Woolly Plantain: Look carefully, or you'll miss it

Woolly Plantain flowers fall into the class of teeny blooms that you will miss if you blink or sneeze (for those of us with hay fever) as you walk by. But look closely, and those feathery stalks are tipped with clearly defined flowers.

A stalk of Woolly Plantain flowers.
From a distance, white fuzz. Up close, delicate wild flowers. © SB

But don't trust your eyes... 

There may be flowers where you don't see them at first — and what looks real, may not belong. 

(Like those lovely rosettes of leaves, below... They do not form the base of these two stalks of Woolly Plantain. The pairs of slim, elongated leaves beside the stalks belong to the Woolly Plantain, instead. But the symmetry was so lovely, I couldn't resist this shot.) 

Woolly Plantain, Grasslands National Park.
(The rosettes are not the leaves - the two pairs of thin leaves belong, instead.) © SB 

Prairie Wildflower: Woolly Plantain, or Pursh's Plantain
Location: Grasslands National Park, Saskatchewan, Canada
Photo Date: June 14, 2016

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White Beardtongue: Delicate spring prairie flowers

In the eerie light of afternoon, before a major prairie storm rolled through, I set out to find prairie wildflowers and found White Beardtongue at the edge of our Grasslands National Park campground.

Close-up of White Beardtongue  © SB

Stalk of White Beardtongue flowers  © SB

Despite the efforts of the mowers — who were likely hoping to keep mosquitoes and other bugs in check — several stands of wildflowers blossomed on the hill and along the fence lines, far off from our tent.


Prairie Wildflower: White Beardtongue 
Location: Grasslands National Park, Saskatchewan, Canada
Photo Date: June 13, 2016

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Bessey's Locoweed: Low growing with bright pink flowers

Bessey's Locoweed has distinctively bright pink flowers — glaringly bright when seen in the harsh sunlight of the dry, gravelly bluffs where it grows. 

Bessey's Locoweed in flower at Grasslands National Park. © SB

I've photographed this attractive, low — and to me, uncommon — wildflower several times in Grasslands National Park, where it can easily be found on 70 Mile Butte and along the edge of the cliffs at the start of the Ecotour Drive. This member of the pea family can also look slightly gray or silvery, because of the hairs on its leaves — er, leaflets.

Another view of Bessey's Locoweed. © SB

Bessey's Locoweed - fresh pink and dying purple flowers. © SB

Prairie Wildflower: Bessey's Locoweed
Location: Grasslands National Park, Saskatchewan, Canada
Photo Dates: June 25, 2013; June 23, 2012.

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Scarlet Gaura: Delicate pink flowers, pale leaves

Scarlet Gaura at Grasslands National Park.  © SB

Tufts of Scarlet Gaura grew around our site when we tented recently in Grasslands National Park. None of the tiny red, pink and white flowers were visible, though. The park lawnmowers had taken care of that, and all that remained was a gray-green ground cover.  

But uncut native prairie grasses and plants blossom on the hill above and around the edges of the Frenchman River Campground, and there I found Scarlet Gaura in full bloom. 

(At least, that's one of this delicate flower's many names, which include Scarlet Beeblossom.)  

I first started looking for wildflowers earlier in the day, and the first Scarlet Gaura I saw was far from scarlet. Instead of orange or red, the flowers were very pale pink. 

Almost white, in fact, which is how these flowers first appear, before gradually darkening during the day. 

The flowers I found that evening were much brighter — and the light was a lovely gold.

Pale early Scarlet Gaura flowers.   © SB

Bright orange-red evening Scarlet Gaura flowers. 

Close-up view of a tiny Scarlet Gaura flower.  © SB

Prairie Wildflower: Scarlet Gaura
Location: Grasslands National Park, Saskatchewan, Canada
Photo Dates: June 13, 2016.

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Canada Anemone: White native shade wildflower

Large flowers along the road or hidden in the trees surprise me, so when I saw Canada Anemones growing in a ditch and at the edge of a damp woodland, I wondered at first if they'd been planted there. And who knows where these particular plants came from — but, as befits its name, the Canada Anemone is a native plant.

Canada Anemone flower, seen from above.  © SB

Dense cluster of Canada Anemone plants.  © SB

Canada Anemone flowers. © SB 

These plants tend to grow in large clusters, and didn't seem affected  by even the dirt and grit of nearby grid roads.

Prairie Wildflower: Canada Anemone
Location: Near Muenster, Saskatchewan, Canada
Photo Dates: July 4, 2015; July 6 and 21, 2014.

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Yellow Clover: Tall yellow roadside wildflower

Yellow Clover, or Yellow Sweet-Clover, is a common flower that waves in the breeze along gravel grids and highways in Saskatchewan. Although it grows wild, it's not a native plant, and when first introduced, it was considered a weed. Now, Yellow Clover may be grown as a forage crop. It also spreads in waste land and along road allowances.  

Yellow Sweet-Clover. © SB

Yellow Sweet-Clover.  © SB

Prairie Wildflower: Yellow Clover
Location: Near Muenster, Saskatchewan, Canada
Photo Date: July 14 and 16, 2014

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Pink Alsike Clover - Pink and White

Today, a close-up of Alsike Clover. (Who knew there were so many different Clovers?)

Alsike Clover flowers.  © SB 

Alsike Clover, showing leaves and growth pattern © SB

Alsike can be identified by its smooth, plain green, serrated leaves, its often white-tinged flowers, and the position of the flowers at axillary points throughout the plant. This small, introduced wildflower can also be toxic to animals.

Prairie Wildflower: Alsike Clover
Location: Near Muenster, Saskatchewan, Canada

Photo Date: July 6, 2015

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Red Clover - a Naturalized Prairie Wildflower

Because this blog needs more pink, a Red Clover flower:

And yes, I know Red Clover is not a native plant in the Canadian Prairies, but it has lived here long enough to spread out and become a fairly common wildflower — and, when you look closely at the tiny compound flowers, they are very pretty.

Red Clover is a legume, and can be identified by the white V-shape on its non-serrated hairy leaves, and the terminal, or top, position of its pinkish-purple flowers.

Prairie Wildflower: Red Clover
Location: Near Muenster, Saskatchewan, Canada

Photo Date: July 6, 2015

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Purple Milkvetch: Tiny purple-blue pea-like flowers

Close-up of Purple Milkvetch.  © SB

Purple milkvetch is a widely distributed North American wildflower that under the right (or perhaps, wrong) conditions might be seen as a ground cover or a weed. But how pretty its new spring flowers are!

I found a patch growing in Wascana Park recently, one of the first spring flowers I've seen locally this year. (And no, I have not been out much, or yes, I know I'd see more...)

Most of the Purple Milkvetch plants in this patch were tufted and all were low-growing. I am so glad I got there before the mowers arrived!

A small tufted plant of Purple Milkvetch. © SB

Prairie Wildflower: Purple Milkvetch

Location: Regina, Saskatchewan. 

Photo Date: May 19, 2016

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Senecaroot: Pink-purple grassland and forest wildflower

Senecaroot flowers   © SB

The pinkish-purple flowers of Senecaroot were a mystery to me at first, because most of the sources I checked showed these round clusters to be white or green.

But the stalks I photographed near Muenster, Saskatchewan, had a dark and distinct rosy hue — a colour I finally saw matched and mentioned in Royer-Dickinson's Plants of Alberta. 

In R-D's book, this plant's name is spelled as one word: Senecaroot, so that's the way I'm using it here, although I've also seen it as two words, Seneca Root, and with variants in spelling, such as Senega Root, which makes some sense as formal name is Polygala senega.  

The name is said to honour the Seneca people, who used it to heal snakebites, perhaps because of the root's resemblance to a snake — leading to its other names, Seneca Snakeroot and Rattlesnake Root. Wikipedia says the root was exported and marketed to Europe for use in pneumonia treatments, and it is still used in herbal remedies.

Senecaroot, a member of the Milkwort family, is found in moist grasslands and open forests. It's a native North America plant, apparently widely spread across Canada.

Some of the Senecaroot plants I found two summers ago were in a moist dip (some might call it a ditch) at the edge of a road, near a stream. Others were along the edge of a wooded area, in a patch of fertile soil with a range of other flowers — also near a drainage area. (Both pictured here were in the former location.)

Senecaroot flower © SB

Prairie Wildflower: Senecaroot, or Seneca Root

Location: Near Muenster, Saskatchewan.
Photo Dates: July 14, 2014

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