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wildflower ID: yellow, 5 petals, high elevation, foul smell

Posted: Sun Jul 19, 2015 1:01 pm
by bcrowell
I was on University Peak yesterday. Above 12000' sky pilot (polemonium) was pretty much all there was, except that in one spot around 13000' we ran across some flowers whose most noteworthy characteristic was a really foul smell. I first noticed it when my hand brushed against one, and I noticed how bad my hand smelled afterward. Can anyone ID this plant for me?

Each flower is about 5-10 mm in diameter and has five yellow petals. The petals are narrow and IIRC shaped like a skinny arrowhead. The flowers are in clusters of one to four. The whole plant is about the size of a cereal bowl. I think the leaves were sort of frilly and skinny, maybe a little like carrot leaves.

Re: wildflower ID: yellow, 5 petals, high elevation, foul sm

Posted: Tue Jul 28, 2015 4:04 pm
by gdurkee
Check Ivesia. The leaves have a strong smell, but not what I'd call foul. There's several but not sure what you'd see at alpine elevations.

https://www.google.com/search?q=ivesia+ ... 3gqR&dpr=1

Maybe a member of the umbelliferae -- can't think of one at Alpine but that's the carrot/parsley family and the leaves often have a very strong smell.

Don't suppose you took a picture??

g.

Re: wildflower ID: yellow, 5 petals, high elevation, foul sm

Posted: Tue Jul 28, 2015 4:14 pm
by bcrowell
Yeah, I tried to key it out in a couple of books, and I did come up with Ivesia as a possibility. Unfortunately I didn't take a picture, and didn't take enough time to really get a good description. I will probably do this route on University Peak again in the future, so next time I'm going to make sure to come back with some good observations.

Re: wildflower ID: yellow, 5 petals, high elevation, foul sm

Posted: Tue Jul 28, 2015 5:00 pm
by maverick
Surprised neither Tehipite Tom or SSSDave have chimed in on this.

Re: wildflower ID: yellow, 5 petals, high elevation, foul sm

Posted: Tue Jul 28, 2015 8:00 pm
by ERIC
maverick wrote:Surprised neither Tehipite Tom or SSSDave have chimed in on this.
viewtopic.php?f=4&t=12944 :nod: