Flowers in the Weminuche [AAW05]

These flower pics are from various images collected during a week of walking in the Weminuche Wilderness. It was late summer with heavy frost most mornings so these were definitely the last of the season flowers.

I really enjoy alpine flowers. There have been several times in my life when I have happened upon their amazing display of color and form and lost myself in their glory. But, I am not so studious as to have the family, genus and species (although sometimes the common name!) in the front of my memory. Add to that the fact that recent changes in nomenclature have generally confused me. Consider the daisy. It used to belong to the family Compositae. One of the members of that family used to be the aster. Now that family is called the Asteraceae. I still like the mostly accurate term daisy. So anything daisy-like and probably a member of the Asteraceae I call a daisy. If Im not sure, I call it a "yellow flower" or a "white flower" or whatever. I do sometimes recognize members of the Roasceae family. And a few others too.

The following were photographed (as credited) during the last few days of August and the first few days of September 2014.

So, starting off with the fungus equivalent of a flower. Not sure what species of mushroom this is, but it looks like it would be delicious after a few minutes in a pan with some butter. Of course I never harvest mushrooms in the wild. I only obtain them from the local mushroom monger. I am boring.

Unknown mushroom 1. Photo credit T. Ramsden.

Here's a yellow flower. If anyone knows what it is, please let me know in the comments.

Unknown yellow flower 1. Photo credit T. Ramsden.

This one I can identify. I think. Shrubby cinquefoil (Pentaphylloides floribunda).

Shrubby cinquefoil (Pentaphylloides floribunda). Photo credit T. Ramsden.

Another stumper. Pretty though.

Unknown yellow flower 2. Photo credit T. Ramsden.

Not to get specific (literally), but this is a clover of some variety.

This flower is fairly common and the name always makes me wince: Black-eyed Susan. I hope that the "black-eyed" part of the common name actually refers to the iris of the eye and not a bruise.

Black-eyed Susan (Rudbeckia hirta). Photo credit T. Ramsden.

The Common Harebell is fairly common and always makes me think of a cat coughing up a hair ball. The flower is much prettier than the image generated by my deranged brain.

Common Harebell (Campanula rotumndifolia). Photo credit T. Ramsden.

Now this is truly a beauty. We saw a few different species of Gentian, but this one was my favorite of the bunch.

Fringed Gentian (Gentianopsis thermalis). Photo credit T. Ramsden.

Fireweed is a fairly common flower - in the east and the west.

And this is always an amazing flower to me. Its name attests to the power of pareidolia in the human brain. Each individual flower on the stalk looks just like an elephant head. Well, not just like an elephant head. But remarkably similar. Actually not that similar. Hence the strangeness of pareidolia and the human brain's propensity for fantasy.

Elephant Flowers (Pedicularis groenlandica). Photo credit T. Ramsden.

Asters!

And lastly in this folio of flowers I have to include a fruit, because, really what's the point of a flower if not a fruit.

Wild Strawberry (Fragraria virginiana glauca).

Flowering plants (aka Angiosperms) developed sometime between 130-250 million years before present (YBP)[1]. The first land plants diverged around 450 million YBP[1]. And the common ancestor between plants and animals existed somewhere around 1.6 billion YBP[2].

We share a significant chunk of our DNA with plants[3]. They are our cousins.

It is always good to enjoy time with family.

[1] Flowering Plants: http://eol.org/info/450

[2] Green algae—the nexus of plant/animal ancestry: https://carnegiescience.edu/news/green_algae_nexus_plant_animal_ancestry

[3] Genes are us. And them.: http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2013/07/125-explore/shared-genes