Wildflowers & Insects

"Cherry Blossoms"

Row after row of delicate, white cherry blossoms is a welcome sign of spring in the fruit orchards around Flathead Lake, in western Montana.

"Remember Me?"

Forget-me-nots bloom in pink buds and blue flowers. Eight different species of forget-me-nots live in Montana, including three natives. Behind the lens. There are legends surrounding forget-me-nots in almost every major language. My favorite is a Persian story that tells of a male angel who was cast from heaven for his love of an Earthly woman with forget-me-nots woven into her braids. He wasn't allowed to return unless his beloved planted forget-me-nots in every corner of Earth. They took to the task hand-in-hand, and upon completion the couple entered paradise together. And now you'll remember this story the next time you see these modest flowers blooming in your own corner of the Earth.

"Huckleberry Heart."

Summer in Montana means two things -- juicy-ripe huckleberries, and purple fingers. "Huckleberry Heart" note cards available here. You can also read about the history of Montana's "huckleberry culture" here at our Wild & Free Montana natural history website.

"Huckleberry Heaven."

Late-summer rains make the huckleberries swell up sweet and plump, while the cool evenings transform the whole patch from dark green to crimson red. (Note cards available here.) You can read about the history of Montana's "huckleberry culture" here at our natural history website, Wild & Free Montana. Behind the lens. Our friends Jim and Holly drove us up the mountainside to their "secret" huckleberry patch -- the real test of friendship here in Montana. They jumped out with empty buckets and started picking, and I hauled out my camera gear to work on this image that I had in my mind's eye. Even though the forecast called for sunshine, we climbed into the clouds and got soaking wet, picking fat berries with numb fingers. Some things are just worth it!

"Huckleberry Fall."

Huckleberry leaves - and one lone berry - fade into the first dusting of snow in fall. Some huckleberries make it past the hungry hikers and bears of summer, and become the seeds for another generation of huckleberry plants.

"Dream Catcher."

A spider web full of dawn dewdrops catches a multitude of visions projected by a nearby blanketflower (Gaillardia aristata), a wild and native member of the sunflower family. Behind the lens. I headed out to photograph the full moon and returned home with a spider web photo instead. You can read the back story here. Note that you can print this as a rectangle or a square - cropping is available during checkout, after it's in your cart.

"Wild Horse Blanket"

Waves of yellow Arrow-leaved Balsamroot flowers blanket Wild Horse Island State Park, in Flathead Lake. Balsamroot belongs to the sunflower family and is native to Montana.

"Sunflower Sunrise."

Summer sunflowers, like this garden variety, grow side-by-side with their wild cousins in Montana. (Note cards available here.) You can read the fascinating history of sunflowers here on my natural history website, Wild & Free Montana.

"Shooting Stars"

Our little Shooting Stars are perennial, native wildflowers that don't bloom in their first year. The Latin genus name ("Dodecatheon") translates to "twelve gods," and folklore said that the flowers point westward, keeping settlers on course as they crossed the Great Plains. In the east, Native American women wore the flowers in their hair to cast a love spell on certain men during dances - I'm pretty sure that would work on me!

"Evening Aster"

There are many, many Aster species native to Montana, but they are all dark blue to lavender in color.

"Pasqueflower Quintet."

The classic prairie crocus ("Anemone patens") is a native perennial herb that sprouts multiple blossoms in early spring. Behind the lens. The pretty purple parts are sepals, not petals. Other common names for this plant include meadow anemone, wind flower and Easter flower. And though it is common in Montana's spring prairies, it is the state flower of South Dakota.

"Pink & Yellow"

Small but delightful spring wildflowers include Few-seeded Draba (a wild member of the mustard family) and pink Rocky Mountain Douglasia (right).

"Mariposa Lilies."

"Mariposa" is Spanish for butterfly, so these little natives are our "butterfly lilies." Out of 57 species in the U.S., seven have been reported in Montana. Behind the lens. I used a focus stacking technique for this photograph, using seven images focused at slightly different depths. This technique gets all of the flowers in focus while keeping the background well blurred.

"Western Trillium"

Western Trillium is one of western Montana's most elegant native wildflowers. Following close behind snow melt in shaded areas, Trillium blooms open bright white or slightly pink. They often age into a lovely lavender color by early summer. Look for them in the spring along the lower reaches of Fish Creek, in Glacier National Park.

"Triple Trillium"

Western Trillium is one of western Montana's most elegant native wildflowers. Following close behind snow melt in shaded areas, Trillium blooms open bright white or slightly pink. They often age into a lovely lavender color by early summer. Look for them in the spring along the lower reaches of Fish Creek, in Glacier National Park.

"White and Yellow Glacier Lilies"

Glacier Lilies are one of Glacier Park's "signature" wildflowers. Most of them are bright yellow, but in one small area of the North Fork Valley, white and yellow Glacier Lily varieties grow near each other, making for an elegant spring spectacle.

"Bitterroot."

The bitterroot ("Lewisia Rediviva") was declared Montana’s state flower in 1895, ninety years after Lewis and Clark "discovered" it in the Montana valley that would eventually share the flower’s name. Note cards available here.

"Bitterroot Quartet."

A cluster of four bitterroot blossoms poke their heads out of the broken rocks in early summer. The bitterroot is Montana's state flower.

"Star Flower."

Starry False Solomon's Seal is a wild member of the lily family that was used medicinally by Native American tribes. The roots, shoots, leaves and fruits are also edible -- if you know how to prepare them.

"Red Paintbrush."

The Indian Paintbrush is one of our most beautiful flowering plants. The actual flowers are the little yellow parts, while the red parts are modified leaves called "bracts." Behind the lens. This is one of my favorite flowers. They don't tend to be very showy unless they show up in large clumps. But if you get up close and personal with one flower, the symmetry and shapes are quite interesting. The color varies a lot with various paintbrush species growing in different locations and different soils.

"Wild Rose."

Wild rose species grow in every state except Hawaii. There are at least six members of the Rosa genus here in Montana, and the Wood's Rose ("Rosa woodsii") is our most common species. You can read all about the fascinating history of roses here on my natural history website, Wild & Free Montana.

"Fall Rose Hip"

Our cool fall nights turn the wild rose hips and leaves into patches of crimson. If collected and dried after the first frost, but before the first heavy freeze, rose hips make a nice tea that's naturally high in vitamin C.

Calypso Orchid

Our most common native orchid in western Montana maintains a few intriguing reproductive traits. The number of seeds a flower produces depends on how much pollen is delivered by bumblebees, with an average seed count between 10,000 and 20,000 per flower. And the seeds require help from mycorrhizal fungi in order to germinate.

"Spotted Coralroot."

The Spotted Coralroot is one of Montana's beautiful, native orchids. It's spotted flowers are about 1/2 inch wide and bloom in June.

"Fall Colors."

A patch of Birchleaf Spiraea paints a fall hillside will color where, less than one year earlier, a wildfire had swept the forest floor clean

"Lupine."

Montana currently claims about 12 of the 80 or so lupine species/sub-species/varieties argued over by modern-day botanists. Silky lupine ("Lupinus sericeus") is probably the most common member here in our state. Lewis and Clark collected lupine along Montana's Blackfoot River way back in 1806. You can read more about lupines here at our natural history website, Wild & Free Montana.

"Arrow-leaved Balsamroot."

Arrow-leaved Balsamroot is one of Montana's showiest sunflower cousins. If from a distance you see a south-facing hillside awash in yellow, that's Arrow-leaved Balsamroot. You can read all about the sunflower family here on my natural history website, Wild & Free Montana.

"Flowering Kinnikinnick."

Kinnikinnick is one of the many native plants that was pressed and lugged back to "civilization" as a scientific specimen by those early Montana tourists, Lewis and Clark. Each tiny, pink blossom is only about 1/4" in size. You can read all about kinnikinnick here over on my natural history website, Wild & Free Montana.

"Reach for the Sky."

Yellow pond lily pads grow slowly towards the light of early summer. Almost half of the pads start out red when growing towards the lake surface. Yellow flowers reach for the sky on separate stems.

"A Pair of Harebells."

Harebells vary in height by elevation and available moisture, but they're all avoided by hungry animals because they contain toxic alkaloids. The name might originate from the phonetic spelling of Scottish "heather bells."

"Delicate Owl Clover."

The dainty owl clover shows delicate pink bracts (modified leaves) above smallish, yellow trumpet-shaped flowers. Behind the lens. It was a blazing hot June afternoon of bighorn sheep photography. But I kept getting distracted by these delicate little flowers appearing in clumps here and there among the grasses. So I finally gave in and broke out the 105mm macro lens, trading time with rams for time on my hands and knees with wildflowers. As the saying goes, there's no cure for curiousity.

"Fuller's Teasel"

Dried teasel stalks watch another sunset over Nine Pipes National Wildlife Refuge. Behind the lens. Teasel has a long and complicated relationship with humans. You can read more about it here.

"Iced Cottonwood."

A single fall cottonwood leave surrenders to a freezing stream, as fall gives way to winter.

"Wolf's Cholla"

The wolf's cholla (Cylindropuntia wolfii) spring flowers can vary from deep red to yellow.

"Lady in Red."

Ladybug beetles love to eat aphids, and aphids often live on thistle plants. So thistles are a good place to look for Ladybugs.

"Polyphemus Moth"

The Polyphemus Moth is a creature of superlatives. It is one of our largest moths (4-6" wingspan), most widespread (all of U.S. except desert southwest), and of course one of our most beautiful native animals. Its name originates from the giant cyclops of Greek mythology, Polyphemus, who had one large eye in the center of his forehead.

"Angelwing."

A Satyr Angelwing butterfly (Polygonia satyrus) warms itself by basking on the sunny side of an aspen tree. These butterflies feed on tree sap more than flower nectar, and their eggs and caterpillars rely almost exclusively on thistle plants.

"A New Mourning"

A caterpillar formed the chrysalis, but a brand new Mourning Cloak butterfly emerged from it a few weeks later. Her new wings are wrinkled at first, so she must hang upside-down to let her wings unfold and harden for an hour. Only then will she make her very first flight.

"Mourning Cloak."

The Mourning Cloak is Montana's state butterfly. They overwinter as adults, like this one, and then mate and lay eggs in the spring.

"Sulphurs Sharing a Sip"

Two sulphur butterflies share a sip of nectar from a single aster bloom. Sulphers are a bit unusual in that they almost never open their wings when perched. The only time they do is when a female is rejecting a male!

"New Wings."

After emerging from a chrysalis, a Pipevine Swallowtail butterfly climbs to the top of a flower and spreads its new wings to dry, in preparation for its first flight. Behind the lens. I arrived on the scene after this butterfly had emerged and was approaching the top of the flower. It was unable to fly with its wrinkly, new wings. But as it inflated the delicate wings with fluid, it slowly began to take on the familiar shape that we all recognize. Once I was down at eye level, I tried positioning my lens to be parallel to the plane of the wings, but the butterfly kept turning. So I settled for the cleanest and most pleasing background.

"Leaf Moth"

Our beautiful, native leaf moth ("Euchlaena mollisaria") is adapted to blend in with leaf litter on the forest floor. This one is resting on old Oregon grape leaves.

"Daisy Skipper."

A skipper butterfly lands on a Coreopsis Daisy, unknowingly picking up pollen that it will carry along to the next flower. Behind the lens. Skippers are the chunkier members of the butterfly family, named for the way in which they dart to and fro. (I never pass up the chance to use the word, "fro.") Butterflies are normally very wary and hard to approach. This one, on the other hand, let me get down at butterfly-eye level, wrestle my tripod into place, and generally muck around in the grass for some time. After I started, I moved my whole set-up around so that another coreopsis flower would make up the blurred background surrounding the butterfly. At the risk of repeating myself, photographs taken at your subject's eye level are almost always more interesting.

"Dragonfly Dew."

The morning dew glistens on the wings and body of a perched dragonfly. Behind the lens. This is a full-body image of the same dragonfly species as "Gossamer Wings," photographed on a different day in a different location.

"Gossamer Wings."

A summer-time dragonfly rests its gossamer wings on a timothy grass seed head. (Note cards available here.) Behind the lens. People viewing large versions of this photograph often ask me if it's a painting. I used a relatively new macro photography technique to get amazing detail in this portrait of a fascinating creature. (Hint: I used a 20-year-old macro lens along with an extension tube, but I do have to keep a few secrets to myself!) Did you know that dragonflies can fly backwards, or reach speeds of 35 mph? They can also sit perfectly still on a grass stem and do a pretty good imitation of a stained-glass window.

"Diamonds in the Sky."

The evening sun gets refracted into dozens of rainbow-colored diamonds as it passes through a dragonfly's transparent wings.

"Western Yellowjacket."

Ants, bees and wasps belong to the insect order Hymenoptera. Our western yellowjacket is a wasp, as are the critters that we call hornets, mud duabers and paper wasps. Most of the 100,000-plus wasp species help us out by eating other insects.