This beautiful little paintbrush is Barneby's paintbrush (Castilleja scabrida var. barnebyana). It was about 10,000 feet high on limestone. It only grows in Nevada and Utah.
There's not much info about Barneby's paintbrush, but you can find a little here.
This bright red penstemon often growing in clusters is Bridge penstemon (Penstemon rostriflorus), also called beaked penstemon because of the much longer upper petal. It grows in the Southwest at middle elevations.
This member of the Rose Family (Rosaceae) is Norwegian cinquefoil (Potentilla norvegica), also called rough cinquefoil. It's widespread throughout the U.S., but in our area is only found on the shores of one lake at about 9,600 feet.
Leaflets are in threes, and stems are hairy. Another distinguishing characteristic is that the green calyx lobes behind the petals are slightly longer than the petals.
Keeping in the Buckwheat Family (Polygonaceae), here's toothed willow dock (Rumex salicifolius var. denticulatus), also called California dock. It grows along lake shores and wet places from 7,700 to 10,500 feet in this area. It grows in western North America.
For more info on toothed willow dock, click here.
I found this little plant from the Buckwheat family (Polygonaceae) growing near a snow patch in early August. It's alpine mountainsorrel (Oxyria digyna), and it's fond of alpine and sub-alpine areas. It grows in western and northern North America.
Leaves are round and thick, while the flowers are green and soon replaced by reddish-brown seed pods.
The plant for today is rather different--it's in the Christmas Mistletoe Family (Viscaceae), which might sound like a rather happy name. Unfortunately, the reality is that it's a parasite, eating off the tree, stunting its growth, and sometimes even killing it. The mistletoes have different species adapted to different tree species. This one is limber pine dwarf mistletoe (Arceuthobium cyanocarpum), which as you might suspect, grows on limber pines (although it might also affect bristlecone pines). I couldn't find much info about the mistletoes except that insects and spiders pollinate them.
For me, many of the thistles can be quite confusing, but fortunately this one is easy to tell apart because it's the only native one in the area. It's Arizona thistle (Cirsium arizonicum), native to California, Nevada, Utah, New Mexico, and Arizona.
It grows from 6,500 to 10,100 feet in this area, and at lower elevations elsewhere, and on open, dry slopes.
For more information about Arizona thistle, click here.
