In my final Montana installment, here are some plants seen at Glacier National Park, June 27-30, 2016.
Beargrass grows up to five feet tall with grass-like leaves and a knob of white flowers on top. As you can see in this poorly lit photo, the beargrass was hard to ignore on the Josephine Lake trail.
At Logan Pass we saw Glacier Lilies that resemble our own Trout Lily.
And at woodland edges, Pink Wintergreen (Thank you, Dianne Machesney, for identifying this for me) …
… plus Sticky Geraniums …
… and Sego Lilies, the state flower of Utah.
The meadows were full of wildflowers.
Paintbrush …
Larkspur …
Blanket flower (I think. Please correct me if I’m wrong!)
and the remnants of Camas flowers that had bloomed in mid-June.
And finally, I marveled at the huge Western Redcedars on the wet, western side of Glacier National Park. They are so much bigger than our cedars back home.
(photos by Kate St. John)
They all are so beautiful! Thank you for sharing.
I think your mystery plant is Pyrola asarifolia. ( Latin for ginger leaf)
Common name: Pink Wintergreen
Wintergreen leaves are high in methyl salicylate, a natural painkiller. They can be applied to wounds as a poultice in an emergency. Mashed up leaves also alleviate insect bites.
Thanks, Dianne!
Nice Job! Most people usually don’t notice the Pink Wintergreens. I don’t think they get the credit they deserve since they’re not as abundant as the other flowers in Glacier.
Thanks for the flower pictures Kate. I love to see flowers from other parts of the country that we don’t have here in the East.
Thanks. Love your photos.