May Sunshine

We are so fortunate to have the Lone Pine trail as a community resource!  Today (and most days) the trail is used by a variety of people:  folks walking/biking/running for exercise,  friends out for a stroll and conversation, girls were sitting in the sun at the top and visiting, the cross-country team was running the trail, moms were out with children, people walk their dogs there.  And I hardly ever see any trash!

It has continued to be warm and sunny this week, so the plants are moving right along.  The 'slippers are still slipping, the 'bells are still ringing, the 'stars are still shooting, the balsam is still rooting (?that one doesn't quite work)  and now the bugs are biting!  The arnica and oregon grape is ready to burst open, and when they do the forest floor will be a dappled carpet of green and yellow.

This Arnica will be a yellow carpet when it all flowers!

Heart-leaf Arnica

Low Oregon Grape

Balsamroot continuing to emerge.

The "arrow" in Arrow-leaf Balsamroot!

My little nest of sleepy fairyslippers is finally waking up!  Today I counted 16 flowers there, and 67 fairyslippers in all along the trail!

This is a different clump of Fairyslipper, that just looked so lovely in the sunshine!

There was some Larkspur open at the top in the sunshine, and more is on the way.

The saxifrage flowers were open today.  I posted a photo of the buds on May 6.

This is stoneseed or lithospermum with only one first flower on it.  I posted a photo of the buds on April 20th as Mystery #3:

Other newbies that are starting to appear:

False Solomon's Seal

False Solomon's Seal

some variety of Rockcress; very tiny white flowers.

Chokecherry buds

Fairies in the Forest!

What a gorgeous day we had today!!  Bright sun, no clouds, temps into the 70's; it was wonderful!  A trip to Lone Pine after school was a definite must, and I wasn't disappointed!

The flowers of the day were Fairyslippers and Fairybells!  Several clumps of Fairyslipper orchids were open.  Only one spot isn't open yet (the one I checked on my birthday!); it is in a little sheltered hollow and shaded; the others have more access to sunshine.  I counted at least 35 orchids, not counting all the unopened buds.

There were 12 in this nest alone!

Brand newbies!

The color in this bunch was amazing!

These may have been opened longer to get all the spots.

There were other fairies in the forest as well; these little white charmers are called Fairybell.  It will form a berry later this summer.

The shooting stars and yellowbells still dominate the top area of Lone Pine, but other lovelies are emerging as well. 

This brave little yellowbell is coming up through a big mess of forest litter!

There is a flowering tree (I'll have to find out what).

I could only find one or two prairiesmoke blooms, but many more are on the way.

 This is start of Arrow-leaf Balsamroot; the leaves really do come up like arrows!

I saw LOTS of Larkspur leaves and a few buds starting up.  This will be a small blue flower in the delphinium family.

 Blue sky above the ski area!

There were a few more surprises in the woods as well.  Low Oregon Grape is all over and mainly in bud stage, but a few were opening in the sunshine.

This is a variety of saxifrage; basal leaves, 5-6 inch stem with little flower buds--I'll have to come back and revisit this one.

This gooseberry blossom had such a lovely shape.

Rocky Mountain Maple:

Sleepy little Clematis getting ready to vine through the woods.

This little teen-tiny is called Blue-Eyed Mary; I included the dandelion for scale!

Bloom Alert! Calypsos!!!

Today was warmer and sunny, and just the day for taking in the full loop at Lone Pine.  And wouldn't you know it...I just didn't go far enough down the trail yesterday!  At 2 other lower spots I found Fairyslippers (Calypso orchids) starting to open up!  The ones I checked yesterday are higher and still tightly closed.

I thought maybe we should add a little perspective here--
the buds are small and you have to know where to look.

My other late birthday treat was when I checked another spot for Pasqueflowers that I had seen last year!  At first I only saw a clump of vegetation and started photographing it, and then there they were, the first blossoms of the year!

Still trying to open.

There are lots of other things emerging into the sunshine--Fairybell:

Arnica:

There are places where the ground is just covered with these.

Lupine

I was thinking about the tiny little ferns I saw yesterday, and again you need some perspective to realize just how tiny they are:

There's nothing like bright yellow buttercups to add sunshine to your day either!  This was an especially pretty clump in the late sun.

May 1st Flower Check

We had a cold windy day for May Day, even though the sun was shining.  I didn't have much time after school to hike, so I just drove up to the top and hiked part way down to check on the Fairyslippers in this one little spot.  I was hoping for a bloom on my birthday! There are lots of sweet little pink buds, but no flowers yet.

Soon, soon, won't be long now!

There are lots of shooting stars and yellowbells at the top though and they were lovely indeed.

Mt. Aeneas, to the east of Kalispell; you can also see the Flathead River
and trees that haven't leafed out yet!  

This fuzzy Flannel Mullen caught my eye, as well as these tiny ferns uncurling from the moss.

Very fuzzy

Hopefully with a few more sunny days we'll have blooms soon!