Idaho Mountain Flowers

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Idaho Mountain Flowers
By Brad Parkinson
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1. Lewis Monkeyflower
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Lewis Monkey Flower

• Found along streams or high mountain wetlands in
  very moist situations
• Named by Meriwether Lewis of the Lewis and Clark
  expedition
• Named Monkey Flower because of the resemblance of
  the face of a monkey.

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2. Wild Strawberry
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Wild Strawberry

• Low, perennial herbs, spreading by means of
  runners
• Found in moist soil of woods, open meadows, and
  along streams.
• 5 petaled leaves with three coarsly toothed
  leaves
• Important food source for ruffed grouse, robins,
  bear, and other fruit eaters.

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3. Blue Bell
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Blue Bell

• Generally found in a sub alpine very moist
  environment. May entirely fill high mountain
  meadows.
• Leaves have a bluish hue
• Elk love to bed down in these rather tall flowers
  with newborn calves
• Picas and Marmots harvest the plants and store
  them for food during the long winters

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4. Chokecherry
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Chokecherry

• Although this is a small tree or a tall shrub, it
  has large racemes of many small white flowers
  during May and June with dark purple red berries
  following in late August.
• Found along streams and on moist hillside
• Fruit is edible for birds but with humans will
  cause a choking sensation
• Fruit makes great syrup and jams when plenty of
  sugar is added

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5. Silky Phacelia
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Silky Phacelia

• Characterized by long stamens that give the plant
  a hazy cottony appearance.
• Found in dry to moist soil of open areas along
  roads, on hillsides and mt. ridges from 6000 ft
  to treeline
• Elk, deer, mountain goat, and grizzly graze them
• Beautiful purple color

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6. Blue Flax
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Blue Flax

• Sky-blue saucer-shaped flax flowers on slender
  stems that continually sway in the breeze.
• Flax is used in some cultures to make rope. Flax
  fibers are found in these stems
• The covering around mummies are made of Blue Flax
  fibers
• Found in dry fields, ridges etc. from low valleys
  to about 8000 ft in altitude

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7. Fireweed
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Fireweed

• A serious invader plant that springs up after
  forest fires or other disturbances
• Bright pink to lilac-purple blossoms almost 1
  inch across with a four petaled flower.
• Flowers on the bottom of the stem bloom first and
  them over several weeks they bloom going to the
  top.

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8. Showy Phlox
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Showy or Snow Phlox

• Found in dry to medium moist ridges and hill
  sides
• Found from mid to high altitude
• Many different types of Phlox are found
• Low growing mat like flowers
• Flower from May through July and later in high
  elevations (above 8000 ft)

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9. Scarlet Gilia
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Scarlet or Skyrocket Gilia

• Other name is skunk or polecat plant because of
  its skunk like odor
• Brilliant red coloring generally but may be
  pinkish, orange or even white according to soil.
• 1-3 feet high flowers are ¾-1 ½ inches long.
• Found on dry hillsides, valleys, and ridges

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10. Springbeauty
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Springbeauty

• One of the first flowers to appear in the spring.
  Each flower has 2 sepals, 5 petals, and a 2-cleft
  style
• The corms fleshy taproots, stem and leaves are
  edible. Radish like flavor.
• Grows in moist soil at both low and high
  elevation. Look for them at the edges of
  snowfields

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11. Shooting Star
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Shooting Star

• Flowers are terminal umbels that hang downward.
• Found in moist to wet soil in open places of
  plains, hills, and mt. sides.
• Is edible and was use somewhat by Indians in the
  pre-meal salads. Ha ha.

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12. Monks Hood
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Monks Hood

• Appears to look like a monk with the hood up
• Slender plant that grows 2-5 feet tall in dark
  very moist areas of a forest.
• All parts of this plant are seriously poisonous
  containing the alkaloids aconitine and aconine.
  Roots and seeds are especially poisonous. Do not
  even get them on you skin. Aconite is a drug used
  as a heart or nerve sedative

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13. Buttercup
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Buttercup

• Different varieties found at elevations of cold
  desert, sub alpine and alpine.
• Used by picas, and marmots for food at high
  elevations
• Very shiny five petaled flower.
• A ground hugging plant, small

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14. Bane Berry
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Baneberry

• A perennial herb with small white flowers forming
  dense racemes.
• Flowers are replaced by a very shiny red or white
  berry that resemble china ware
• Found in shaded very wet areas near water
• Mildly poisonous acting upon the heart. The
  rootstock is a violent purgative, irritant and
  emetic. They dont hurt most birds

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15. Columbine
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Columbine

• Colorado state flower
• These showy flowers may vary from blue, yellow,
  white, to cream colored
• Leaves resemble the meadowrue
• Found in moist soils from 6-12000 ft of altitude.
  Generally on a hillside
• An important forage food for livestock and wild
  grazers.

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16. Meadowrue
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Meadowrue

• Very small inconspicuous plant
• Leaves are basal, leathery, pale green in color
  divided into leaflets with rounded lobes
• Found under trees in moist areas, give a very
  beautiful soft appearance to the under story of
  the forest.
• Learn them, you will like them.

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17. Sugar Bowl
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Sugarbowl (clematis)

• Also called vase bowl, or Old Mans Whiskers
• Nodding, dull purple, sugarbowl-shaped flower
  about 1 inch long
• 1-2 feet tall
• Found in moist open areas of plain hills or woods
  to about 8000 feet.

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18. Clematis
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Clematis (vine)

• Also called Virgins Bower
• A slender, semi woody climbing vine that may grow
  to 10-12 feet long
• Found in dry to moist soil of woods and thickets,
  from valleys to 8500 feet
• Vines depend on trees for support and climb to
  the sun. Indians and western settlers chewed the
  seed for colds and sore throats

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19. Larkspur
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Larkspur

• Actually there are several Larkspurs found. Some
  are found in desert or meadow situations low to
  6000 ft, and in the mountains you will find a
  tall plant with pale to dark blue flowers. The
  key is the spur or spike on the back of the
  flower.
• Generally found in fairly dry conditions
• Poisonous to cattle early in spring, with an
  alkaloid and lose poison after blooming. Sheep
  are not affected and are used to eradicate the
  plant.

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20. Wild Rose
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Wild Rose

• A spiny multi stemmed plant, 2-4 ft tall
• Five petal flower
• Flower matures into red berries called rose hips.
  This fruit is consumed by birds and browsers.
  Also is full of Vitamin C and is used to make
  Vitamin C pills.
• Generally found in moist shaded and unshaded
  soils.

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21. Prairie Smoke
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Prairie Smoke

• A low growing nodding, vase-like shape, with 5
  petals and recurved bracteoles. Found in moist
  meadows
• Another name is Old Mans Whiskers
• Usually three flowers to a stem
• The fruiting seed bearing stage has a feathery
  appearance.

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22. Serviceberry
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Serviceberry

• Small tree or multi stemmed bush
• Early white-flowering bush, 5 petal flowers
  growing in small racemes.
• Found on moist to dry areas on hillsides and also
  on mountainsides, very common
• Berries are dark purple to blackish, very sweet,
  edible, seedy.

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23. Shrubby Cinquefoil
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Shrubby Cinquefoil

• A much-branched shrub 1-5 feet tall with bright
  yellow flowers with 5 petals
• Cinquefoil mean five petals
• Found extensively through the valley near Driggs,
  Tetonia, and Victor, Idaho in the pasture lands
• Browsed heavily by big game when other more
  preferred plants are in short supply

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24. Indian Paintbrush
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Indian Paintbrush

• Wyoming state flower, 25 fine for picking
• The red coloration are the bracts and upper
  leaves of the plant. Flowers are not attractive
• Found in dry to moist soils from valleys to 9000
  ft elevation
• Semi-parasitic leaves photosynthesize but the
  roots touch other roots taking nutrients

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25. Yellow Monkeyflower
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Yellow Monkeyflower

• Also called wild lettuce and was consumed by
  Indians and early settlers alike
• Found along streams from low to alpine areas
• Look at the flower and imagine a monkey face.
  Small plants growing right in the streams

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26. Forget Me Not
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Forget me Not

• Two varieties,
• 1. Many Stemmed Stickseed is found in the forest
  and is very annoying because it has barbed
  stickers that get into your clothing. These may
  get three feet tall
• 2. Alpine Forget Me Not is a dwarf cushion plant
  bearing a mass of pretty blue or white flowers,
  Pika food, 9-12000 ft elevation

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27. Buckwheat Types
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Buckwheat

• Several species that are somewhat similar in
  appearance. Found in open areas of lower valley
  to 9000 ft.
• Soil differences seem to choose different
  buckwheat's.
• Preferred forage for sheep in mountains and low
  country.

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28. Prickly Pear Cactus
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Prickly Pear Cactus

• Large waxy blossoms, succulent, fleshy-stemmed
  perennials, without leaves.
• Very thorny. Generally found in alkaline desert
  soil. Especially cold deserts.
• Flowering in May, June, and early July
• Adapted to withstand drought conditions
• Very edible, not are found to be poisonous

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29. Elderberry
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Elderberry

• A large shrub confused with Mountain Ash because
  of compound pinnate leaves
• Has flat-topped flower cluster and blue berries.
• Found in moist we soil along streams, in woods
  and open areas from valleys to 9000 ft.
• Berries are used both by birds and man in syrups
  and Elderberry Wine.

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30. Elk Thistle
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Elk Thistle

• Everts Thistle named after Truman Evert who
  survived on thistle for a month in the 1800s
  while lost in Yellowstone area
• Seen standing in mountain meadows with its thick,
  leafy, unbranched, succulent stems.
• Found in wet soil to about 8000 ft
• Inner stem is edible although not nutritious

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31. Arrowleaf Balsamroot
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Arrowleaf Balsamroot

• May be seen on dry hillsides such as the Juniper
  Hills by the sand hills north of Rexburg in the
  spring.
• Has large arrow shaped leaves, kind of hairy
• Indians ate the young tender sprout, large roots,
  and seeds either raw or cooked. They have a
  balsam flavor.

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32. Heartleaf Arnica
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Heartleaf Arnica

• A single stem plant with a head of yellow flowers
  about 2 in. across about 8-24 with lower leaves
  in a heart shape
• Found along trails in moist soils
• An official drug plant all parts of the plant
  given orally or intravenously causes a rise in
  body temperature.
• Applied externally as a salve to cuts fights
  infection.

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33. Mules Ear
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Mules Ear

• Composite flower
• Resembles sunflowers and Arrowleaf Balsamroot
• The yellow version of White Wyethia
• Leaves are glossy whereas Arrowleaf Balsamroot
  are hairy and dull
• Moderately dry soils, is considered a pest plant
  to cattlemen, not palatable to cattle

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34. White Wyethia (white mulesear)
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White Wyethia

• Found in meadows of mountain valleys, many times
  in conjunction with blue camas
• These are the white version of Mules Ear.
• Flowers tend to follow the sun as the earth turns.

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35. Salsify
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Salsify

• Appear as ripened dandelion except that they are
  on long stems and have green bracts that are
  longer than the flower petals.
• Seed stocks look like gigantic dandelion seed
  with umbrella like heads
• Invaders found in roughed up areas like roadsides
  and trails sides
• Taproots are edible, this is an introduced
  species to America by European settlers.

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36. Yarrow
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Yarrow

• An umbel like plant with white flower on the end
  of a 1-three foot plant
• Fern like small leaves
• Found in moderately moist soil but not shade or
  wet meadows
• As a medicine it may serve as a stimulant, some
  people think that it may kill pains such as
  toothache by applying to the gums

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37. Stonecrop
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Stonecrop

• 4-8 inch multicolored flowers
• Flowers are found on rocky outcrops high in the
  mountains on windswept areas.
• Waxy covings on leaves allow them to withstand
  drought.
• Flowers are able to lay dormant during times of
  drought or stress.

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38. Green Gentian or Monument Plant
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Green Gentian

• First year growth is a cluster of long-stalked,
  strap like leaves.
• The flowering stage of the plant may happen
  during the second-fourth year of its life and
  then it will die
• The flowering stage is a very tall elongated
  plant with cluster of white to purple flowers
• May be confused with woolly mullein

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39. Sticky Geranium
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Sticky Geranium

• Probably the most common flower you will see
  along the trails in our mountains to about 8ooo
  ft.
• Leaves are geranium shaped
• Plants are 1-2 ft tall
• Flowers are pink
• A related white species is the Richardson
  geranium
• Is a good browse food for bear and deer

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40. Globemallow
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Globemallow

• Five pedaled bright orange flowers
• Leaves resemble the gooseberry leaves
• Generally found at lower elevations and in cold
  deserts. Like dry conditions
• Leaves have a light green hue such as the color
  of sagebrush leaves

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41. Elephanthead
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Elephanthead

• A dense spike of reddish-purple to pink flowers
  shaped like an elephant head
• Found in wet soil of bogs, meadows, and along
  streams and lakeshores, may be growing right in
  the water.
• Flowers bloom early in the summer in low areas
  and may be found in alpine bogs late in the
  summer. They are beautiful

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42. Penstemon
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Penstemon

• The stems of this perennial plant are clumped
  together, are 4-20 in tall and topped with dense
  whorled clusters of small bluish-purple blossoms.
  Found in solid of meadows, open timbers slopes
  and mt. ridges from foothills to timberline.
• Several different species of Penstemon are common
  in the mountains. We use this as a
  representative species.

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43. Cow Parsnip
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Cow Parsnip

• A course, hairy, perennial herb, 3-8 ft tall with
  large compound leaves and numerous white flowers.
  Umbels
• Found in rich, damp soils especially along
  streams.
• Readily eaten by cows, sheep, and big game. Sweet
  succulent young stems can be peeled and eaten raw
  or cooked.
• Juice and hairs can cause blisters on man

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44. Yellow Violet
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Yellow Violet

• Basically the same as the purple violet but
  YELLOW.

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45. Nodding Onion
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Nodding Onion

• Also called Wild Onion, Leek, or Garlic
• Grows 6-18 inches tall from elongated bulbs
• Confused with Wild Hyacinth but Onions have pink
  not blue flowers
• Found in dry to moist areas, most areas where
  sunlight abounds. Many species
• Bulbs are eaten as flavor and filler. (good)

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46. Sego Lilly
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Sego Lilly

• White tulip like flower with a triangular
  cup-shaped appearance.
• Found in dry well-drained planis and hillsides
  and low elevations
• State flower of Utah
• Bulbous root the size of a walnut is sweet and
  nutritious. Used by Indians and early settlers.
  Utah Pioneers were saved by this bulb from
  starvation.

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47. Camas
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Camas

• Bright blue flowers that form a showy spike like
  racemes. 3 sepals, and 3 petals and 6 stamens.
  1-2 ft tall and grass like leaves
• An edible ovate bulb found 8-12 inches
  underground. A major source of food for the
  Indians when boiled has a potato flavor
• Found in moist meadows and wetlands.

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48. Twisted Stalk
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Twisted Stalk

• The small whitish flowers are born in the leaf
  axils on very slender stalks that have a kink in
  them, 2-4 ft tall.
• Found in very moist shady soil.
• Berries were eaten by Indians and are utilized by
  ruffed grouse.
• Berries have an orange red color

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49. Harebell
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Harebell

• The flowers are violet-blue, bell-shaped, about ¾
  in. broad, hang downward from slender, perennial
  stems 8-10 in. long
• Found from dry to moist open hillsides, prairies,
  and valleys.
• Also called the Scotch Bluebell as it is found in
  Scotland.

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50. Wall Flower
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Wall Flower

• Bright yellow flowers, sometimes tinged with
  orange, occur in a dense raceme. Narrow linear
  leaves. Plant is about 1-3ft tall.
• Found on open, dry flats and hillsides
• Belongs to the mustard family with and acrid
  odor.

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51. Yampa
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Yampa

• The root is about 6 inches deep and is edible,
  tastes like a carrot.
• The picture shown is of a very large Yampa, but
  must are just one or two umbels and is about
  18-24 inches tall
• Generally found in meadows or openings in the
  forest in fairly dry areas.
• Important food source to early people

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52. Engelmann Aster
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Engelmann Aster

• A most common flower, 2-6 ft. tall, with large
  ragged heads composed of diskflowers surrounded
  by 9-15 white or slightly pinkish rayflowers up
  to 1 inch long
• Most to wet soil, usually in a wooded area with
  openings
• Leaves may be edible when boiled.

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53.Woolly Mullein
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Woolly Mullein

• A serious invader after a disturbance in a dry
  area. Found along most roadsides
• Called pioneer toilet paper as the soft hairy
  leaves were used for this purpose and actually
  reduce hemorrhoid pain
• 2-6 feet tall
• Seeds are used by many birds

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54. Dogtooth Violet
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Dogtooth Violet

• Also called the glacier lily
• Appears in early spring as snow banks melt
• Berries are edible and sweet, but be careful
  because this plant closely resembles other
  poisonous berries