Those are great - all that rain really brings 'em out.

Something to sorta put in the back of your head, if you ever get the opportunity to visit the Utah desert in April/May after a wet winter or wet spring, its crazy with all the flowers. Its something I've read and heard about, but actually seeing it is really something.

Yeah the rain has really made everything so green (and blue, and purple, and yellow, and pink....). Thanks David!

That sounds really cool! One place I have always wanted to visit is Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument in southern Arizona when the cactus are blooming. I think cactus flowers are some of the neatest out there.

Agoseris auranitiaca- Orange agoseris

Astragalus drummondii- Drummond's milkvetch

Oxytropis lambertii- purple locoweed

Tradescantia occidentalis- Western spiderwort

Amerosedum lanceolatum- yellow stonecrop

Erigeron spp.- fleabanes are hard to ID (for me) they all look pretty much alike.

Lupinus argenteus- Silvery lupine

Delphinium nutallianum (syn. nelsonii)- Two lobe larkspur. The color difference in these guys I thought was pretty incredible. One is sky blue, the other deep violet blue.

Scutellaria brittoni- Britton's skullcap

And some more! I told you this one had a lot!

Potentilla spp- cinquefoil, species unknown

Agoseris glauca- Pale agoseris

Lithospermum incisum(?)- Narrow leaved pucoon

NOID

NOID

Hey, these are all yellow! How neat is that!

I love your pics, Zach! Do you already know the names of all these, or are you figuring them out as you see them? Do you ever collect seed if you happen to be there when it's ripe? Love the Penstemon secundiflorus in your first post! Some of the ones you've posted I've never heard of! And, not only can I not tell the Erigerons from each other, sometimes I can't even tell if I'm looking at an Erigeron or an Aster!

If you ever run into something you're trying to ID, this is a REALLY good site to use! But I bet you still won't be able to figure out exactly which Erigeron that is!!!

http://www.swcoloradowildflowers.com/index.htm

Skybird

Okay last post... I think... This one has the bugs! (And I think a bird or two) and two VERY cool flowers, in fact, some of the neatest flowers we have at the park I think!

Papilio zelicaon- anise swallowtail on an Erysimum capitatum (western wallflower).

Cupido amyntula- western tailed blue butterflies (mature content folks, insect porn!)

Bombus spp. gettin down on some mertensia.

Another Bombus spp. on Phacelia heterophylla.

Not so great picture of a blue-grey gnatcatcher.

Spotted towhee

Ipomopsis aggregata- Scarlet gilia

OKAY NOW THE TWO VERY COOLEST FLOWERS I HAVE YET FOUND!!!!

Corallorhiza trifida & C. maculata.
Yellow & Spotted coralroot orchids!

It's not every day you find orchids in Colorado! These guys have no chlorophyll and rely exclsively on specific mycorrhizae fungi for nutrients. How neat is that?!

Well, I hope all enjoyed the pictures! I need to bring that little camera with me to work more often!!

Hey Skybird! Glad you like the pictures!!!

As for names, a good number of them I know, but, a good number of them I DON'T! So, when I got back to office I sat down and looked them all up. Even the ones I "know" I still look up to be sure. Sometimes I wind up surprising myself with my "guesses" as well. It also helps that we have native plant masters and naturalists and dozens of books handy as well. One of our volunteers ID'd the gnatcatcher and the butterflies for me.

As for seed collecting....well, no. I have thought about it to be sure, but, I don't because we are a state park. However, there is a bunch Drummond's milkvetch and sidebells penstemon growing along the road on my way too work that I have my eye on. There's also a beautiful squirreltail grass that has red/purple "tails" on the off ramp of C470 and Wadsworth...if only it wouldn't spread, but I know if I collect seeds from it I'll pulling squirreltail out of my ears! If I happen to get any of the sidebells seeds, I'll get you some!

If you ever do collect seed of the Penstemon, I'd love to have a little bit to give it a try! It looks like a nice large-flowered one like grandiflorus or the shell leaf varieties. I collected seed from a shell leaf one (I believe!) at a place I was staying up near Rapid City a few years back, but have never gotten around to winter sowing since then to try starting some! I think it was a pink one!

I got this one at one of the swaps, possibly '09, but I don't have the name right now--I believe I have it labeled outside--where I'm not going in the "wet dark!" But it looks VERY much like the P. virens you posted. Mine is actually a little bluer than in this pic--I hate it when you can't get the true color with a camera! I've collected seed from this one and haven't started any from seed, but have always wondered if it would really be as SKY BLUE a flower as the one I have! I think when I got it I was expecting more purple, and I was pretty amazed when it bloomed such a pretty light sky blue color! It's so hard to find perennials that are really blue!

https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/gofg8QH5WE-klZaMvIfUGMK0nZGRGfHLEy4-V3DuEj0?feat=directlink

Since you're doing a xeric garden, you might be interested in the Penstemon I'm bringing to the swap. In the past I thought it was P. utahensis, but now I'm pretty sure it's P. eatonii. (Seed collected along the road in south central Utah!) (Don't remember how I posted it on the swap thread!) I'll only have one this time, but in the last couple years I've started to have seedlings come up, so I'll have more at future swaps!

Skybird

P.S. What does NOID mean???

I will definitely try to get you some seeds if I can Skybird! They are nice large flowered ones, the color ranges from pink to purpleish sometimes with just a little touch of blue on them. I have noticed some slight differences in flower shape among the population and I want to get a native plant master out there to look at them. Same with that light blue larkspur.

None of my cameras pick up blue/purple very well. It's always washed out. I have some really nice violas in the front yard that are deep purple with a hit of red along the margins but my cameras always wash them out to just plain blue.

Yours could definitely be P. virens, but, I would look at P. linarioides var. coloradoensis, AKA Silverton Bluemat Penstemon, a Plant Select variety that is pretty widely available (and one I'm going to try and get my grubby little hands on since I saw them at the garden ceter last week but told myself "no more penstemons!!") I agree, "true blue" is nearly impossible to find...unless you want penstemons, and even then the color from plant to plant is so variable, even among the same species. I have seen P. mensarum, which is supposed to be straight cobalt blue, but it flowers looked the same purple color as P. strictus! The P. virens I was looking at work range from sky blue to dark blue some with purple/pink blush some without! You never know what your going to get with penstemons I guess, lol!

As for your red one, there is FOUR I have in mind, and I'll have to go take a closer look at the picture. It could be either P. eatonii or P. utahensis like you said, or, P. barbatus or P. rostiflorius which are very similar to eatonii and utahensis. ALL 4 of these guys are native to southern Utah desert! Course, we could also take a look at it at the swap! Regardless, I might as well reserve myself to fact I'm a collector of penstemons so YES I'm interested!

NOID- No I.D. lol!

P.S. I will be bringing a large flowered penstemon to the swap, the winter sown seeds just recently germinated, not many, but about 8, and they are just wee-tiny babies yet (not even any true leaves). It's P. palmeri, another desert one that is supposed to get HUGE with light pink flowers AND it is scented! I wanted to grow it out just to see what it smells like LOL! I don't even have a home for one but by God I'm gonna find a spot. I have a couple that are potted up that I'm bringing to the swap... if your interested.

SKYBIRD! So, I took a closer look at your pesntemon pictures. I DO think it is in fact P. barbatus!

From the SW Colorado Wildflowers link you gave me:

"Penstemon barbatus is very common throughout the lower elevations of the Four Corners area, and it is abundant in Mesa Verde National Park. This is a very tall and lankyPenstemon, often growing to four or five feet with an abundance of flowers opening over many weeks. Leaves are long and narrow and widely spaced on the stem

P. barbatus is tall, lanky, and airy... P. barbatus blooms in June and July and is flexible and herbaceous throughout."

Does this sound right? I see in your pictures that the flower has a very reflexed lower lip and a significant "overbite" of the upper lip. The P. eatonii flowers I am looking at have a more "flat" face. Also, the leaves of P. eatonii are much wider and "triangle" shaped than P. barbatus, which are more narrow and lance shaped.

Heres some pictures for comparison:

http://www.swcoloradowildflowers.com/pink%20enlarged%20photo%20pages/penstemon%20barbatus%20and%20eatonii.htm

Awesome post, Zach - thanks for taking the time to share these with all of us.

Zach, I'm trying (really hard!) to get everything ready for the swap right now--but I'll be back to reply to your info/thoughts about the Penstemon!!!

Skybird

Thanks Amy! Glad you enjoyed it!

Skybird, hey guess what?! I THINK I ACTUALLY ID'd MY ERIGERON! I am at least 60-80% sure it's E. divergens, spreading daisy!

Also, took a second look at the blue penstemon you posted above, it's definitely NOT Silverton Bluemat. I would very much guess it's P. virens, particularly if it is a species plant native to the front range, but there's other blue penstemons that come from the western slope, AZ, NM, or CA. Take a look at P. rydbergii, P. cyanocaulis and P. heterophyllus. Also there is 'Blue Riding Hood' cultivar as well. Regardless, it is beautiful and if you ever have any unwanted babies off it... well, you know someone who really likes penstemons ;).

I look forward to your thoughts on my hair brained ideas LOL!

I loved looking at these Zach. I too try to stop and identify every interesting growing thing when I walk in the woods (to my husband's eternal frustration).

Thanks Stevie! I know, the kid I supervise at work I'm sure is getting tired if me trying to find out the name of every bird, plant, and insect that resides within the boundaries of the park LOL!