I am not familiar with a wild flower I saw in July-Aug this year. It grew single with a long stem in dry rocky area. Had very delicate white medium sized petals with purple/pink scattered through. The flower almost resembled a carnation, but much more delicate and less cluttered. It lasted for about 2 weeks with no rain. I wish I took a photo, but next year I will try to hunt it down.
Probably going to be too difficult to identify from your description, but one thing you might try is to look at "Plants of the Pacific Northwest Coast" at a library or bookstore.
dansingraven ... I have looked through my copy of "Plants of the Pacific Northwest Coast" by Pojar & MacKinnon. (the book Daniel mentioned above) Anything that even looked like a carnation was the wrong color. Yellow or burgundy with white tips, the pea-clover family. Pics would be wonderful! Plant leaf type. bloom size and height, and anything else you can remember would help. barb
Wish I would have taken a pic...height of stem was about 4-6 inches. Flower was about the size of a carnation..medium to large in size. Truly the most stunning wild flower I had ever seen. I don't remember the foilage except that there wasn't much if any on the stem it was at the base of the stem.
What was the location of the wildflower (that may or may not eliminate Calochortus as a possibility, if in BC)
In "Pojars" the close-up of the flower of the Calochortus looks more like a Tigridia flower - three petals and forming a cup in the center. (I don't know all the formal names for flower parts). When you say carnation, do you mean a big fluffy, multi petaled florist carnation or more of a home grown "pink"; few petals and about an inch across? barb
It was probably some sort of lily. My memory seems to be different than my kids who remember pink with redish markings and more petals. It was standing all on it's own very upright. I will search for it next summer and take a pic. We have just moved to this area, so i am stunned by all the different species of everything in particular berries.
In your initial post, dansingraven, you said that the mystery flower reminded you of a carnation...could it be a wild species of Dianthus? D. plumarius, maybe?
Thank you...no after seeing the photos of the Calochortus, I beleive there was a link there...it is in an undeveloped area up high on the hills and it just had a few more petals than what I saw on the Calochortus pics that were offered on Wikipedia vast selection. I will have to wait until next year and get a photo, the more photos on the net I look at, the more confuse I get on what it actually looked like. My kids are helping, but then again not reallly lol..Thanks again..I think I will let this one rest till next year.
