Wildflowers

I have posted two pictures from my trip to the Upper Blackfoot Valley yesterday.  The wildflowers are just now beginning to exhibit there, often standing out like frozen pyrotechnic displays in the open spaces and along the understory of the mountain forests.

Here, I have posted a pair of bitterroot, Montana’s state flower, and an Indian paintbrush.

The bitterroot is spectacularly drought resistant and will, if fact, perish in wet climates.  A specimen of bitterroot collected here in Montana, dried, and carried back East by Meriwether Lewis during the Corps of Discovery exploration of the Louisiana Purchase actually came back life when watered many months later.

Indian paintbrush plants, on the other hand, are finicky and specialized.  They are a semi-parasitic annual and must tap into the roots of a host plant to assure survival.  Hummingbirds are highly attracted to paintbrush.  The hummingbirds are especially attracted to red.  On many occasions, I have had hummingbirds fly up and hover around my face when I was wearing a red cap in an area where the paintbrush is prolific.

--Mitchell Hegman