangly lilies. Patches of Shooting Stars and Glacier Lilies waited to be discovered ... and these were just some of the highlights... Violets might not seem like such a big deal, even if they are something new. After all, so many of them look like each other, whether they are white, purple, blue or yellow. Nuttall's Violet (Viola nuttallii) looks like just any other yellow species, and I guess it is just another yellow species. It does, however, rely upon ants to spread its seeds. That makes it more interesting. The seeds of this plant have something called an elaiosome attached to them it. It is a fleshy bit rich in proteins and sugars. When the seeds drop from the plant, foraging ants are attracted to the tasty extra bit; they carry the seeds back to the colonies where they remove the tasty elaiosome. It is eaten by the colony. The seed, which is discarded, has been unharmed by the ants, and is now free to sprout a new violet. The other Yellow violet we found in Yellowstone was something special, or at least definitely different. It was Goosefoot Violet (V. aurea), and had conspicuous grayish leaves, which had pointed tips, making it vaguely similar to a maple leaf. It was a lesson in why you got to get in close to a violet to see what it is; the difference is often in the leaves, but you're not going to see it from a distance. The small dangly lilies were Yellow Bells (Fritillaria pudica); a small, nodding, yellow, bell-shaped flower dangles from the unbranched stem that rises up from the long, linear leaves. These are the kinds of flowers you would expect to be favored by fairies as hat-wear. They grow in grasslands, sagebrush plains, dry hillsides and coniferous forests. They can be found from B.C. to Alberta, the Dakotas, Wyoming, Utah, and northern California. Yellow Bells have edible corms which were used by Native Americans, and are a favorite food of Grizzlies. Go To Page: 1 2 |
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