Survival

On our hike to Ouzel Falls, we saw trees that live literally on the edge. It's almost the norm here in Colorado, especially given the terrain. Here's a picture of a pine tree spreading its roots to survive.

Flower Fest - W for White Silene

Originally a native of Europe, I found these teeny white campions on a cold late summer morning in Tiny Town, Colorado, which is at about 8500 ft in altitude. It can be an invasive weed, depending on where it is found.

White campion or silene latifolia has male and female plants. Below is a female plant with female flowers.

And, the plant to the left in the picture below is a male plant with flowers.

White campion contains saponins which are toxic but since they are poorly absorbed by our body, they don't cause much harm. When the root is simmered in hot water, it can be used as a soap substitute for washing clothes.

The plant grows up to 3ft in height and the flowers are between 1/2 inch to 1 inch in diameter. It flowers between June and September.

This is my entry for the letter W in the Flower Fest - the A - Z of Flowers.

Flower Fest is the brainchild of Nature & Me and Sree. Every two weeks, the focus will be on a letter of the English alphabet. The current letter is V. I am submitting photographs of flowers as my entries.

Tags: Flower Fest, White Campion, Silene latifolia

Mushrooms!

We hiked to Ouzel Falls (9450 ft) from the Wild Basin Trailhead (8500 ft) this weekend. It is 2.7 miles to the falls and the hike is rather moderate till Calypso Cascades Falls, after which it is a steady climb to Ouzel Falls. The next series of posts will have pictures of wildflowers, hillsides, waterfalls and the gorgeous vistas along the way. Ouzel Falls are on the east side of the Continental Divide.

Here come the mushrooms...

We thought it was either a small frisbee or a plastic lid that someone had carelessly tossed away. It was almost 8 inches in diameter and a glorious orange-red.


We spied this curious collection of fungi when we stopped for a brief respite.


Toadstool was what came to mind when I saw this one.


Some more without a stem. Another view of these mushrooms.


If you can identify these, please leave me a comment with more information.