Observations by mattlavin

Mountain douglasia growing along a ridgeline at the southeast end of the Bridger Range, Gallatin County, Montana. This area experienced a burn during early September 2020 but mainly to the north of this site. This south facing ridgeline represents open understory of primarily Douglas fir and secondarily limber pine.

Spiny phlox in abundant flower above the College M at the south end of the Bridger Range, Gallatin County, Montana. Needle-like leaves measure mostly 5-10 mm long and are covered with tangled villous hairs at the base.

Blepharipappus scaber growing on an unstable hillside adjacent to mountain big sagebrush steppe in good ecological condition. It is notable that Blepharipappus scaber, perhaps like many species of the tarweed subgroup of Asteraceae, is more abundant where disturbance is regular. This species was not observed in the adjacent sagebrush steppe. This site occurs along the Thomas Creek Drainage just east of the Thomas Creek trailhead, southwest Reno, Carson Range, Washoe County, Nevada.

The habitat often includes rocky meadows, caprock, and rock outcrops in the subalpine and alpine. This site lies along the Beartooth Highway just north of the Montana/Wyoming boundary near the Mt Maurice trailhead, Carbon County, Montana.

Varileaf or blueleaved cinquefoil, AKA Potentilla diversifolia, is a native perennial forb of alpine and subalpine elevations that is distinguished by its glaucous bluegreen leaves and leaflets, the latter of which number five per leaf. Stem leaves are reduced in size and complexity (e.g., more dissected than palmately compound).

With five palmately arranged leaflets per leaf and each leaflet often highly dissected, this may be Potentilla glaucophylla var. perdissecta, which has leaves that are bright green and not the usual glaucous blue-green of the widespread varileaf cinquefoil. This site lies along the Bridger ridge above Bridger Gully, Bridger Bowl ski area, Gallatin County, Montana.

Varileaf or blueleaved cinquefoil, AKA Potentilla diversifolia, is a native perennial forb of alpine and subalpine elevations that is distinguished by its glaucous bluegreen leaves and leaflets, the latter of which number five per leaf. Stem leaves are reduced in size and complexity (e.g., more dissected than palmately compound).

The open grass-dominated vegetation at wetter sites of the Jarbidge Mountains includes many of the dry-meadow shrubs, grasses, and forbs including the abundant Delphinium occidentale, western larkspur, and Carex microptera, small winged sedge. This site lies along the Cougar Creek trail, north of Prospect and Cougar Peak, Jarbidge Mountains, Elko County, Nevada.

Flowering during the late summer is sporadic and occurs on newly produced short panicle branches rather than on the long dense flowering branches that are produced during the middle summer. Fruits mature into a small cluster of follicles. The basal stem leaves usually senesce soon after flowering while the middle to upper stem leaves remain green and photosynthetic. This site lies along the Middle Cottonwood trail, due west of Bridger Peak, Bridger Range, Gallatin County, Montana.

The tall stature, often over 1 m tall, pedicels averaging shorter than the length of the flowers, and light blue petals and sepals distinguish this species of montane meadows and parkland. Supposedly of hybrid origin. This site lies near the top of the Bridger lift, Bridger Bowl Ski area, Gallatin County, Montana.

A common tall-statured larkspur that blooms mid summer with mostly pale purple flowers in dry mountain meadows. This site lies in a dry meadow along the road to and north of Fairy Lake and to the southeast of Frazier Lake, Bridger Range, Gallatin County, Montana.

Hayden's clover is common in the alpine and subalpine of the Bridger Range on limestone talus and scree slopes. This site lies along the Bridger ridge directly above the North Bowl, Bridger Bowl Ski area, Gallatin County, Montana.

A distinctive Rumex species because of its inner tepals generally lacking tubercles and with mostly entire margins. The inner tepals are large, 11-16 mm long. Also, this species tends to have very prominent ocreae (sheathing stipules) and distinctly tuberous roots. Like all Rumex, this species inhabits regularly disturbed settings (e.g., roadsides and trailsides). This site lies along the side of the Pa'rus Trail, due east of the Zion Nature Center, Zion National Park, Washington County, Utah.

Tradescantia occidentalis, western spiderwort, growing along the trail to and just south of Angels Landing, Zion National Park, Washington County, Utah. The sepals and petals are differentiated from each other (as they are in the flowers of Calochortus) and the staminal filaments are densely purple-hairy. Plants of this species were growing in a low area where water likely collected during the spring.

This might be cedar-apple rust, which is growing on Rocky Mountain juniper in the Indreland Audubon Wetland Preserve, Bozeman, Gallatin County, Montana. Such a fungus on Juniper is not common in this area and this was the only observation made of this fungus over the summers of 2022 and 2023.

Goosefoot yellow violet growing in the open understory around Emerald Lake, just to the south of Cougar Peak, Jarbidge Mountains, Elko County, Montana. Glabrous leaves with dark prominent veins and shallowly lobed margins in part distinguish goosefoot yellow violet, which is a widespread species often inhabiting lower elevations.

Leptodactylon pungens flowers mostly by middle summer, late June to early July, so this early September photo shows this shrub well past flowering. The sagebrush steppe within the Craters of the Moon National Monument harbors a high level of native plant abundance and diversity. In addition, native subshrubs like granite prickly phlox often attain a shrubby growth habit in this sagebrush steppe. This site is located in the sagebrush steppe just south of Lava Lake, Blaine County, Idaho.