Colorado Flowers
Calypso after spring snow
The flowers in the Colorado mountains are spectacular. At the links below is a large selection, with some of my favorites shown below on this page. I am grateful to Jane Hendrix, Patricia Taylor, and Marty Richardson for their help in identification. Jane Hendrix's web page has a quite complete collection of photos of flowers in Summit County.
White Flowers Yellow Flowers Red Flowers Purple Flowers Blue Flowers Brown Flowers Bristlecone Pines
Mushrooms (Boletus rex veris, Amanita muscaria, Pholiota squarrosa, Gyromitra esculenta, Cantharellus cibarius)
Some of these appear to me to be rare or unusual in the Colorado mountains, as they are seldom seen. In such a list I would place the following, in order of rarity as far as my observations go. Some are truly rare (e.g., Kluane poppies, white elephant heads, white monkshood), others have been rare only for me.
White elephant heads (seen only once, near Loveland Pass)
Wallflower, purple color variation (seen once)
Kluane poppy (yellow; seen only twice: Hoosier Ridge and near North Mount Massive)
Scree penstemon (purple; seen only at one place, but in quantity there: below Argentine Pass, east side, on the old trail)
Rock clematis (purple; seen only once: my wife Joan Hutchinson spotted it on Lily Pad Lake trail)
Alpine dusty maiden (white; seen only once, Loveland Pass area)
Purple avens (seen only once)
Clustered lady slippers (brown; seen only twice)
Sugar bowl (purple)
White fairy slippers
Bashful ragwort (yellow, seen once)
Kluane poppies
Glacier lilies, by Michael Rogers
Western wallflower, rare color variation.
Calypso, rare white variation
Prairie smoke
Mushroom hunting in Colorado is a great sport. I include here my favorite fungal portraits. In 2010-2011 I curated an exhibit of mushroom paintings by the Russian artist Alexander (Sasha) Viazmensky at Macalester College. Check out his beautiful work at http://www.pelcor.com/mushrooms/SashaMushrooms.html
Mushrooms (Boletus rex veris, Amanita muscaria, Pholiota squarrosa, Gyromitra esculenta, Cantharellus cibarius)
