ABC Wednesday L

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Back to wildflowers at Mt. Rainier National Park for L.

Lupine is the most common L flower in the Sunrise area of the Park. If you see a meadow filled with purple, it will be mostly Lupine.

The leaves are elegant in their own right.

The seed pods are fascinating.

A patch of White Lupine is a treat. I have also seen some with different patterns of purple and white.

The meadows around Sunrise, Paradise, and Tipsoo Lake ,and others reached by longer hikes, have a short growing season. Winter weather is long and harsh, spring and fall are short, and even summer can see an occasional snow flurry.

If you hike up on the Burroughs Mountain trail you reach the tundra--terrain even harsher than the high meadows. That's where you will find patches of the tiny Sub-Alpine Lupine. A close look will show that the flowers and leaves have exactly the same characteristics as the meadow lupines in a compact form adapted to drier, rockier, areas with even shorter growth cycles.

I posted this picture of Bird's Beak Lousewort for B.

...but not the Bracted Lousewort.

Not much more snowshoe hiking left in the season. I'm getting anxious for summer hikes.