On the way up to the Mount Evans Summit we stopped at the Dos Chappell Nature Center. Adjacent to it is the Mt. Goliath Natural Area. The following are all from that area.
At first glance some of the area had a cultivated look . . . but later I saw similar arrangements in areas which were obviously untouched by cultivatorists (I love making up words).The trunks certainly looked staged since there were no trees in the immediate vicinity.A map of the area.A legend of the flowers in bloom.Of course, the first ones I photograph are not listed. Other sources tell me it’s a Rose Crown flower.This looked to be a natural spring, but for all I know there’s a pump buried under those rocks. Or the drain from the bathroom of the visitor’s building. . . . it tasted OK . . .Giving a shot at B&WI like the combination of small pines, flowers, and the rock protecting them.Old Man of the Mountain. These flowers are very showy, and always face East. . . . except that one guy who is facing Alpha Centauri.Very nice and delicate flowers, these are Fendler Sandwort Flowers.I think these are James’ Wild Buckwheat Flowers . . . unfortunately, the bug made me zoom in a lot, so I can’t see the plant very well to confirm the identification. Damn bug!More yellow flowers . . . I’m naming these Golden Aster Villosa Flowers. . . . Damn! . . . someone beat me to it.Could not find these rascals anywhere, so I will name them myself . . . Campana Viola Mucho Bunch.Cirsium scopulorum, also called: Frosty ball, alpine thistle, wolly thistle. Thanks Ann, my sister, for finding it.Did I mention I was in the mood to try different treatments?
Now, it is true they are subtle variations (for instance, I did not change the colors much), but they are treatments nonetheless.
The Purple Fringe Flower . . .
. . . how imaginative . . . I would have named it Exploding Purple Cone of Doom.
Dusky Beardtongue Flowers and some Alpine Daisy flowers.
OK, I can’t beat Beardtongue . . . but it gives me ideas for future namings. Look for Morose Mustache Mucus, and Jumping Earhair Lobes.
Yellow Stonecrop flowers . . . aptly named, but to me they look orange. But yes, the flower is yellow.
There are more shots of Stonecrop plants in the gallery than any other flower.
. . . I can see the remnants of the Purple Fringe Flowers, Phacelia sericea. I’m making the call . . . Prurple Fringe Flower.I do love the color and shape of the plant and flower . . . why I photographed them more than others.I think these are also Rose Crown flowers . . . not to be confused with Queen’s Crown or King’s Crown flowers. Well, they might be Queen’s Crown . . . so I guess they could be confused.My buddy! Stonecrop! (always have to be careful how I say and spell that).More James Wild Buckwheat Flowers . . . I guess James sowed lots of his wild buckwheat.Various flowers and Mr. “I’m all twisted” Log.
Twisted Log . . . great name for a politician. Describes both character and function.
The blue-purple flowers are (likely) Rydberg Penstemon Flowers, but the ones that are still closed I could not identify (I will have to get me a couple of books on wildflowers). And, of course, some Stonecrop mixed in there.At first I thought these were Alpine Wallflowers, but on closer examination I think they are Western Wallflowers. Regardless, I like their colors.A shot of the setting . . .And a close-up of the flower . . . I do love me some close-ups.Ah, the Indian Paintbrush . . . I know it well.
What I don’t know, is the name of the flowers in the foreground. They might be anemic Indian Paintbrush, but I cannot say for sure.
Artistic interpretation.Yes, more Stonecrop. Get over it.A close-up of an Alpine Daisy.This looks to me as the offspring of Common Mozaic Bronspots fungi and Chewedious BubbleeGomma.
It’s common to name offspring after the grandparents, but since I don’t know them, I will name it . . . Perrious TankTop.
The cycle of life . . . upon mating, Common Mozaic Bronspots fungi and Chewedious BubbleeGomma remain conjoined, and are used as food source by Perrious Tanktop until nothing remains but a dark waste-substance.
Pre-American-Indian cultures used these blackened chunks to make a diarrhetic to counter the effect of eating mostly pine cones and pine bark. They would take these pieces, soften them by chewing on them for a few days, and then fashion them into suppository pellets.
Bullets not having been invented yet, suppositories back then did not have their current familiar shape, but worked pretty well anyway in their round shape . . . unless one laughed real hard, in which case they would be prematurely ejected.
You learn something new every day.
Once Perrious Tanktop leaves the area, not much of the waste material remains. What little does remains eventually bleaches, and in a process totally opposite from erosion, integrates with the parent rock material.I nice photo if I say so myself . . .Another artistic rendition, this time of the Dusky Beardtongue Flowers.More Alpine Daisy plants. These are trying to move that rock . . . good luck, fellas!It’s only fitting I should end with this flower.
In case people missed it, it’s the flower of the Yellow Stonecrap . . . Doh!! . . . I knew I would eventually do that! . . . Yellow StonecrOp plant
The SmugMug gallery can be reached by clicking HERE. It has a similar narrative, only expanded because there are more photos.
Note: to those who may click on “like”, or rate the post; if you do not personally hear from me, know that I am sincerely appreciative, and I thank you for noticing what I do.
Really enjoyed this post. The flowers are beautiful, and it’s always interesting to see what you do with your pictures. I look much closer at what I see now…. in the garden, anywhere…. after seeing how many ways there are to view a flower, a rock, a tree trunk, even a bee.
And I usually prefer the names you give the flowers and plants…. much better than the names assigned by those stuffy professors!
Thanks. It’s a high compliment indeed to hear I might be affecting the way people look at the world.
. . . although . . . I do wonder sometime if the writing portion ends up misleading people who might not be familiar with my propensity to . . . well, mislead is a strong word. Entertain is a bit kinder.
I wonder if people in other cultures, or people brought up to accept statements made with apparent confidence, take it for granted that what I write is the way things are. I fear many people are not brought up with their critical thinking portions of their brains turned on, and don’t question what they read.
I try to follow a path just this side of total absurdity when I make up stuff, but still . . . there may be someone right now who is gathering lichen to fashion into suppositories.
I was going to add it on the post, but WordPress has been messing me up when I edit a post (losing links, losing captions, etc.).
So, here is a small update; the flowers I called Campana Viola Mucho Bunch have in fact a proper and a scientific name – Whipple’s Penstemon Flowers, Penstemon whippleanus – Too bad that; I liked my name better.
Now THIS is a colorful post! Just love the shot of the natural spring (yup, LOTS of great rocks) and your small pine and flowers in front of that boulder. Can’t even pick a favorite of the flower shots since they’re all excellent but the ones around ROCKS are the best. They absolutely rock! (Yeah, I know, enough already!)
P.S. And here’s what I think is the name of #14 in SmugMug: phacelia heterophylla. Let me know if you concur.
P.S.S. I’ve still got to finish viewing the SmugMug gallery so you might get two more cents from me.
However, it depends which site one looks at. Depending on the angle of the photo, it can look like one or the other. Frankly, I don’t think people know, and just like me make stuff up.
When I typed phacelia heterophylla in Google search I got a series of images and I found one that looks like the one in your photo and so I clicked on the image and got this site http://www.forthall.net (I don’t know how to get the link highlighted). The flower has a common name, Variable-Leaf Scorpion Weed, and if you search under that name you’ll get the above site and others, too. If you do go to the above website you’ll find under the alphabetical listing a whole lot of common names that could very well have been made up by you! It does make one wonder what they were thinking about when they named these plants.
Well, I ain’t no horticulturalist and not a flower expert by any means. The comments have a few links to sources I use, namely http://www.easterncoloradowildflowers.com/.
If you have a question, feel free to ask it here. If I don’t know the answer, I’ll make something up, like I usually do.
I enjoy the color variations in the wallflower and found some purple ones at the top end of the Mt Goliath trail. But I am intrigued by the orange ones. I was thinking of going tomorrow am (Thursday). Can you give a clue where the orange ones might be? On the main trail that rises about 500 ft. in a mile and a half from the Nature Center back to the main road? Somewhere else?
Well, I open the post with the following:
“On the way up to the Mount Evans Summit, we stopped at the Dos Chappell Nature Center. Adjacent to it is the Mt. Goliath Natural Area. The following are all from that area.”
As I remember it, and I’m old so I might not remember too well, the Natural Area is not that big, and it looks semi-cultivated. There is a path that meanders from the building out a bit, and then back. There is also a sign (photographed) that lists all the flowers in the area. Nearly all.
To me, it looks as if they planted all those varieties of flowers, thus making the area somewhat less than “natural”.
As for where particular flowers are located, these are wildflowers. I imagine the individual plants may die off and offspring may be found in various places. Even if that were not the case, it’s been a few years since I was up there, and I did not commit to memory the location of specific flowers.
But, again, all of these are within sight of the building and not that far from it.
OK. Thanks. That is helpful. Another post talks about them being beside the road below the bldg, so I will check out there too. Of course, if they were planted that would be a disappointment, but the comment at the other site indicates they are wild. For a surely rare two-toned wallflower (that I found last week at the upper end of the trail, slightly uphill of the jcn. of the main trail and the Alpine Garden trail; I call it a peppermint wallflower) you can see my pic at the URL below (I have not updated my web page with it yet). Thanks again for comments….
Great day on Evans today. I found three groups of orange wallflowers, but there were none on the trail from the Nature Center. There was a good bunch beside the road, 0.4 mile below the center. And also beside the road near the T-corner junction right at the Echo Lake restaurant. And some beside the road even lower down. At upper end of the main Goliath trail there were some white alpine forget-me-nots, which I had never seen.
You had commented about suspicions about planting, but all the flowers in the nature center are there naturally. Anyway, your blog inspired me to get up there today and I am happy I did……
Glad I inspired someone with something. I did enjoy my time on Mt. Evans, the visit being marred by the fact it coincided with the start of the Waldo Canyon fire (we first saw the smoke plume on our way back home from visiting Mt. Evans). I do have a number of posts regarding the visit, one for the sub-alpine flowers, one for the alpine flowers, one for the critters, and one for the wood (trees).
Always meant to get back up there, but never made again, and now it’s unlikely to ever happen.
Disperser Tracks 
Fascinating!!!
Thank you!
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Thanks for stopping by.
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Really enjoyed this post. The flowers are beautiful, and it’s always interesting to see what you do with your pictures. I look much closer at what I see now…. in the garden, anywhere…. after seeing how many ways there are to view a flower, a rock, a tree trunk, even a bee.
And I usually prefer the names you give the flowers and plants…. much better than the names assigned by those stuffy professors!
LikeLike
Thanks. It’s a high compliment indeed to hear I might be affecting the way people look at the world.
. . . although . . . I do wonder sometime if the writing portion ends up misleading people who might not be familiar with my propensity to . . . well, mislead is a strong word. Entertain is a bit kinder.
I wonder if people in other cultures, or people brought up to accept statements made with apparent confidence, take it for granted that what I write is the way things are. I fear many people are not brought up with their critical thinking portions of their brains turned on, and don’t question what they read.
I try to follow a path just this side of total absurdity when I make up stuff, but still . . . there may be someone right now who is gathering lichen to fashion into suppositories.
LikeLike
I was going to add it on the post, but WordPress has been messing me up when I edit a post (losing links, losing captions, etc.).
So, here is a small update; the flowers I called Campana Viola Mucho Bunch have in fact a proper and a scientific name – Whipple’s Penstemon Flowers, Penstemon whippleanus – Too bad that; I liked my name better.
LikeLike
Now THIS is a colorful post! Just love the shot of the natural spring (yup, LOTS of great rocks) and your small pine and flowers in front of that boulder. Can’t even pick a favorite of the flower shots since they’re all excellent but the ones around ROCKS are the best. They absolutely rock! (Yeah, I know, enough already!)
P.S. And here’s what I think is the name of #14 in SmugMug: phacelia heterophylla. Let me know if you concur.
P.S.S. I’ve still got to finish viewing the SmugMug gallery so you might get two more cents from me.
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Looks more like http://www.easterncoloradowildflowers.com/www/htm/Phacelia%20alba.htm
except I’m not sure the leaves look the same.
The heterophylla looks like this:
http://www.easterncoloradowildflowers.com/www/htm/Phacelia%20heterophylla.htm
and that does not look quite what I have.
However, it depends which site one looks at. Depending on the angle of the photo, it can look like one or the other. Frankly, I don’t think people know, and just like me make stuff up.
LikeLike
When I typed phacelia heterophylla in Google search I got a series of images and I found one that looks like the one in your photo and so I clicked on the image and got this site http://www.forthall.net (I don’t know how to get the link highlighted). The flower has a common name, Variable-Leaf Scorpion Weed, and if you search under that name you’ll get the above site and others, too. If you do go to the above website you’ll find under the alphabetical listing a whole lot of common names that could very well have been made up by you! It does make one wonder what they were thinking about when they named these plants.
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Links highlight automatically. As for the name, Scorpionweed covers all of them.
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Wonderful flowers, Disperser. I bet you loved them all (I know your soft spot). And lovely photos. Great post.
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Thanks.
. . . as I age I find I have more and more sore sports . . . oh . . . soft . . . nevermind.
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Beautiful flowers, Emilio…and entertaining narrative…always a pleasant visit.
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Happy to provide some entertainment . . .
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I have a flower related question for you. Can I send an email? Where?
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Well, I ain’t no horticulturalist and not a flower expert by any means. The comments have a few links to sources I use, namely http://www.easterncoloradowildflowers.com/.
If you have a question, feel free to ask it here. If I don’t know the answer, I’ll make something up, like I usually do.
LikeLike
I enjoy the color variations in the wallflower and found some purple ones at the top end of the Mt Goliath trail. But I am intrigued by the orange ones. I was thinking of going tomorrow am (Thursday). Can you give a clue where the orange ones might be? On the main trail that rises about 500 ft. in a mile and a half from the Nature Center back to the main road? Somewhere else?
Stan Wagon, Silverthorne
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Well, I open the post with the following:
“On the way up to the Mount Evans Summit, we stopped at the Dos Chappell Nature Center. Adjacent to it is the Mt. Goliath Natural Area. The following are all from that area.”
As I remember it, and I’m old so I might not remember too well, the Natural Area is not that big, and it looks semi-cultivated. There is a path that meanders from the building out a bit, and then back. There is also a sign (photographed) that lists all the flowers in the area. Nearly all.
To me, it looks as if they planted all those varieties of flowers, thus making the area somewhat less than “natural”.
As for where particular flowers are located, these are wildflowers. I imagine the individual plants may die off and offspring may be found in various places. Even if that were not the case, it’s been a few years since I was up there, and I did not commit to memory the location of specific flowers.
But, again, all of these are within sight of the building and not that far from it.
LikeLike
OK. Thanks. That is helpful. Another post talks about them being beside the road below the bldg, so I will check out there too. Of course, if they were planted that would be a disappointment, but the comment at the other site indicates they are wild. For a surely rare two-toned wallflower (that I found last week at the upper end of the trail, slightly uphill of the jcn. of the main trail and the Alpine Garden trail; I call it a peppermint wallflower) you can see my pic at the URL below (I have not updated my web page with it yet). Thanks again for comments….
LikeLike
Great day on Evans today. I found three groups of orange wallflowers, but there were none on the trail from the Nature Center. There was a good bunch beside the road, 0.4 mile below the center. And also beside the road near the T-corner junction right at the Echo Lake restaurant. And some beside the road even lower down. At upper end of the main Goliath trail there were some white alpine forget-me-nots, which I had never seen.
You had commented about suspicions about planting, but all the flowers in the nature center are there naturally. Anyway, your blog inspired me to get up there today and I am happy I did……
LikeLike
Glad I inspired someone with something. I did enjoy my time on Mt. Evans, the visit being marred by the fact it coincided with the start of the Waldo Canyon fire (we first saw the smoke plume on our way back home from visiting Mt. Evans). I do have a number of posts regarding the visit, one for the sub-alpine flowers, one for the alpine flowers, one for the critters, and one for the wood (trees).
Always meant to get back up there, but never made again, and now it’s unlikely to ever happen.
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Wow: Your blog takes my URL and inserts the photo. Nice!
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That’s actually new; I don’t remember it ever doing it before. Unless, you used a URL from the WordPress Media library. I think those always work.
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