Anne Elliott's photos with the keyword: Ericales

Beautiful magenta Shootingstar wildflowers, photographed at Bow Valley Provincial Park on 18 June 2013. I have taken many photos of these flowers over the last few years, but find it almost impossible to get a photo that I really like. Just love their colour. "Dodecatheon is a genus of herbaceous flowering plants in the family Primulaceae. The species have basal clumps of leaves and nodding flowers that are produced at the top of tall stems rising from where the leaves join the crown. The genus is largely confined to North America and part of northeastern Siberia. Common names include shooting star, American cowslip, mosquito bills, mad violets, and sailor caps. A few species are grown in gardens for their showy and unique flower display. The stamens are thrust out with the sepals bent back. The flowers are pollinated by bees, which grab hold of the petals, and gather pollen by vibrating the flowers by buzzing their wings (buzz pollination). The vibration releases pollen from the anthers." en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dodecatheon

Beautiful magenta Shootingstar wildflowers, photographed at Bow Valley Provincial Park on 18 June 2013. Can't remember for sure, but I think the background was the distant river way down below. "Dodecatheon is a genus of herbaceous flowering plants in the family Primulaceae. The species have basal clumps of leaves and nodding flowers that are produced at the top of tall stems rising from where the leaves join the crown. The genus is largely confined to North America and part of northeastern Siberia. Common names include shooting star, American cowslip, mosquito bills, mad violets, and sailor caps. A few species are grown in gardens for their showy and unique flower display. The stamens are thrust out with the sepals bent back. The flowers are pollinated by bees, which grab hold of the petals, and gather pollen by vibrating the flowers by buzzing their wings (buzz pollination). The vibration releases pollen from the anthers." en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dodecatheon

Photographed (macro) this dainty flower along the road that leads up to Forgetmenot Pond, Kananaskis, near the intersection with the Powderface Trail, on 1 July 2011. This is in the Don Getty Wildland Provincial Park, which lies within Kananaskis. These delicate, native Jacob's Ladder flowers are bell-shaped and about 2/3" across. "Polemonium, commonly called Jacob's ladder, is a genus of about 30 species of flowering plants in the family Polemoniaceae, native to cool temperate to arctic regions of the Northern Hemisphere and also in the southern Andes in South America. Many of the species grow at high altitudes in mountains." From Wikipedia. The link below shows the whole Kananaskis (also known as K-Country) area. www.kananaskiscountrycampgrounds.com/govmaps/elbowmap.pdf

I tilted this plant back a little, using a small twig, so that I could see the small flowers from underneath, which one normally never sees. Quite a pretty sight : ) Macro photo taken on 10 July 2012 at Maclean Pond, off Elbow Falls Trail, Kanananaskis. By the way, just in case you didn't know, you should never touch a wildflower, especially a rare species, with your hands. You can leave behind certain oils that attract wildlife, which then eats the plant. A common plant in Alberta. It should never be transplanted, because its roots require a specific fungus. "There are 6 to 15 flowers on a stem, in long loose terminal cluster; usually nodding, 8 - 12 mm across, pale pink to purplish red, bell- or cup-shaped; style long, curved, bends downwards; appearing mid-summer." www.borealforest.org/herbs/herb31.htm

Not sure if I'd ever seen this plant before, but the little pink, bell-shaped flowers look so delicate and pretty. Photographed along the Sarrail Falls trail, along the edge of Upper Kananaskis Lake, in the mountains, when a small group of us went to botanize the area on 8 July 2012. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Menziesia_ferruginea

A huge room in the new Conservatory at the Calgary Zoo is full of spring flowers at the moment, waiting for actual spring to arrive, when it will be transformed into a butterfly house. Lots of these beautiful Cyclamen added their gorgeous colour, taking ones mind off the cold and snow outside : ) "Cyclamen is a genus of 23 species of flowering plants, traditionally classified in the family Primulaceae, but in recent years reclassified in the family Myrsinaceae (Kallersjo et al. 2000). The genus is most widely known by its scientific name Cyclamen being taken into common usage; other names occasionally used include sowbread and sometimes, confusingly, Persian violet (it is not related to the violets), or primrose (neither is it a primrose)." From Wikipedia.