Ask Wednesday: What's blooming in Columnist Chuck Smythe's Colorado?

Fairy Slipper (Calypso bulbosa),
an endangered orchid

Glorious mountain flowers!

By Ed Schmahl

[Editor's Note: Ed Schmahl and Chuck Smythe have been hiking buddies since 1966. They've spent uncounted thousands of hours in the mountains of Colorado.]

What is that berry?

Taxus x media =
Taxus baccata x Taxus cuspidata

"The cone seed of our Yew looks like a burst berry," my wife told me yesterday, as she led me to it.
    "That dark spot in the middle is the seed."
    Having taken my camera out for the Yew—and with so much else happening in the yard this lovely early Fall—I visited some other plants too. I used the "A" setting with the narrowest aperture opening that would afford at least a shutter speed of 1/60 sec. (for deepest field for close-up focus). Not entirely successful this overcast day (and having forsaken tripod because of a breeze).

Holly Berries

Mahonia

Beautyberry Bush
Callicarpa japonica)

Beautyberry Bush
Callicarpa japonica Leucocarpa
("leucocarpa" means white berries)

Muhly Grass

Some kind of Orchid
(from Trader Joe's)

Osmanthus heterophyllus Goshiki
("goshiki" means five colors;
the new growth is variegated)

Let's try some Photoshop effects with those last two:

(poster edges)

(cutout)