By Tom Schweich
Well … almost … along Golden’s trails. Monument plant grows in the gulches of Windy Saddle Park, just above Golden, but not quite as low as Golden itself.
This is Monument Plant – Frasera speciosa Griseb. – sometimes also called Elkweed, Green Gentian, Deer Tongue, and Deer’s Ears. The latter two are because of the long strap-shaped leaves at the base of the plant. The common name “monument plant” refers to the tall, narrow shape of the flowering plant, resembling a survey monument.
In Jefferson County, our plant is also found at Rocky Flats, Ranson/Edwards, and Lippincott Ranch, at slightly higher elevations than Golden. Most Colorado collections are in the mountains west of the Front Range. Its native range is from Washington south to northern Mexico, and from Colorado west to California.
Monument plant is a member of the gentian family (Gentianaceae, pronounced “jen-CHAY-uh-NAY-see-ee”) a diverse group of flowering plants known for their vibrant, often blue or purple, trumpet-shaped flowers. The family includes over 1600 species, with many cultivated for their beauty, such as lisianthus and Persian violet. Some of Colorado’s prettiest alpine flowers are in the gentian family.
Monument plant is monocarpic (if you prefer Greek), or semelparous (if you prefer Latin). The term describes a perennial plant that flowers and bears fruit only once in its lifetime, after which it dies. Other monocarpic plants include long-lived perennials like some bamboos and century plants. In my garden, monument plant grows as a rosette of large strap-shaped leaves for three to five years, then flowers, makes seeds, and dies.
While many bees and flies visit monument plant flowers to sip nectar from their large nectaries, bumblebees are the primary pollinators of monument plant. I think that might be because only their bodies are large enough to span the widely separated reproductive parts.
Our plant was described in Sir William J. Hooker’s (1834) Flora boreali-americana, or, the botany of the northern parts of British America, at a time when it was not so clear whether Oregon Territory was to be American or British. The chapter about the Gentian family was authored by Dr. Grisebach from a manuscript written by David Douglas. Douglas wrote that he found it “… on the low hills near Spokan (sic) and Salmon Rivers and subalpine parts of the Blue Mountains, near the Kooskooska River.” The Kooskooska River we now call the Clearwater River of Idaho.
David Douglas (1799 – 1834) was a Scottish botanist, best known as the namesake of the Douglas fir. He worked as a gardener, and explored the Scottish Highlands, North America, and Hawaii. Douglas died under mysterious circumstances while climbing Mauna Kea in Hawaii at the age of 35 in 1834.
References
Hooker, Sir William Jackson. 1829-1840. Flora Boreali-Americana; or the Botany of the Northern Parts of British America. Published at various dates from September 1829 to July 1840. https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/13840#page/69/
