wildflower wednesday

We are starting to see a little color here in the Estes Valley. While April is usually the start of our wildflower season, this year the flowers are popping up a couple of weeks late. I always look forward to these early bloomers. But wait! One of these is not a flower at all. Can you spot it? There is a fungus among us!

Spring Beauty. One of the first wildflowers to emerge, Spring Beauties are often found on sunny spots of forest edges, well-protected by debris like pine needles or even bases of bushes.

Pasqueflowers. It is easy to see how these flowers are adapted by early season conditions. Growing low to the ground, they emerge with their own fur coats!

Sagebrush buttercup. As the name suggests, these are most often found in moist sagebrush areas. This little flower that grows almost flat to the ground, emerging almost as soon as the snowpack clears.

Well, it looks like a flower but it is actually a “pseudo flower.” In part of its life cycle the rust fungus, Puccinia monoica, looks like a flower. This fungus attaches to a host plant (a species of mustard), bores into its stem for nutrients, takes over the plant’s development, modifies its appearance, and prevents the plant itself from flowering. Instead, the plant transforms its leaves to a flower-like appearance complete with a sweet fragrance and sticky yellow color (which can be seen in both infrared and UV light) to attract insects. If you look really closely, you can see the yellow is covered with tiny cups or spheres. These contain the sex cells of the fungus that will be picked up by pollinating insects. Those cells will germinate and produce spores that will then travel in the wind to the next host plant, for example a grass, and then infect that grass, thus producing more spores that will eventually infect another mustard plant. Amazing!

Easter Daisy. Growing lower to the ground in tight clumps, Easter Daisies are found on dry, sunny slopes. The leaves have tiny hairs for warmth and the flowers stay closed on colder days.