All pictures Copyright - use with permission only

These are all summer wildflowers and all pictures were taken within a mile or two of Elevenmile Reservoir. So far, all the pictures were taken in July and August 2015.. Pictures of a flowering cactus were added in 2016. Most of these flowers are very small, maybe the size of a penny or so

Links for Colorado wild flowers and plants  Wild Flowers of Colorado   Colorado plants

 

Below # 1     Eatons Penstemon  (July)

Below: # 2  (this mushroom is big.. more than one foot in diameter).  (July)

Below: #3 Fairy Trumpet flower   (July)

Below #4 Locoweed  (July)

Below # 5  (July)

Below # 6   Indian Paint brush (red flower)  (July)

Below # 7 Locoweed  (July)

Below # 8 Sage or Alpine Sage  (July)

Below # 9 Primrose  (July)

Below #10  Daisy or Alpine Daisy or Aster or Fleabane (daisy Aster family)  (July)

Below #11   (July)

Below #12 Wild Geranium   (July) 

Below #13   Wild Onion  Also. Called "Geyers" onion. edible.. very tasty...  (July)

Below:  #14  (July)

Below: #15  Colorado Rubberweed (poison if ingested)   (July)

Below: #16 Stonecrop and Lichen on the rocks. Lichen is a symbiotic relationship between algae or cyanobacteria and fungus (July)

Below: #17   Bell Flower  or Parry's Bellflower  or Balloon Flower (July)

Below #18  (July)

Below #19  (July)

Below #20  (July)

Below #21  Mariposa or Sego Lily  (July)

Below #22  Penstemon? or Orchid Beardstongue?  (July)

Below #23 Butter "n" Eggs Flower  (July)

Below #24  (July)

Below #25  (July)

Below #26  Red Smartweed flower?  (early August)

Below 28. Canadian Thistle (mid August)

Below 29 Colorado Tansy Aster (mid August)

Below The next three pictures are likely of a "Mountain Ball Cactus" or Pediocactus simpsonii

These pictures were all taken within a mile of the lake and in this area, these cactus only get to about two inches in diameter (at least all I have seen). About the only time you can find them is when the flower blooms around the end of May. The second picture shows the cactus in August. The third picture shows the cactus in October getting ready for a long cold winter and they become really hard to spot.

Below Mountain Ball Cactus near the end of May

Below Mountain Ball Cactus in August

Below Mountain Ball Cactus October - getting ready for a long cold winter.

 

---