Early Yellow Locoweed: Creamy Yellow Flowers

Early Yellow Locoweed now flowers in fields at the Condie Nature Refuge near Regina, Saskatchewan, its pale yellow blossoms rising above the new grass.

Early Yellow Locoweed is reported to be toxic for some creatures — not surprising, as a name like "locoweed" might indicate some undesirable reactions...

Early Yellow Locoweed flowers.  © SB

Early Yellow Locoweed plant in grasses.  © SB

Prairie Wildflower: Early Yellow (Field) Locoweed.  

Location: Condie Nature Refuge, Saskatchewan, Canada.
Photo Date: May 19, 2012. 

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Early Blue Violets: Spring Saskatchewan flowers

Early Blue Violet.   © SB 

What luck at the Condie Nature Refuge this week — I saw Early blue violets in bloom along several of the pathways.

These small wild flowers grow very low to the ground in grasslands and open slopes.

The petals are purple and white, and side petals are white-bearded, says Jennings/Prairie Beauty.

Vance/Jowsey compares these violets to Northern Bog Violets, but says only the Early blue violet is common on moist locations on the prairies.

Shooting these little flowers required getting really low to the ground myself... which in spring in Saskatchewan, means risking ticks of various shapes and sizes.

(There's a large photo of one of these little arachnids — an American Dog Tick — on my Prairie Nature blog... It's crawling across the dandelion that lends yellow colour to the Early blue violet photo, below...)

Early Blue Violet plant.   © SB 

Early Blue Violet.   © SB 

Prairie Wildflower: Early blue violet 
Location: Condie Nature Refuge, Saskatchewan, Canada.
Photo Dates: May 22, 2013. 

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Leafy Musineon: Early Yellow Prairie Flowers

Leafy Musineon, or Leafy Wild Parsley, is one of the earliest spring wild flowers in Saskatchewan.

The flower heads are very small: When I was out looking for Prairie Crocuses, I had to carefully search the ground to find it. But what a delight to see this native plant blooming, bright yellow among the dirt and rocks and dried grasses.

Leafy Musineon: Leafy Wild Parsley.
Tiny flowers open. © SB

View of entire Leafy Musineon plant, with leaves and visitors. © SB

The compound flower head is only a couple of inches — about five centimetres — across, so each individual flower is indeed very tiny! 


Prairie Wildflower: Leafy Musineon (Leafy Wild Parsley; Musineon divaricatum) 
Location: Above the Qu'Appelle Valley, near Southey, Saskatchewan, Canada.
Photo Dates: May 12, 2013. 

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Cushion Milk-vetch: Creamy white prairie flowers

Close-up: Tiny Cushion Milk-vetch flower.   © SB

In the dry grass on a rocky outcrop above the Qu'Appelle River, fresh growth: Creamy white and purple flowers on short green woolly tufts, each plant only a few inches high.

Cushion Milk-vetch — Saskatchewan prairie wildflowers new to me this year, and so even more lovely and surprising!

These native plants are among the first to bloom in spring... They bloom so early, in fact, that those I found (while mounds of snow still huddled in the trees) already sported spent blooms.

And, like many early flowering plants, they are small — Cushion Milk-vetch rarely grow above four inches high, say Vance/Jowsey, in Wildflowers of the Northern Great Plains, aka the Prairies, aka a must-have book that also goes by the title, Wildflowers Across the Prairies. (Out of print, but well worth searching for the latest, Third Edition.)

And each flower is only about half an inch long...

Hidden in dry grasses, three tufts
of Cushion Milk-vetch.  © SB

Cushion Milk-vetch plant.  © SB

Woolly gray-green leaves and white/purple
Cushion Milk-vetch flowers.   © SB

Delicate creamy white petals and purple keels,
over leaves washed with silky, silvery hairs. © SB

Note on these plants: Royer/Dickinson in Plants of Alberta (seriously! if you're reading this blog, you should search for and buy this book, too!) say that these plants were used as rattles for ancient ceremonial occasion, as "the dry pods make great noisemakers."


Prairie Wildflower: Cushion Milk-vetch (Astragalus triphyllus)

Location: Above the Qu'Appelle Valley, near Southey, Saskatchewan, Canada.

Photo Dates: May 12, 2013. 

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Sand Bladderpod: Tiny Early Spring Prairie Flower

Today's winner in the tiniest wildflower category also takes a prize in the odd name group: Sand Bladderpod, Lesquerella arenosa.

Sand Bladderpod flowers are only about one quarter of an inch across, so they're easy to miss on prairie hillsides, especially when only one sprawling stem with one single bloom peeps above dry grass.

Once other blooms open, this native plant should be easier to spot... Singly or in groups, though, this flower is a great test of a macro lens — especially on a day when the wind races up to 70km/hr...

Tiny Sand Bladderpod flower, about 1/4 inch across. © SB

Prairie Wildflower: Sand Bladderpod, 

Location: Above the Qu'Appelle Valley, near Southey, Saskatchewan, Canada.

Photo Dates: May 12, 2013. 

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Pussy Willows Along Wascana Lake, Regina

Pussy willows © SB

Pussy willows — pearly catkins on Salix willow branches  — are a lovely sign of spring.

When I walked around Wascana Lake in Regina, Saskatchewan, this week, several shrubs were in full fuzzy bloom.

And so, for those who don't have access to pussy willows, with their soft kittenlike fur, here are a few pictures of Saskatchewan willow branches.

These catkins form on several kinds of willows; Salix discolour is the native plant, but I don't know if that's what the city or university planted around the lake, or whether these silky white blossoms are emerging on other kinds of willows.

But they are lovely, by any formal scientific name. And those of us who picked them when we were children, still remember the joy of discovery, and that soft fuzz between our fingers....

Pussy willow branch,
against the shores of Wascana Lake © SB

Close up of Pussy willows. © SB

Prairie Wildflower: Pussy Willows. (Salix discolor is the native willow plant)

Location: Along Wascana Lake, Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada.
Photo Dates: May 7, 2013.

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First Prairie Crocuses of the Year: 2013

Listening for summer, the Prairie Crocus waits. © SB

I saw my first Prairie Crocuses of this year this morning — I'm so happy to have found so many budding, blooming, fading on a hillside near Regina, Saskatchewan.

There was still snow in the crevices of the valley below where the Prairie Crocuses crept out from under dry grasses.

But the slopes at Wascana Trails were dry, with a warm wind and not a tick in sight. (Wood tick, that is. The curse of seeking early spring native plants.)

I love these furry stemmed wild flowers. The petals darken as they age, from deep purple through violet to white.

And many of the blossoms were tipped over, which brings me to a wonderful note from Royer/Dickinson's lovely book, Plants of Alberta: 

The Prairie Crocus is called the "ears of the earth" because it seems to spring through the snow to listen for the approach of summer. Legend also tells of the Great Spirit giving this delicate plant a fur coat to keep it warm through cold spring nights. 

On to more flower pictures...

First, a view of the coulee where these flowers grew, from the north side looking into the sheltered (and still snowy) southern banks. Next, a shot of many flowers, peeping out from old dry grasses. Finally, more close-ups of flowers.

For more pictures of Prairie Crocuses, see my photography blog, at http://shelleybanksphotos.blogspot.ca/. (I posted two there that I really like...)

View into the Valley, below the slope where the Prairie Crocus grow. © SB

Dozens of Prairie Crocus plants in full flower streamed down the hillside. © SB

Close-up of a group of Prairie Crocuses © SB

One single Prairie Crocus flower. © SB

A Prairie Crocus pair, listening... © SB

Prairie Wildflower: Prairie Crocus. (aka Pasque-flower, Pulsatilla patens, or Anemone patens.) 

Location: Slopes of Wascana Trails, near Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada.

Photo Date: May 9, 2013.  

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