Colorado Flowers
Left: Fairy Slipper and May snow. First place winner in Continental Divide Land Trust photo contest, Oct. 2014.
Right: Orange Wallflower. Near Mt. Goliath Natural Area, Mt. Evans Road. An unusual and striking color.
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, Anna Wilson, 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. Other good resources are Wildflowers West and Southwest Colorado Wildflowers.
White Flowers Yellow Flowers Red Flowers Purple Flowers Blue Flowers Brown and Green Flowers Bristlecone Pines
Mushrooms (Boletus rubriceps, Amanita muscaria, Pholiota squarrosa, Gyromitra esculenta, Cantharellus cibarius, Microstoma protractum, Agaricus campestris, and some others)
Some of these appear to me to be rare or at least 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, white and orange wallflowers, white sky pilot, white harebell, globe gilia, telesonix jamesii), others are rare only for me.
Globe gilia, considered rare, exists in Colorado only on high ridges near Hoosier and Boreas Passes.
Checker Lily (Fritillaria atropurpurea), seen once only, in meadow near Boulder Creek.
White elephant heads (seen only once, near Loveland Pass)
White violets, with white spur or blue spur (seen once near Hoosier Pass)
White harebell (seen high in Herman Gulch near Herman Lake)
Early coralroot (seen on Mesa Cortina trail; and Salt Lick Creek)
White forget-me-nots (seen on Mt. Evans, also at Loveland Pass Lakes)
Telesonix jamesii (seen in Staunton State Park)
White sky pilots (seen once only, on the ridge SE of Black Powder Pass)
Nodding saxifrage (seen once only, on the ridge SE of Black Powder Pass)
White larkspur (seen on Meadow Ck Trail, though reported elsewhere)
White checkermallow (seen once only, in Darling Ck., but a sighting in Miners Creek is reported)
Wallflower, orange color variation (seen on Mt. Evans, and many in Staunton State Park)
Wallflower, purple color variation (seen on Casco Peak, Mt. Evans, Mt. Yale)
Wallflower, white color variation (seen once on Casco Peak)
Wallflower, orange-pink color variation (seen once on Casco Peak)
Whiplash saxifrage (yellow, Loveland Pass, west side, high near the first bump, not far from road; north side of Independence Pass, 800 ft up; has been called rare; seen also SE of Black Powder Pass and Hoosier Ridge east)
Kluane poppy (yellow; seen only twice: Hoosier Ridge and near North Mount Massive; also on ridge SE of Black Powder Pass)
Spotted coralroot (white orchid, no chlorophyll, lives off mycelium of Russula mushrooms)
Scree penstemon (purple; seen in quantity below Argentine Pass, east side, on the old trail; also seen W of high reservoir S of Quandary)
Purple avens (seen only once)
Alpine dusty maiden (white; seen in the Loveland Pass area and also on Hoosier Pass West)
Clustered lady slippers (brown; seen only a few times)
White fairy slippers
White lupine
Twisted gentian
Lapland gentian
Chocolate Lily (Fritillaria atropurpurea)
Kluane poppies
Globe gilia
Glacier lilies, by Michael Rogers
Western wallflower, purple color variation.
Western wallflower, rare pink color variation.
Western wallflower, rare orange color variation (Mt Evans)
Calypso, rare white variation
Prairie smoke
Whiplash saxifrage
White sky pilot
White elephant heads.
Mushroom hunting in Colorado is a great activity. 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 rubriceps, Amanita muscaria, Pholiota squarrosa, Gyromitra esculenta, Cantharellus cibarius, Microstoma protractum, others)
Orchids in Summit County (that I have seen; all within a couple miles of Mesa Cortina, except Ladies tresses, seen in Corral Creek, and Twayblade (seen in Herman Gulch):
Fairy slippers
Clustered lady slippers (rare)
Bog orchid
Green bog orchid
Early coralroot
Spotted coralroot
Rattlesnake plantain
Ladies tresses
Heart-leaved twayblade; Listera cordata.