I saw two wildflowers below McNeil Point this week that I could use some help on -- the first is this gentian:




There was a large patch of this growing along a creek just below McNeil Point. My flower guides calls this "common gentian", but I'm guessing it has a more specific (and noble!) name.

The other was a rosy-pink lupine, growing near the tarns below McNeil Point. These were not white lupine, fading to pink - they were definitely pink/rose color at their peak form. Here's a photo:




As you can see, there was a lot of dew up there from the clouds that were covering the mountain most of the day. This is a heavily cropped photo - the plant had about a dozen flower spikes on it. Does anyone know if this is simply a sport of the blue variety, or a separate species? I've never seen this color before!

-Tom

Hi Splintercat! In answer to your first question, I'm not sure of a more noble name,  yet I see it all over the place up on Silver Star Mt. It is a beautiful plant! As to your second question,  this plant is of the legume family, having tall, dense clusters of blue, pink, or white flowers. I have seen this color before many times here in the pacific northwest!!!

The first one is "explorer's gentian"; it's by far the most common gentian you find in northwestern Oregon.

The second is probably just a mutation/variation of one of the "normal" broadleaf lupines that you find all over the place.  As far as I know, there are no species of lupines growing in our parts that are normally that color; even the "white lupines" that you occasionally find (I saw one near Timberline Lodge a couple years ago) are just oddball individuals of the blue/purple species.


Nice finds; I haven't seen gentians at McNeil Point, and I've never seen a lupine that color.

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adamschneider.net
www.gpsvisualizer.com

Well, I like "explorer's gentian" a lot better than "common" gentian! Who knows, maybe the pink lupine is the first in a new branch of the lupine tree...? Guess I'd have to test the DNA to know that. Thanks!

-Tom :-)

The pink lupine is a color variant of the blue Arctic Lupine you see all over Mount Hood. I photographed one this color on the SE side of Hood probably 25 years ago. I could never find it again. These plants tend to be short lived and the pink is a recessive trait. I originally learned this one as Lupinus latifolius, but the botanists are out to rename is L. arcticus.

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--Bryon

http://clackamas-outlook.blogspot.com/