Pasqueflower, Wind flower, Wild Crocus, Prairie Smoke~ she is one of the first blooms to welcome Spring to the plains and foothills 💜 Downy silver hairs on her stems, leaves, and petals glow in the sunlight ✨💜✨

Pulsatilla hirutissima is the state flower of South Dakota, and a little more purple-hued than Colorado's blue-violet Pulsatilla patens 💜 Her Dakhóta name is hokski-chekpa wahcha, meaning "twin flower". In "Song of the Twin Flower", she speaks as a grandmother to her grandchildren. She has come out first of all the flower people to show that Spring is here. By the time later flowers open, her blooms will be replaced by a hairy-looking gray seed head:
I wish to encourage the children
Of other flower nations now appearing
All over the face of the earth;
So while they awaken from sleeping
And come up from the heart of the earth
I am standing here old and grey-headed.

Her Lakhóta name is Hokšíčhekpa, or "child's navel", as her plump buds resemble a newborn's navel. She is also called Uŋčí Waȟčá, or "Grandmother Flower". There is a story that once, pasqueflower blooms were only white. One day in late winter, a young man went to a hill to pray. He was cold and lonely, and as it became dark, he wrapped his robe tightly around himself. He heard a little voice call out, a little white flower, wrapped in his robe, thanking him for the warm embrace. Over the days of his quest, the flower encouraged him, and assured him that he would have his vision. After he left, the flower shivered again in the cold. Creator looked down, was pleased with the flower, and offered her a gift. She said that she enjoyed the warmth of the bison robe, that she loved the colors of sunrise and twilight, and the warmth of the sun. Creator gifted her a robe of her own, painted her dress purple, and her heart gold as the sun. She sings courage to all the other flowers of the new season and reminds them not to fear their time, but to rejoice because their spirits will go on to color the rainbows.

Claytonia lanceolata

flowering season: March - June

One of the earliest spring ephemerals, she blooms just a few days after snowmelt. She can bloom in large patches, but is more commonly found in small colonies in sunny spots under stands of ponderosa pine. She is just 2-4 inches tall, her flowers are pale pink with pink stripes, her leaves are slender and pointed, and her blooms only last about two weeks.

After blooming, she dies back to her root (called a corm), a round, edible tuber 1-4 inches long, grazed by deer, elk, sheep, and bear, and foraged by Indigenous peoples. Tasting of mild radishes when raw, and like potatoes when roasted or boiled, her corm kept well as a winter food. Her leaves are also edible and rich in Vitamin A and C, as she belongs to the Montiaceae, or “miner’s lettuce” family.

Another species, Claytonia rosea (Western or Rocky Mountain Spring Beauty) is also found in Colorado. Claytonia virginica is often found and foraged in woodlands of the eastern and midwestern United States, her flowers and leaves prized as sweet salad greens.

Shop prints of Spring Beauty~ 5x7, 8x10, poster print

Wild iris, Mountain iris, Blue flag, Iris missouriensis

She dances through wet, open meadows in late spring and into early July 🩵💙🩵

Aquilegia coerulea

Queen of Colorado 💙👑💙

flowering season: mid-June - mid-August

Rocky Mountain Mariposa Lily, Calochortus gunnisonii

Mariposa is Spanish for butterfly, and these sweet beauties are also found fluttering through summer meadows 🤍 The species of mariposa lily found here along Colorado's Front Range is Gunnison's Mariposa, sharing a name with the Gunnison River, and the leader of a railroad expedition through the Black Canyon. She is also called sego, or seego (or sikoo), Shoshone for edible bulb; in Ute, si'go or siyoo 🤍 Her bulbs can be roasted or boiled, or dried, then ground and cooked into a soup or porridge. Her petals vary from white to purple, and her home is in the foothills and mountain meadows 🤍

Sego Lily, Calochortus nuttallii 

Her name, Sego (or seego or sikoo) is Shoshone for edible bulb 🤍 Shoshone and Ute peoples harvested and ate the bulbs of this pretty lily~ boiled, roasted, or dried, then ground and cooked into a soup or porridge 🤍 They taught early Mormon immigrants (in present day Utah) how to find and use the bulbs to survive winter and times of famine. Sego lily is recognized as the state flower of Utah because of her historic role, but her significance to Shoshone, Ute, and other Indigenous cultures long predates this designation 🤍