Lupine plants were in full bloom on a recent trip I took to Glass Buttes, Oregon. They have beautiful flowers and a unique leaf form. The palmately divided leaves of lupine can have five to 28 leaflets. Water often funnels down the leaflets and collects at their base.
“Stretching his hand up to reach the stars, too often man forgets the flowers at his feet.” Jeremy Bentham
Shooting Stars at Zion National Park, Utah
The pollinators are certainly enjoying my Oregon grape blossoms.
Friday Flowers
Friday Flowers
Friday Flowers
The desert produces a profusion of colorful wildflowers at certain times of the year. Here is a stunning penstemon plant inside the Fort Rock volcanic tuff ring.
Friday Flowers
A single sego lily in the desert of Arches National Park in Utah.
Friday Flowers
The blooms of sagebrush are not not big, showy, or colorful. Nonetheless, their muted colors and delicate blossoms exude a certain form of grace.
The leaves of a plant usually frame a beautiful flower. In the case of the bitterroot plant, the flowers are so “big” you hardly notice the leaves. These delicate flowers are only about an inch and a half across.
In the early spring months, you might notice the narrow succulent leaves of the plant sprouting up long before they flower. They are so small that you may overlook them. Here’s what they look like.
This plant was very important to Native Americans in western North America. The roots were dried and mixed with berries and meat. The plants were also used medicinally. Bitterroot roots were collected and traded and they were an item of high value. For more about them, visit my post – Desert Bitterroot Oasis.
Here are a few pictures of the blossoms from that post. They are a very small plant with tiny leaves, large blossoms, and enormous beauty. One of my favorites!
Friday Flowers
Purple wildflowers
Punctuating dry deserts
With cool regal tones
Balsamroot
Silent Sunday – Photography
One of my favorite things to do when I get up in the morning is to look out my window at this night-blooming primrose. I love getting a glimpse of its bold yet delicate blossoms before they go to sleep and close up during the day.
Weekly Photo Challenge – Morning
Bitterroot, Lewisii redviva
Oasis moments sometimes happen in the desert. While hiking to Chimney Rock near Prineville, Oregon, we came across a patch of bitterroot flowers. The small flowers burst forth from cracks in the sandy soil in shades of pink and white. The flowers are only about an inch and a half across. The plant is delicate yet hardy at the same time.
I had never seen so many blossoms in one place. Bitterroot has always been a plant that amazes me. It was hard for me to keep walking with our group when a part of me just wanted to crouch down to their level and marvel at their perfection.
Beneath the soil, a taproot gives this plant its name. Meriwether Lewis, of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, first saw the bitterroot plant in Lemhi County, Montana on August 22, 1805. Lewis tasted the root and described it in his journal:
this the Indians with me informed were always boiled for use. I made the exprement, found that they became perfectly soft by boiling, but had a very bitter taste, which was naucious to my pallate, and I transfered them to the Indians who had eat them heartily.
Baskets & photo of digging stick, Warm Springs Museum
Bitterroot can be found in much of western North America in drier areas with well-drained gravelly soils and several tribes made use of the plant. Shoshoni, Flathead, Nez Perce, Paiute, Kutenai, and other tribes used digging sticks to collect the roots in the spring. The roots were dried and were often mixed with berries and meat.
The roots were traded and bartered and were considered to be of great value. A bagful was worth as much as a horse. They were used as food but also had medicinal uses. Bitterroot was used for several ailments including heart problems and sore throats. They were also used to treat wounds and to increase milk flow in nursing mothers.
President Thomas Jefferson had asked Lewis to collect plant specimens on their expedition. Bitterroot plants were collected on the return trip in June of 1806. The area in Montana where the plants were collected is now known as the Bitterroot Valley. Specimens were given to the botanist Frederick Pursh in Philadelphia. Pursh named the plant Lewsii redviva in honor of Lewis.
Fun fact: The species name redviva means “reviving from a dry state.” The specimens presented to Pursh came back to life even though they had been dug up many months before.
Wordless Wednesday
A desert can be desolate
Arid and barren
Spring showers
Splash colors
Of brilliant hues
Amidst the sand
Painting with a delicate brush
From a palette of rainbows
Tucked beneath the sage
Reflections of stars above
Shine forth from the sand
My favorite bouquets are the ones Mother Nature gives me.