Continued from the previous page.

Here are more summer flowers I've seen the past two weeks:

WHITE FLOWERS

Arctic sandwort  (Mt. Margaret, 7-25-15)

Mountain avens  (Stony Creek mountainside, 7-15-15)

Whitish gentian  (Mt. Margaret, 7-25-15)

Siberian yarrow  (Wonder Lake, 7-20-15)

Bunchberry AKA dogwood  (Riley Creek Campground area, 7-14-15)

Bistort  (along the road near Wonder Lake, 7-21-15)

Bear flower  (Mt. Margaret, 7-25-15)

Bear flower close-up  (Stony Creek area, 7-15-15)

One of my favorite wildflowers is the unusual Alaska cotton grass. Like the rest of these flowers, you can see it in other parts of the state, too.

The next three photos show a large stand of cotton grass by a little pond along the park road near Wonder Lake:

 

 

 

ARE THESE EVEN FLOWERS?

And then there are a few plants that I can't identify from Ranger Frank's excellent set of 185 Denali wildflower photos. They may not even be flowers!

Here are a couple photos of interesting tundra plants that may not be "flowers" but are interesting:

(Stony Creek area again, 7-15-15)

(Mt. Healy Ridge, 7-24-15)

The next plant kind of looks like lupine after it has bloomed but the ones I've seen before were more of a green color. In addition, I don't see any of the distinctive lupine leaves in the original photo (this is just a little piece of it):

(Stony Creek area, 7-15-15)

These may be either pre- or post-bloom:

A type of Lousewort??  (Stony Creek area, 7-15-15)

 

LATER SUMMER/FALL FLOWERS FROM OUR 2012 DENALI VISITS

I'll sort these by chronological date instead of by color. We were in the park from August 5 to 16 and again from August 26 to September 3 that year.

Cinquefoil  (Mt. Healy Overlook Trail, 8-6-12)

Alaska spiraea/rose family  (Mt. Healy Overlook Trail, 8-6-12)

Wild rhubarb  (Mt. Healy Overlook, 8-6-12)

Unknown  (Mt. Healy Overlook Trail, 8-6-12)

Tundra rose  (Teklanika River Campground, 8-10-12)

Northern goldenrod  (Eielson Alpine Trail, 8-11-12)

Lapland diapensia  (Eielson/Thorofare Ridge, 8-11-12)

Dwarf larkspur  (Eielson/Thorofare Ridge, 8-11-12)

When fireweed stops blooming, its leaves turn bright red.
(Savage Alpine Loop Trail, 8-13-12)

This dwarf fireweed is in its final stage before it dies, when the seeds   
are encased in wispy white strands.  (Teklanika River, 8-13-12)

I guess these little plants are succulents and not wildflowers but they are
more colorful than some flowers!  (Savage Alpine Trail, 8-13-12)

When we went back to Denali from August 26 to September 3 very few flowers remained in bloom. Winter comes on fast here, and we got several inches of snow on August 28.

I took the next three pictures on Thorofare Ridge above the Eielson Visitor Center the next day.

I've never seen a large plant clump like this before. It was about 18" across and the white parts shown in the close-up sure look like flowers to me:

Unknown plant  (Eielson Alpine Trail/Thorofare Ridge, 8-29-12)

I wandered around the tundra that day but didn't see any other flowers. Some may have been covered with snow:

Snowy Thorofare Ridge, with Denali mostly covered in clouds in the distance  (8-29-12)

Ironically, Denali is more colorful in mid- to late August with autumn leaves than it is in the brief spring-summer season with wildflowers.

For example, here are some bright fireweed leaves I saw on the Mt. Healy Overlook Trail on 9-2-12:

And I think any avid gardener would be happy to have a perennial flower bed as colorful as these shrubbery leaves along the Savage River Loop Trail (8-30-12):

No matter when you visit Denali, keep your eyes open for colorful plants -- and rocks, which I'll feature in the next entry.

Happy trails,

Sue
"Runtrails & Company" - Sue Norwood, Jim O'Neil, Cody the ultra Lab, and Casey-pup

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© 2015 Sue Norwood and Jim O'Neil