Buckwheat Family
Sand Begonia, Rumex venosus, PURSH
Flower parts are minute except the three inner sepals which rapidly develop into conspicuous red to rose-colored wings or vanes about ½ inch wide, attached to the seed. These vanes, with their seeds, develop into compact clusters 2 inches or more in diameter. Leaves are oval or oblong, fleshy and dark green, on short stout branches which are often prostrate. Grows in plains. Blooms May-July.
This is just an ordinary dock closely related to the pest you dig from your lawn, but a good example of a common wayside weed brightening the bit of world in which it grows. That bit of world, for this particular dock, is usually an ugly one, as it seems to choose the poorest soil it can find, the cinders beside a railroad track—or the gravelly edge of a country road. No one notices the small, insignificant flower, but its hour of glory comes with the brilliant rose and red seed vanes that call out gaily to every passerby. In the plains of western Colorado another dock, Rumex hymenosepalus, is also spectacular growing to a height of 2 feet or more with a great column of rose-colored seed vanes.
Purslane Family
Spring Beauty, Claytonia lanceolata, PURSH
Flower is ½ inch across of 5 pale rose-colored petals, notched at the end and with veins of darker shade. Sepals are only 2; plant is 6 inches or less in height, with succulent stems and rather broad lance-shaped leaves which rise almost as high as the loose raceme of 3 or more flowers. Grows in rich soil montane and foothill zones. Blooms immediately after snow melts which is late May to July, or much earlier on warm slopes.
The plants of this species that grow in foothill locations often have quite bright rosy color. They are great favorites, as their first blooms hint that winter is nearly over and spring on the way. They have been reported as early as January, and by mid-March they are often abundant under scrub oaks on sunny foothill slopes. The east side of the Hogsback near Golden is a good place to find early ones. The plant pictured above has the pale color and general growth habit of those that grow high in the montane zone. It often forms a carpet or ground cover of pale pink bloom in the fields of glacier lilies. Another species, Claytonia megarhiza, has a big root, to store food and moisture, and grows in the alpine zone. We have found plants of it on the big flat summit of Pikes Peak where other signs of spring are few.
Pink Family
Moss Campion, Silene acaulis, L.
