Kelseya

A rare occurrence on my blog - a photo of me! This picture of me taking a picture of kelseya was taken by Yvette Whitaker on the hike to the top of Flatiron a few days ago. It does a great job of showing the stunted trees on top as well as giving a sense of how high we climbed by the slice of bottom land in the top of the shot.

 Kelseya is one of my favorite wildflowers. An unlikely member of the rose family, it is rarely seen as it limits itself to high, rocky, wind-swept slopes of the North American west.

There are hundreds of plants on top of Flatiron. They are just starting to bloom and should be absolutely magnificent in a few weeks time.

At first glance the plant resembles a moss, insinuating itself into each nook and cranny of the rock face. It is only upon close examination that you discover it is actually more like a bonsai in that each plant has a short woody stem that looks like a trunk when exposed.

I hope you can see the amazing detail of the flowers and their leaves in this close-up of a tiny section of one plant. I will be climbing Flatiron again in a few weeks just so I can get a look at all the plants in bloom at once!