Arctic Gentian

Arctic Gentian Gallery

1 of length pictures

Looking down on an arctic gentian plant with multiple flowers.

An arctic gentian seen on a stroll at Medicine Bow Overlook on July 31, which on the tundra, is late summer.

Arctic gentian near Tranquil Tarns in the Indian Peaks.

arctic gentian on the Mount Audubon Trail. In the background there appears to be more out-of-focus arctic gentians.

Arctic gentians dot the landscape along the Mount Audubon Trail. In the background, the four mountain peaks are from left to right: Chiefs Head Peak, Pagoda Mountain (shaped like a pyramid), Longs Peak (with a high flat top) and Mount Meeker. If you look close at the largest image on the Arctic Gentian Gallery Page, the two summits of Mount Meeker can be seen.

Looking down on an arctic gentian plant with multiple flowers, Indian Peaks, Colorado

arctic gentian at Medicine Bow Overlook, Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado

arctic gentian near Tranquil Tarns in the Indian Peaks, Colorado

arctic gentian on the Mount Audubon Trail, Indian Peaks, Colorado

arctic gentians dot the landscape along the Mount Audubon Trail, Indian Peaks, Colorado

Note: 1

Ruth Ashton Nelson, Handbook of Rocky Mountain Plants, Fourth Edition, 1992, Revised by Roger L Williams.

Nelson's book covers plants in the Rocky Mountains through Montana, Idaho , Wyoming, Utah, Colorado, and Northern Arizona and New Mexico. It is a technical book 444 pages long with keying of the plants.

This book has no photographs but has numerous well done drawings. For the non technical reader the book provides a detailed glossary and discussions of technical topics. The discussions for individual plants and their families are often illuminating and helpful.

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Note: 2

Ann H. Zwinger, Beatrice E. Willard, Land Above the Trees, A Guide to American Alpine Tundra, 1972, The University of Arizona Press.

This book covers alpine tundra in the contiguous United States. It describes the plants, the flowers, the ecology and the animals. There are no photographs but throughout the book are excellent detailed line drawing of the plants. This book is a pleasure to read. The beauty of the prose of Zwinger and Willard often compares to the beauty of the flowers they describe.

Zwinger and Willard are noted for their studies of alpine tundra on Trail Ridge in Rocky Mountain National Park. The tundra research plots where they studied are listed in the National Register of Historic Places.

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Note: 3

William A. Weber, Colorado Flora: Eastern Slope, 1990, University Press of Colorado. This is an authoritative source. Weber was a leader in his field of botany.

This is a technical book that an amateur may find difficult to use. But it contains much interesting information for the curious. The book has some color photographs and numerous drawings. The descriptions of plants and flowers tend to be technical but the glossary is very useful to a nontechnical person.

Weber was Professor Emeritus at the University of Colorado at Boulder and former curator at the University of Colorado Museum Herbarium. Weber passed away in 2020.

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Note: 4

Joseph F. Duft and Robert K. Moseley, Alpine Wildflowers of the Rocky Mountains, third edition 1992, Mountain Press Publishing Company.

This scope of this book is limited to alpine flowers which allows it to cover each plant in greater detail. Every or almost every plant description is two or more paragraphs long. Little less than half the book's pages have two or more color photographs which aid in identification.

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Note: 5

Linda H. Beidleman, Richard G. Beidleman, and Beatrice E. Willard, Plants of Rocky Mountain National Park, A Complete Revision of Ruth Ashton Nelson's Popular Manual, 2000, Rocky Mountain Nature Association and Falcon Publishing Inc.

This is a technical publication written with an eye towards the interested non-technical reader. The book has line drawings of plants as well as numerous photographs. There is a significant amount of introductory material including discussions of the contributions of Ruth Ashton Nelson and others to the study of botany in the Estes Park area,.

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Note: 6

Dianne K. Halleck and Delbert Wiens, Department of Botany, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, TAXONOMIC STATUS OF CLAYTONIA ROSEA AND C. LANCEOLATA (PORTULACACEAE). published in Annals of the Missouri Botanical Gardens, v 53, 1966, p 205-212.

paper

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Note: 7

The Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center has a succinct but informative description of the alpine version of the Western Wallfower and the different scientific names used by botanist.

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Note: 8

Scott F. Smith, The Native Orchids of Colorado, A Botanical Adventure of an Amateur, Published in: North American Native Orchid Journal, volume 13 (3), p 127-182, Oct 20, 2007.

This excellent detailed reference on Colorado orchids can be found online at www.swcoloradowildflowers.com.

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