The O-Zone

What better thing to do when there is two feet of snow on the ground and more threatening to fall than to look at pictures of wildflowers and try to figure out what they are called.

Last June I ran around in front of our house and took pictures of some of the wildflowers blooming that day. I intended to take pictures all throughout the summer since flowers change regularly, but alas, life interfered. Maybe this coming summer I’ll manage to get pictures of the other flowers which bloom here.

The aspen grove surrounding our house is home to a wide variety of flowering trees and bushes, including Aspen, Service Berry, Choke-cherry, Nine-bark, Snowberry, Wild Rose, and some others I’ve forgotten. There are scattered conifers in the grove, but for the most part it is all deciduous which gives us wonderful layers of colors in the fall.

This flower prefers shade and moist growing conditions, and it is scattered throughout the Aspen grove.

The appearance of this flower makes it obvious that it is a wild orchid. In addition to their very delicate appearance, this particular flower IS extremely delicate. Even touching the deliciously perfumed flower stem lightly can break it, and this will kill the bulb. The plant requires a specific fungi in the soil and transplanting is virtually impossible. So, this plant, though widespread, is becoming endangered.

These beautiful flowers are a wild delphinium and they are poisonous to people and cattle, but not to sheep. Isn’t that an odd thing? I love the color of these flowers. The white flowers in the background are called Small-Flowered Woodland Star, or Fringe Cup. They flower very briefly, fading long before the Larkspur are done.

This plant derives it’s name from the long leaves.

I’m really having a hard time identifying this particular flower as a Trumpet Lungwort, but I am pretty sure I have it right this time. It reminds me of both a pentsemon and a bluebell, but doesn’t look right for either of those two, which leaves the Borage family.

I love the name of these flowers, and the flowers really do feel like soft kitty feet. We have several types of pussytoes around here, but this is the only one that happened to be flowering that day.

This showy flower has a bulb that doesn’t like to be disturbed by the flower being picked. Unfortunately for this plant species, cattle love to eat the flowers, and that kills the plant. They used to be widespread but cattle running around loose has seen a huge decline in this plant. It is another reason we’d like to get our property fenced, to keep the cows out, but it is horribly expensive and so we may not be able to manage it. It is on our wish list though.

This is a primrose family plant, and they are all over the place on our property.

This flower blooms right after the snow melts, and doesn’t last any time at all.

This is another member of the Lily family, and the bulbs for this one are edible, allegedly considered to be one of the tastiest of the edible bulbs.  Frankly, I’d rather see them blooming than eat them.

Wild Strawberry plants carpet large areas of our property.  They do produce tiny and intensely flavored little strawberries.  The competition for these fruits is fierce, and we usually get to eat a few of them over the summer.

There are three violets on our place:  Yellow, blue and white.  They bloom at different times and the only ones blooming that day were the yellow ones.

It has been very interesting going through my wildflower pictures and searching out the names in our various reference books.  I noticed so many pictures of flowers which I know we have on our property but for which I have not yet taken a picture.  How fun!  Something to look forward to.

Spring is now less than three months away, and hummingbirds will be back at the very end of April.  Time flies.