Events

For event details, please visit the Calendar. Some events require advance sign-up.

August 28
Park Flight Bird Banding
September 4
Park Flight Bird Banding
September 8
Summer Sunset Flower Walk
September 11
Park Flight Bird Banding
September 12
Hike to Cerro Grande
September 18
Park Flight Bird Banding
September 20
Toddler Playtime
September 25
Nature Fiesta at Bandelier
October 4
Toddler Playtime
October 18
Toddler Playtime

 

Past Events

 

What's Blooming Now?

Current Flowers in and around Los Alamos, NM

The beginning flower identifier is usually overwhelmed by the variety and number of species. Most flower identification books show far more species than bloom around Los Alamos. But even here, there are hundreds of species. Happily, the most common ones are not too many for the interested person to master. To help with this, PEEC has inaugurated this Flower Guide to what's blooming NOW! As you can see, at present there are only a few plants blooming. As the season progresses some will stop blooming while others will start. This site will show only those that are pretty commonly seen on your walks. There will always be the plant you find that isn't here. For those, take a picture and bring it to PEEC for identification (best times are Tuesday and Friday afternoons).

By mid-summer, however, there are more than 20 plants at this web page, and again you might feel you're going into overload. What to do? Perhaps the best way is to visit this site once a week. Each time you will find a few new ones, but you will already be familiar with the older ones. By mid-summer most of the photos will be old friends, and you will be able to learn the new ones without too much effort.

To aid in identifying some of our common plants, PEEC has published some little booklets: The 12 LIttle Composites of Summer, Erigerons, etc. So visit this site, drop by PEEC, and enjoy our splendid native wildflowers. The PEEC gift shop also sells a wonderful sketchbook of plants from all over the state, "Flowering Plants of New Mexico" by Robert DeWitt Ivey. This book has far more species than grow around here, but as you visit this site and learn our local ones, you can note them in Ivey's book. All the sketches are in black & white, so each time you find a plant you can color it in making the ones you learned easy to find. Remember what people say over and over again: "Until I learned their names, they weren't there!"

To see all the WBN photographs, have a look at the What's NOT Blooming slide show.


Last update: August 27, 2010

Mountain Parsley

Mountain Parsley (Pseudocymopteris montanus)

Paintbrush

Paintbrush (Castijella integra)

Rock jasmine

Rock Jasmine (Androsace septentrionalis)

Whiplash Daisy

Whiplash Daisy (Erigeron flagellaris)

Arizona Peavine

Arizona Peavine (Lathyrus arizonica)

Purple geranium

Purple Geranium (Geranium caespitosum)

Richardson's geranium

Richardson's Geranium (Geranium richardsonii)

Salsify

Salsify or Oyster Plant (Trogopogon dubius)

American Vetch

American Vetch (Vicia americana)

Note tendrils that attach plant to others.

Firecracker penstemon

Firecracker Penstemon (Penstemon barbatus)

Woolly Cinquefoil

Woolly Cinquefoil (Potentilla hippiana)

Purple Prairie Clover

Purple Prairie Clover (Dalea/Petalostemum purpurea)

Mexican Hat

Mexican Hat or Prairie Coneflower (Ratibda columnifera)

Can also be bright yellow.

Wyoming paintbrush

Wyoming Paintbrush (Castellija linearifolia)

Skyrocket gilia

Skyrocket Gilia (Gilia aggregata)

Pronounced "JILL-ee-uh".

Bitterweed

Bitterweed (Tetraneuris richardsonii)

Black-eyed susan

Black-eyed Susan (Rudbeckia hirta)

Harebell

Harebell or Bluebell Bellflower (Campanula rotundifolia)

Yarrow

Yarrow (Achillea millefolia)

Townsend's Daisy

Townsend's Daisy (Towsendia eximia)

Nodding Onion

Nodding Onion (Alium cernua)

Death Camas

Death Camas (Zygadenus elegans)

Smooth Goldenrod

Smooth Goldenrod (Solidago simplex )

Little gentian

Little Gentian (Gentianella amarella)

Showy Fleabane

Showy Fleabane (Erigeron speciosus)

There are 6 common (and a few more uncommon) Erigeron in the area. To help in distinguishing these, PEEC sells a small guide to the Erigerons, which can be purchased at the gift shop.

Sneezeweed

Sneezeweed (Helenium hoopsii)

Found at higher elevations; does not make you sneeze.

Golden Aster

Golden Aster or Goldeneye (Heterotheca villosa)

Golden Aster will bloom from now until snowfall. Red flowers in photo are Skyrocket Gilia.

Tall Forget-me-not

Tall Forget-me-not (Hackelia floribunda)

Wood Sorrel

Wood Sorrel (Oxalis alpine)

Bee Plant

Bee Plant (Cleome serrulata)

Three-nerved Daisy

Three-nerved Daisy (Erigeron subtrinervis)

The most beautiful of the fleabanes.

Regal Daisy

Regal Daisy (Erigeron eximia)

Pine Sap

Pine Sap (Monotropa hypopithys)

Missouri Goldenrod

Missouri Goldenrod (Solidago missouriensis)

Wright's Goldenrod

Wright's or Bushy Goldenrod (Solidago wrightii)

Scouler's Catchfly

Scouler's Catchfly (Silene scouleri)

Dayflower

Dayflower (Comelina dianthifolia)

Wirey Bahia

Wirey Bahia (Bahia dissecta)

Low, cleft leaves.

Showy Goldeneye

Showy Goldeneye (Heliomerus multiflora)

Entire, opposite leaves.

Many-headed senecio

Brickelia grandiflora
Many-headed Senecio
(Senecio spartioides var. multicapatatus)

 

Flowering Shrubs

 

Baneberry in fruit

Baneberry (Actaea rubra)

In berry.

Apache Plume

Apache Plume
Apache Plume (Fallugia paradoxa)

Elderberry

Elderberry in berry (Sambucus racemosa)

Shrub above 8,000 ft.

Mountain Spray

Mountain Spray (Holodiscus dumosus)

Brickelia grandiflora

Brickelia grandiflora
Tasselflower Bricklebush
(Brickelia grandiflora)

View plant profile in USDA Plants Database.


 

PEEC Nature Center
PO Box 547
3540 Orange Street
Los Alamos, NM, 87544
(505) 662-0460
Center@PajaritoEEC.org

©2005-2009 Pajarito Environmental Education Center
Banner photo by Hari Viswanathan; logo by Tori Hansen; photographs by many community members.
We welcome comments and submissions to this web site.
Webmaster@PajaritoEEC.org