Bear Paw Meanderings
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I love May. It is because of the flowers. They come out, first the tiny yellow buttercups, and then a whole host of flowers follow them. It all starts in May.
It is confusing. Old timers from Montana call yellow bells buttercups. So do I but actually the buttercups come out very early and hug the earth as if to get warm. On sunny and warmer days, in Beaver Creek Park, sometimes huge displays of buttercups can be seen in the flat just west of Eagle Rock close to the Beaver Creek Highway.
Then come the crocuses. They are not crocuses either but they are called that around here. They have large purple blooms and will come out right through the snow sometimes. Pasque flowers is the real name for those flowers but to many who have lived here forever, they will always be crocuses.
After the crocuses come the yellow bells. I love them. They vary from bright yellow to a yellowish green and can grow to a foot high with several blossoms on one stem. I have seen whole hillsides just yellow with those yellow bells. They are impressive.
Best of all, once you see the yellow bells, the roosterheads come right after. They are a delicate purple flower known as well as shooting stars. The perfume they give off is the sign of spring all wrapped into one big smell. There again in the Bear Paw Mountains, one can see whole hillsides filled with purple roosterheads. They are a lot like prairie smoke which is a purple flower that grows in such profusion these days that it gives the illusion of smoke hanging on mountainsides.
Well, after the profusion of all of those flowers, then comes the balsam root. That is a large showy sun flower type of flower that also covers whole hillsides. It was first identified by Lewis and Clark and named balsam root as the root is tough like balsa wood.
In the Bear Paws we have a profusion of those flowers starting now. Add to that the white blossoms of chokecherry bushes and June berry bushes and you have a whole unbelievable coloration to go with the bright spring greens seen in the Bear Paws.
Want to see even more? Go to East Glacier this time of year until the end of May and drive from there to St. Mary. You will see a huge profusion of the flowers seen in the Bear Paw Mountains but added to that are years when there are millions of blue camas to be seen and every year huge displays of yellow Glacier lilies.
Yes, life is good in May and the flowers make it even better!
