At the end of the first week of April, I hiked through the middle grasslands area of Lac du Bois Protected Area, past ponds, lakes and over glaciated hills.    Early spring wildflowers were in bloom, mostly lower-growing varieties that emerge before the grasses grow in late spring.    There were sagebrush buttercups everywhere, but other varieties were also in bloom, or were soon to mature to spring flowering.

Along the route the varieties spotted included western spring beauty (Claytonia lanceolata),  yellow bells (Fritillaria pudica), lemonweed/stoneseed (Lithospermum ruderale), large-fruited desert-parsley (Lomatium macrocarpum), slender phlox (Microsteris gracilis), roundleaf alumroot (Heuchera cylindrica), meadow death-camas (Zigadenus venenosus), cutleaf fleabane (Erigeron compostus), low pussytoes (Antennaria dimorpha), mustard flower rust (Puccinia monoica), upland larkspur (Delphinium nuttallianum), and sagebrush buttercups (Rununculus glabberimus).

All photos by the author from that day.     Click an image for a lightbox view and a caption/ID.

slender phlox

spring beauty

lemonweed

desert parsley

yellow bells

I will be out for hikes each week, spotting wildflowers along the way.    On some of the those hiking days, the focus will be on nature studies, making the hikes longer, but rewarding too.

western spring beauty

cutleaf fleabane

low pussytoes

upland larkspur

large-fruited desert-parsley

low pussytoes

desert parsley

meadow death camas

sagebrush buttercup

More information:

• Yellow bells
• Lemonweed
• Meadow death-camas
• Sagebrush buttercup
• Upland larkspur
• Western spring beauty
• Alumroot