We did a spring hike over the hills from Copper Creek to Painted Bluffs Provincial Park.   This is a demanding route over ridges and through gullies down to the bottom of the park, then back up again.   the route is across south-facing dry slopes with sagebrush and grassland slopes.   A few wildflowers were spotted along the route, shared here.

We only spotted one flowering finged puccoon (lihtospermum incisum) along the route.   It is also called narrowleaf stoneseed, fringed gromwell, narrowleaf puccoon, and plains stoneseed.   It is native to central Canada and the USA and less common in B.C.  It is a hairy perennial with longer pointed leaves.   The bright yellow flower is trumpet-shaped.

We have been watching the larkspur (delphinium nuttallianum) growing in the last 2 weeks, and new a few blooms have emerged.     The blooms are complex and it is difficult to get the whole thing in focus.

This pollinator is a wasp, checking out this cluster of pussytoes flowers.

This milkvetch (astragalus) was growing on gravelly slopes above Kamloops Lake.

Lemonweed (lithospermum ruderale) was flowering over the entire area.   It is closely related to fringed puccoon.

In another 2 weeks the slopes will be full of blooming upland larkspur, but on this day, only a small number were in full flower.

Down in the Painted Bluffs area, almost no plants grow on the mineral-rich colorful bluffs, but in the drainage gullies, alkali salts build up to leave deposits.   Any plant that tries to grow in the season stream channel must be salt-tolerant.

 

We will return in summer, paddling across the lake next time and we expect to see blazing star on the gravelly ridges of the park.