On a pleasant early June day we hiked from Lundbom Lake through the Lundbom Grasslands Commonage hills in a 13 km loop route.   Spring wildflowers and leafing/flowering shrubs and trees were noted along the way during the 3.5 hour hike.

At the lower elevations, stork’s bill (Erodium cicutarium) was in bloom in dry open spots.    It is an annual that has a prostate habit.   The pink flowers are quite distinctive.    It is also called crane’s-bill and heron’s-bill.

In the last week harsh paintbrush (Catilleja hispida) had started to bloom in open dry spots in the lower open forests .  We can distinguish this species from common red paintbrush by the colors of the inflorescence, the deeply divided leaves, and the stiff hairs on the stems.

Western spring beauties (Claytonia lanceolata) could be found in patches in semi-open areas near the treeline in damp soils.   The corms were dug up by First Nations people, stored and eaten like potatoes.

In wet zones near seasonal streams and on seep slopes, there were a few stream violets (Viola glabella).   The purplish lines appear on three of the petals.

In the past we have spotted Idaho blue-eyed grass, but it was a bit early for the flowers to show at the start of June.    The stems and leaves blend in with all of the other grasses for most of the growing season.   There were larkspurs, buttercups, desert parsley and most of the usual early-flowering varieties.   We could see sticky geraniums, lupines, arnica, and sandwort developing and in two weeks they would be the stars of the grasslands and glades.   Aspens were just leafing and a variety of shrubs seemed behind schedule in this cool spring.

Lundbom montia

western Indian paintbrush

leafing aspens

water-crowfoot

stork's bill

deer in the hills

our route

Our plan is to return to the Lundbom grasslands for a second hike at the end of spring.