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The pink wintergreen (Pyrola asarifolia).
The pink wintergreen (Pyrola asarifolia).
I recently went to Marble to hike among the giants of the wildflower world: the 6-foot monkshood, bluebells and, especially, the rare and regal Case’s fitweed, which grows only in the Marble-Crested Butte area, the wettest place in Colorado.
True to form, the forecast of “60% chance of scattered afternoon thunderstorms” moved to “100% all-the-time-and-everywhere downpour,” sending me scrambling to the protective canopy of the spruce-fir forest.
Wildflower-wise, forests are completely different beasts than meadows. Evergreen needles render the soil acidic, and the canopy overhead keeps most of the sun and rain from reaching the floor. Gone are the riot of purples, yellows and greens that make up a typical late-summer meadow.
Rather, the forest belongs to the miniature denizens who don’t need sun or rich soil: pine drops and orchids, plants lacking or limited in chlorophyll that take their food primarily from the network of tree roots and mycorrhizal fungi in the soil. Standing just inches high and often blending into the forest floor, these treasures are easy to miss and just as easy to step on. The phrase “be where your feet are” becomes imperative in the dark forest.
Flowers to look for include pink wintergreen (Pyrola asarifolia), whose magenta flowers and glossy, evergreen leaves light up the forest; wood nymph (Moneses uniflora), its white, parasol-shaped flowers demurely hiding its brazen reproductive parts; and our smallest orchid, the delightfully delicate heart-leaved twayblade (Listera cordata).
If you feel you are fully channeling your inner fairy, go in search of the ultimate treasure — the twinflower (Linnaea borealis). Its two pink teacups for flowers, suspended on an impossibly slender, Y-shaped stem, was the favorite flower of Carl Linnaeus, the father of modern taxonomy. Carl knew something about wildflowers: he named over 8,000 species during his lifetime. He was rewarded by having the twinflower named for him.
Does the twinflower provide important ecosystem services? Can we put a monetary value on it, like the trees above its head? No. But I would venture anyone lucky enough to come upon it would say in that moment, on that day in the forest, it was priceless.
Karin Teague, executive director of the Independence Pass Foundation, is a 26-year resident of the Roaring Fork Valley and devoted student of its wildflowers. Learn more at independencepass.org/2022-wildflower-checklist.
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