Utah wildflower update: Floral decor in style in this Living Room
| May 16, 2017, 3:05 p.m.
| Updated: Sep. 13, 2017, 1:34 a.m.
Erin Alberty | The Salt Lake Tribune
Sweetvetch blossoms cluster May 9, 2017 along the Living Room trail in Salt Lake City.
Erin Alberty | The Salt Lake Tribune
Arrowleaf balsamroot blooms May 9, 2017 along the Living Room trail in Salt Lake City.
Erin Alberty | The Salt Lake Tribune
Blossoms smother serviceberry shrubs May 9, 2017 along the Living Room trail in Salt Lake City.
Erin Alberty | The Salt Lake Tribune
Pink phlox bloom cheerfully May 9, 2017 along the Living Room trail in Salt Lake City.
Erin Alberty | The Salt Lake Tribune
Arrowleaf balsamroot blooms May 9, 2017 along the Living Room trail in Salt Lake City.
Erin Alberty | The Salt Lake Tribune
Death Camas 1-3 - Although the bulb has been known to poison animals and people, the flowers emit a gorgeous, seemingly-iridescent sheen in the afternoon sun of May 9, 2017 along the Living Room trail in Salt Lake City.
Erin Alberty | The Salt Lake Tribune
The adorable stickseed flower bounces in an afternoon breeze May 9, 2017 along the Living Room trail in Salt Lake City.
Erin Alberty | The Salt Lake Tribune
A sweet pea blossom rests gracefully in the shade May 9, 2017 along the Living Room trail in Salt Lake City.
Erin Alberty | The Salt Lake Tribune
Hikers relax May 9, 2017 on the rock seats propped up in the Living Room, a popular hiking destination above Salt Lake City.
Erin Alberty | The Salt Lake Tribune
Astragalus, or milkvetch, blooms May 9, 2017 along the Living Room trail in Salt Lake City.
Erin Alberty | The Salt Lake Tribune
Sweetvetch blossoms cluster May 9, 2017 along the Living Room trail in Salt Lake City.
Erin Alberty | The Salt Lake Tribune
Blossoms smother serviceberry shrubs May 9, 2017 along the Living Room trail in Salt Lake City.
Erin Alberty | The Salt Lake Tribune
A chokecherry shrub bursts into bloom May 9, 2017 along the Living Room trail in Salt Lake City.
Erin Alberty | The Salt Lake Tribune
Sweetvetch blossoms cluster May 9, 2017 along the Living Room trail in Salt Lake City.
Erin Alberty | The Salt Lake Tribune
The adorable stickseed flower bounces in an afternoon breeze May 9, 2017 along the Living Room trail in Salt Lake City.
Erin Alberty | The Salt Lake Tribune
Larkspur blooms and fades quickly. This one remains blueish purple May 9, 2017 along the Living Room trail in Salt Lake City.
Erin Alberty | The Salt Lake Tribune
Hikers pass a pink flowering shrub May 9, 2017 near the Living Room trail in Salt Lake City. The shrub appears to be a honeysuckle that is not native to Utah.
The wildflowers are moving on up into the Wasatch foothills, and many of our mountain favorites are making their debuts.
On Tuesday I hiked up to the Living Room above the University of Utah, for a quick breath of May. Several of my fellow hikers remarked on the flower display.
Arrowleaf balsamroot (one of those Plyfs) was stealing the spotlight, massing in vibrant yellow bloom along the trail and rising up the slopes in patches that glowed through the scrub oak. Sharing center stage was hot pink sweetvetch, its pea-like flowers springing up in lower clusters.
Among the supporting cast members I saw this week: Death Camas, milkvetch, bluebells, phlox, puccoon, sweet pea, cryptantha, larkspur and stickseed. Near the top of the hike was probably the most dense and attractive display of serviceberry I've seen in the Wasatch. The yellow, fragrant flowers of the purshia shrubs were waning, but a chokecherry bush was early and robust in its bloom.
(A large honeysuckle-looking shrub was smothered with pink flowers near the trailhead — but that probably shouldn't be there, so try not to enjoy it too much.)
I have seen a number of pretty white buckwheats on this trail, but those weren't ready to bloom yet. Look for those ingenues later in the season.
The hike is 2.3 miles round trip, from 5,000 to about 6,000 feet in elevation. Here is a map: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1LNLyCmC4YKyoaQN3-ocShpjhn8c&usp=sharing
— Erin Alberty
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