Colorado Columbine – Aquilegia coerule

Family: Ranunculaceae (Buttercup Family)

While many other Columbines are pretty common in the hanging gardens of Zion, the more-alpine blue Colorado Columbine is limited to the north-facing slopes north of Lava Point, and the unusual-for-Zion lush woods with big trees that is found there. In this area, I have seen mostly all-white ones, but also some in the more-iconic form of white inside petals and blue outside petals.

Blooms June through August (? – SWColoradowildflowers.com)

Instances:

Northwoods, Approach to Kolob Canyon, July 27, 2010.

All-white Colorado Columbine near Kolob Creek, July 27, 2010

All-white Colorado Columbine near Kolob Creek, July 27, 2010

The whole plant – Colorado Columbine near Kolob Creek, July 27, 2010

Leaves of the Colorado Columbine near Kolob Creek, July 27, 2010

Springdale Rockdaisy aka Jones Rockdaisy   —    Perityle tenella

Family: Asteraceae

Pretty common in Zion, especially on the sides of a lot of trails. Grows out of crevices in the rock. It is a perennial and has been found in Utah (only the Zion area), Arizona and Nevada.

Here’s some instances:

Tunnel East – June 13, 2011

Springdale Rockdaisy, Tunnel East, June 13, 2011

Riverside Walk – July 11, 2010

Springdale Rockdaisy, Riverside Walk, July 11, 2010

Did a bunch of errands today, which brought me through the Park. So, yeah, why not stop and take a brief walk and maybe a few pics, see what’s blooming on the Parus trail, starting from Canyon Junction and heading south. Being about 7 pm, the sun was already behind the West Temple – good for the heat or lack thereof; not so good for getting good flower pics. So many pics here are… kinda abstract. A hefty breeze did not help – heck I didn’t even BRING the tripod until some nice folks alerted me to a wonderful clump of Claret Cup…

There are two parts, really, to this Zion: Wildflowers project. Part A is to try to get amazing pictures of all the species in Zion NP; and Part B is to record and map out the bloom times and locations of the most prominent species. So even a walk with no quality pictures has value if  it records what is blooming where and when.

See, I’ve got the excuses lined up, ready to go.

To the flora!  Again, not much in bloom. It’s been dry. There is a lot of grass, possibly as a holdover from the last two years which were really good for the grasses. Most Cacti are not blooming yet, even in Zion Canyon.

First, some blue thing. They were all closed up with the wind (I think), but looks like Utah Daisy (Erigeron utahensis). There were quite a few of these. Then some Golden Cryptantha (Cryptantha confertiflora); — not unexpected —  there were a few clumps of this scattered about.  Bunch of Desert Marigold (Baileya multiradiata) around. Also scattered specimens of Desert Globemallow (Sphaeralcea grossulariifolia) about, perhaps less than expected.

The next was a mystery — every good flowerwalk needs a mystery.  In this case berries (fruits) from last season and a few new leaves at the base. I consider this a good test of Derrick’s sleuthing skills…  OK, results are in. Took him 27 minutes — not bad, but not stellar either – he put forth Solanum elaeagnifolium as a likely suspect (some kind of Nightshade, berries toxic).

Perhaps the most prominent flower out on this day was this nice Asteraceae, the Gaillardia (Gaillardia pinnatifida).

But the big find was a nice clump of Claret Cup Cactus (Echinocereus triglochidiatus) which, low to the ground, was unaffected by the wind. A sprint back to the station wagon for the tripod and, a few minutes later, there I was, groveling on the ground, trying to get some images in the fading light.

Back home, a wonderful Samuel Smith Tadcaster Ale and a worthy hunk of Salmon completed a delightful day.

I had been meaning to do a flowerwalk for a couple of weeks, and finally shook free for a day, so I headed up to Kolob Terrace. It has been quite dry the last couple months, and this is my first year studying the bloom after a dry winter. I expect the bloom to be quite a bit less than what it has been the last four years – wet years.

I was not prepared for what I found — what I found was amazing. Places that the last couple of years had been bursting with flora – nothing. I stopped at the Right Fork Trailhead – not a single bloom in sight!  Left Fork Trailhead – same story. Wildcat Canyon Trailhead – a place where I had previously seen 20 species within 50 feet of the parking lot – nothing. Amazing.

I’ve been hunting the elusive Bitterroot (Lewisia brachycalyx) in Zion for a couple year now. I saw ONE plant a couple years ago, near the start of the Subway, but none since. Thus my choice of destination today, but now the question was – would there be anything?

I was here to at least get a short hike in, so I grabbed the camera and decided to walk the trail at least as far as the swamp, where the trail crosses a creek about 3/4 mile in. The trail is in the full sun and it was darn HOT; darn hot at 10 AM even, especially for April! I sauntered up the trail, seeing one scraggly Uinta groundsel and no other blooms. About half a mile in I was feeling quite discouraged until… oh my!… right there on the side of the trail – the Lewisia I had been hunting – and along the trail for the next quarter mile – more and more of the little guys.

I tried a few handhelds and knew they would not do. So, back to the car, drink a pint of water, grab the tripod and some quarters, trot back to the Lewisia place. Start shooting!

One of the problems with these small, close-to-the-ground flowers, is that Tom Jones’ bad back and has to be close to the ground too. So I hunkered down in the sunlight and worked the blooms, bracketing for exposure and depth of field, and amazed to find these beauties out here in plain sight. Growing in with the Bitterroot was a smaller, inconspicuous flower, and I had to work that too. Nearby was a stand of Buttercup I had not seen before – Ranunculus ellipticus – so I worked them too. Funny, seeing exactly 3 species, and them all being new to me. Awesome!

Returning to the trailhead, looking closely, another very tiny flower presented itself – so I tried some of that too, but man, by now it was STEAMIN’ hot, and perhaps did not apply enough patience.

Hopped in the car and drove up to Lava Point to see how the roads were looking up there. There were a few patches of ice still on the road out to the point, but they were melting fast and the road is passable to all but the sportiest of cars. The gate to the West Rim Trailhead road was closed, but not locked – I thought this curious until I realized the snow on that road started about 20 feet down it – yeah, that’s got a couple more weeks to go.

Out to Lava Point and again, not a sign of a flower. A couple toppled old fir trees will require some NPS chainsaw work, but otherwise the road was in fine shape. Nice views from up there. I also drove over to the Oak Creek side of things and roads there are in fine shape. Kolob Creek where it crosses the road seems to be down at a low level of flow – 5 cfs? Hard to tell from there. It really HAS been a dry year.

Back to town, then toward home, with a few stops at the “usual” suspects to see if anything was in bloom. Lower Pine Creek had only a few Zion Milkvetches going, and a Lotus plebeius - New Mexico bird’s-foot trefoil or two. Up at Tunnel East I found a few nice tidbits – this little blue weed that is common on disturbed ground in Springdale, a single-leaf Ash in bloom behind the restroom, and a new species for me, Miners lettuce (Montia perfoliata). Again, an awkward position and the hot sun prevented me from getting the “money shot”. At least, that’s my excuse and I’m stickin’ with it!

Hard to believe, these kinds of temps in April, in Zion. 97 degrees F in Springdale today – yikes! Could be a very hot, very dry summer, and my expectations for the wildflower season are low – very low.