Colorado Wildflowers in July

I began the month of July with a trail run at White Ranch. Since then, I have run or hiked at Mount Falcon, Apex and Alderfer/Three Sisters parks. Although wildflowers were not as amazing to me in July as they were at the beginning of the summer, I managed to learn about a couple of wildflowers and enjoyed getting away from it all once a week. I experienced the thrill of narrowly missing a downpour at Mount Falcon and seeing several deer at Apex. Since I don't get out to Three Sisters (outside Evergreen) very often, the novelty makes it enjoyable.

Mount Falcon

Deer in the thistles, Apex Park

Three Sisters

Mystery Solved

When I went to White Ranch Park on the 4th of July, I saw a tall plant that I was curious about. I could not identify it at the time because its blooms had not yet opened. I now know that it is Milkweed, a plant with beautiful star-shaped flowers that is attractive to butterflies and hummingbirds.

 Milkweed,
White Ranch

Milkweed, Apex

Showy Milkweed, Apex

Wildflower Pairs

In Colorado, I see more yellow and purple flowers than any other colors. At Apex, I found Toadflax, a noxious weed, paired with a purple flower that I haven't been able to identify with certainty. My best guess based on the shape of the blooms and the way its yellow stamens project out is the narrowleaf four o'clock. Beebalm flowers were growing all over the place at Apex as were Sulphur flowers.  Arnica continues to bloom and looks very pretty paired with Asters.

Toadflax with Narrowleaf Four O' Clock?

Sulphur Flower and Beebalm, Apex

Arnica and Asters, Mount Falcon

Uncertainty in my Wildflower Identification Skills
I am often uncertain about my wildflower identification skills. In my haste to take a quick picture of a flower so I can get on with my run, I don't always get a good close up of the leaves or stems. I search on multiple websites to compare my photos to theirs and sometimes I just can't tell for sure. At Three Sisters, I photographed a yellow flower that resembles Common Evening Primrose. I saw a lot of white flowers along the trails, including one that I think is called Hoary Alyssum.  Another lacy white flower, Yarrow, is much easier for me to identify because of its fern-like leaves.

Evening Primrose, Three Sisters

Yarrow

Hoary Alyssum, Three Sisters

Sticky-Heads

Subalpine Gumweed, from the aster/sunflower family, began blooming in July. When you look closely at the unopened blooms  you can see a white, sticky looking substance. That explains why Gumweed plants are also called sticky-heads. Gumweed's uses include treatment of respiratory problems (e.g. asthma) and skin reactions to poison ivy.

Gumweed

Weather permitting, next week begins my fourth month of trail running with a digital camera at my waist, ready to snap some pictures of wildflowers.

Konza Prairie Wildflowers

I have wanted to visit the Konza Prairie in the Kansas Flint Hills for years. Although I especially love Colorado, my home of 25 years, I appreciate the beauty of both the "purple mountain majesties" and the "fruited plain" just as Katharine Lee Bates did. I finally went on a short hike on the morning of my 50th birthday. The Konza Prairie Biological Station is an ecological research station jointly owned by The Nature Conservancy and Kansas State University with about twelve miles of trails open to the public.

On the morning of my b-day, I wasn't prepared for a long hike as I typically am when I venture out on the trails of Colorado. I wasn't carrying water, I was wearing walking shorts with a blouse instead of a breathable top, and I was wearing my Keen sandals instead of trail shoes. Even if I had been dressed right for a long hike or trail run, I probably would not have gone far on a hot, humid day. Kansas weather is miserable in July! Weather notwithstanding, I enjoyed the views of the plains and wildflowers.

Along the trail, I saw several numbered signs but I did not have a brochure to know what I was supposed to be looking at. Brochures are available in .pdf format online. At the beginning of the Nature Trail, a little wooden bridge crosses Kings Creek. According to the trail brochure, the stream is fed by springs and the water is naturally filtered by prairie sod and limestone.

The Nature Trail brochure says that the dominant forms of tallgrasses in the prairie are big bluestem, Indian grass, little bluestem and switchgrass.  The grasses are the tallest in September and October; big bluestem can reach 10 feet tall with enough moisture.

There's flint in them thar hills! And limestone. And lots of plant life.  The brochure for the Nature Trail says that there are about 600 species of plants on Konza. A couple of years ago when I shared some photos of Colorado wildflowers on Facebook, my brother said, "We have flowers here in Kansas too, you know." Yes, you do, David. Thanks to Kansas Wildflowers and Grasses for their website, which allowed me so search for the names of the flowers and read some interesting facts about them. Their site features many wildflower photos taken in the Konza Prairie.

According to the Kansas Wildflowers, the Compass Plant has a resinous sap that was used by Indians as chewing gum. The Native Americans also thought that lightening was more likely to strike where the compass plant grew so they would not camp in those locations.

Bee enjoying a Compass Plant bloom

Compass Plant

The KS Wildflowers website has several photos of Moth Mullein taken at Konza. The flower is most abundant in dry, gravelly soil.

Moth Mullein

The orange flower below is Butterfly Milkweed, which is also commonly known as Pleurisy Root.  The roots were used by Native Americans to treat respiratory ailments.

Butterfly Milkweed, aka Pleurisy Root

The purple flower growing next to the trail in the photo below is Woolly Verbena. It reminds me of the Prairie Clover Flower that I see in Colorado but is prettier, I think. Kansas Wildflowers says that woolly verbena is very resistant to drought with roots up to 12 feet deep. Native Americans made tea from the leaves and used it for stomachaches. The Fringe-Leaf Ruellia flower opens at night and usually lasts only one day so I'm lucky to be so observant!

Woolly Verbena next to trail

Woolly Verbena

Fringe-Leaf Ruellia

According to Kansas Wildflowers, the Round-Headed Prairie-Clover flower grows in dry, rocky prairies. The clover flower is most abundant in limestone soils, which makes Konza Prairie the perfect habitat. Livestock find the prairie clover palatable, unlike the bitter tasting Western Ironweed plant. Interestingly, cattle won't eat ironweed but sheep and goats will. 

Round-Headed Prairie Clover

Western Ironweed

As I hiked back to my car, a young mother told her daughter to move over to the side of the trail next to "the mountain" so I could pass. I have not forgotten how big some of the hills of northeast Kansas seemed to be when I was a kid!

After I left Konza Prairie, I saw a couple of other wildflowers along McDowell Creek Road, Prairie Coneflowers and Thickspike Gayfeather. Plains Indians made tea with coneflowers and used the plant to treat head and stomachaches as well as rattlesnake bites and poison ivy. Thickspike Gayfeather, also known as Kansas Gayfeather or prairie blazing star, was also used to treat snakebites.

Prairie Coneflowers

Thickspike Gayfeather

Konza Prairie, I will be back to see you in another season!

2015 Visit

When I visited Kansas in June this year, I stopped at Konza Prairie on my way back to I-70. I went in the morning to avoid the heat. I really loved seeing the Echinacea, Catclaw and Milkweed.

Black Sampson Echinacea

Blue Verbena

Butterfly Milkweed

Catclaw Sensitive Briar

Lead plant

Narrow leaf Bluets

Praire Coneflower

Smooth Sumac

Celebrating My Quiet Life

As I approach my 50th birthday, it feels like I have reached the summit of a fourteener after climbing for hours. I have turned my ankle a couple of times, my fingers are swollen from the altitude, my head aches a bit, but I made it to the top! Getting older changes your perspective on life, just as being on top of a mountain expands your view of the country below. I have learned to accept myself for who I am, to honor my strengths, and to stop trying to stuff my square shape into a round hole.

At the top of a 14'er in 2003

In Susan Cain's book Quiet, The Power of Introverts in a World that Can't Stop Talking, she explores some of the ways that the American culture holds up extroversion as the ideal personality type and how we collectively miss out when we don't acknowledge the gifts of introverts. At Harvard Business School, for example, a student's grades and social status are largely determined by being extroverted - by talking in class and socializing outside class. That's great if being talkative comes naturally to you. Yet as Cain points out, the best decisions may not get made when we listen to those who are the loudest and most extroverted and ignore the quiet, deep thinkers who have so much to offer.

As a shy child, I often felt uncomfortable, even nervous, in social situations. I became anxious when a teacher asked me to read out loud in class. I didn't like to be the center of attention. It was hard for me to talk to people I didn't know. It took me awhile to warm up to people. Today, I am still that socially awkward person. However, I am more self confident than I was as a child, because I now know that my brain is wired differently than 50-70% of the population and I've learned to value my "innie" strengths.

First Grade

Although Quiet primarily approaches introversion from a cultural point of view, Cain also discusses the work of a couple of people who have studied introversion from a biological or behavioral point of view. Jerome Kagan is a developmental psychologist who studied babies and observed that some of them were highly reactive to unfamiliar sights, sounds, and smells. They cried and moved their arms and legs more than other babies. According to Kagan, children with highly reactive temperaments have the "biologically prepared tendency" to be cautious.

Me as a highly reactive baby?

In Quiet, Cain also discusses the ideas of Dr. Elaine Aron, a psychotherapist who researches highly sensitive people. Several of Dr. Aron's observations about the highly sensitive resonate with me.

• Highly sensitive people are more philosophical or spiritual rather than materialistic or hedonistic
• Highly sensitive people process information about their environments deeply
• Highly sensitive people have strong consciences
• Highly sensitive people think in a complex way
• Highly sensitive people tend to love music, nature, art and physical beauty (it's nature for me!)

According to Cain, introverts are more likely than extroverts to say that they can express the "real me" online. I agree! We may express intimate things about ourselves online that our friends and family would be surprised to find out. For me, blogging lets me fully compose my thoughts in a way that I cannot do out loud.

from Susan Cain's Facebook page

Susan Cain's advice to people like me is to use your gifts and "stay true to your own nature."

You have the power of persistence, the tenacity to solve complex problems, and the clear-sightedness to avoid pitfalls that trip others up. You enjoy relative freedom from the temptations of superficial prizes like money and status. Indeed, your biggest challenge may be to fully harness your strengths.

I appreciate and admire the strengths of extroverts - gregariousness, assertiveness, leadership skills, etc. But I am also grateful for the strengths that come with my quiet nature - persistence, discernment, self-discipline, the ability to focus on the details, and even the little filter in my head that so often tells me "maybe you shouldn't say that."

I need quiet to think. I need quiet to reflect. I need quiet for peace. I need quiet to be me.

1 Peter 3:3-4 New International Version

³ Your beauty should not come from outward adornment, such as elaborate hairstyles and the wearing of gold jewelry or fine clothes. ⁴ Rather, it should be that of your inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God’s sight.

Colorado Wildflowers - White Ranch in July

On the fourth of July, my husband and I did a trail run at White Ranch Park, outside Golden, Colorado. We don't visit White Ranch as often as some of the other parks in the foothills (Apex, Chimney Gulch, Lair o' the Bear, Mount Falcon) but I enjoy running there. There were a lot of other runners, mountain bikers, hikers (including a family dressed up in matching 4th of July t-shirts), and even horses on the trail.

Belcher Hill Trail is steep and rocky in places so I had to walk frequently to catch my breath. Even without the frequent walk breaks, my pace is much slower than Kent's. Kent finds it so easy to run with me that he said, not for the first time, that he would like to run a 50k (31 miles) with me. I would die! On the way up Belcher Hill Trail, there were Prairie Coneflowers and another cone-shaped flower, Prairie Clover. 

Prairie Coneflower

Prairie Clover Flower 

Our 8.5 mile run included the 2.2 mile Mustang Trail, a steep forested trail I had never been on before. I found a You Tube video of a mountain biker going down Mustang Trail. His ride took him 4.5 minutes; it took us about 35 minutes and it was hard work (for me). The trail goes through a gully so there were flowers that you typically see next to streams, like Cow Parsley. There were also some pretty clumps of Blanket Flowers.

Blanket Flower

Junction of Mustang and Belcher Hill

Black Eyed Susan

From one of the trails, Longhorn or Whippletree, there are good views of Ralston Reservoir and Upper and Lower Long Lakes.  I saw Bee Balm flowers for the first time this summer and Prickly Poppies, which have delicate blooms but as the name indicates, prickly leaves.

Bee Balm

Prickly Poppy

Field Bindweed

On the way back down Belcher Hill, we stopped to let several people on horses go by. The woman leading the pack asked me if we enjoyed our run. When I said yes, but I'm glad it's almost over, she said I was the second person who told her that!