Wildflowers and Plants
of the High Country

Here is a partial list of the wildflowers and plants we commonly see on our hikes. Late July and early August are the height of the wildflower season; however, there are a number of gorgeous flowers showing off their beauty in the spring, including some orchids and lilies.

Plants Good in Any Season

Common trees: trembling aspen, balsam poplar, Englemann spruce, subalpine fir, lodgepole pine, alpine larch (incredible around the third weekend in September when they turn gold!)

Less common trees: white birch, whitebark pine, douglas fir, western red cedar, hemlock, yew

Shrubs: three kinds of juniper, willows, bog birch, slide alder, gooseberry, high bush cranberry, 3 kinds of honeysuckle, mountain ash, red-osier dogwood, Canada buffaloberry, Labrador tea, 3 kinds of mountain heather, kinnikinnick, grouseberry, false azelea, white rhododendron

Flowering plants: clasping-leaved twisted stalk, false hellebore, cow parsnip, western anemone, western meadowrue, dwarf dogwood,

May / June / Early July

    • wood lily
    • avalanche or glacier lily
    • queen's cup
    • star-flowered false Solomon's seal
    • star-flowered Solomon's seal
    • yellow lady's slipper orchid
    • calypso orchid
    • spotted orchid
    • coralroot orchid
    • spring beauty
    • mountain buttercup
    • globeflower
    • Drummond's anemone
    • evergreen violet
    • sweet coltsfoot

Late July / Early August

    • mountain death camas
    • sparrow's egg lady slipper orchid
    • northern twayblade
    • green bog orchids
    • tall white bog orchid
    • valerian
    • alpine bistort
    • alpine willowherb, river beauty and fireweed
    • bladder campion
    • moss campion
    • stonecrop
    • foamflower
    • mitrewort
    • spotted saxifrage
    • fringed grass of parnassus
    • white mountain avens
    • blue clematis
    • yellow columbine
    • various vetches and hedysarum
    • common butterwort
    • Rocky Mountain fringed gentian
    • common harebell
    • self heal
    • Lyall's penstemon
    • shrubby penstemon
    • elephant's head lousewort
    • brachted lousewort
    • alpine, red and yellow paintbrush
    • alpine speedwell
    • western stickseed
    • Lyall's scorpionweed (he was everywhere in the mountians!)
    • One-sided, pink, single-flowered and green wintergreen
    • twinflower
    • Hooker's thistle (a great favourite of the painted lady butterfly!)
    • alpine and pink and wooly pussytoes
    • pearly everlasting
    • yarrow
    • various arnica species
    • triangular-leaved ragwort (or groundsel)
    • various fleabanes (purple, gold and white)

Late August and September

    • valerian
    • northern bedstraw
    • yellow mountain saxifrage
    • Rocky Mountain fringed gentian
    • common harebell
    • single-flowered wintergreen
    • various goldenrods
    • various groundsels
    • various asters

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