Wildflower Walks

As summer comes to a close and students return to school, we are reminded of the time-honored tradition of the “How I Spent My Summer Vacation” paper.
This year, the Missoulian is putting a modern twist on the assignment by bringing it to the popular social networking site Twitter.
We want you, western Montanans, to send a [...]

[Read more →]

Yellow columbine
Aquilegia flavescens
Description: Flowers are made up of five cream to yellow petals that are open in the front and taper to yellow spurs and five yellow sepals. They stand atop stems 8 to 30 inches tall with basal leaves that are divided into three thin leaflets each. Found in moist meadows, along streams and [...]

[Read more →]

It’s nearly time for my annual summer trip to Glacier National Park. While finding wildflowers there is never difficult, deciding on which trails to hike is more of a chore – albeit one with a great reward. My wife and I are always looking for something new, with lakes, streams, views and some altitude.
This year, [...]

[Read more →]

The Glacier Institute has a couple of courses coming this month up related to wildflowers:
“Photography in Glacier Country” will be held July 21 to 23. Learn to photograph subjects big and small, from panoramic vistas to closeups of flowers. Cost is $400.
“Wildflower Wanderings at Logan Pass” will be July 24. Check out the wildflowers along [...]

[Read more →]

Glacier National Park turns 100 on May 11, and just in time for the celebration the Montana Native Plant Society has designated Logan Pass as the first Important Plant Area in the state.
A news release from the park notes that the pass area is home to springbeauty, glacier lilies, paintbrush and beargrass. The IPA includes [...]

[Read more →]

False hellbore
Veratrum viride
Description: Yellowish-green flowers about one-half inch across clustered on branches atop 3- to 6-foot stem. Four- to 12-inch oval leaves with coarse, parallel veins grow from base. Found in wet meadows and open areas. Blooms June to early August. (“Peterson Field Guides’ Rocky Mountain Wildflowers,” by John J. Craighead, Frank C. Craighead Jr. [...]

[Read more →]

Elegant camas
Zigadenus elegans
Description: Bowl-shaped flowers three-quarters of an inch wide consists of six cream or greenish-white, petal-like segments with a greenish gland at base. Blossoms cluster atop stem 6 to 28 inches tall with 6- to 12-inch-long grass-like leaves growing from base. Grows in mountain meadows, rocky slopes and forests. Blooms June to August.
Recently seen: [...]

[Read more →]

If you missed out on the glacier lily bloom around Missoula in mid-May, now is the perfect time to catch it up higher.
These small, yellow canopies can be found carpeting mountain meadows in the Swan Range’s Jewel Basin and in Glacier National Park.
The picture above was taken near Picnic Lakes in the Jewel Basin, which [...]

[Read more →]

The Glacier National Park Fund is looking for a few friends to go on Friday hikes:
Glacier group plans Friday hikes
By MICHAEL JAMISON of the Missoulian
WEST GLACIER – It’s not like you need another excuse to skip work on Fridays, what with the summer sun shining and all, but here’s one anyway.
The staff at the Glacier [...]

[Read more →]

Glacier National Park’s free lunchtime seminars continue Thursday, June 18, at noon in the Crown of the Continent Research Learning Center with “Confessions of a Wildlife Observer.”
Photographer Chris Peterson takes a lighthearted look at Glacier’s flora and fauna, which he has observed for the past 11 years. His show includes photographs of loons, mountain goats, [...]

[Read more →]