Blooms July to August
Found in cracks in bedrock in subalpine to alpine zones.
Frequently found in conjuction with Flett’s violet. The bellflower tends
to bloom later but they to overlap.
The
first of the endemics that I identified in the field, I was introduced to this
small member of the harebell family after reading that “a person must spend a
good bit of time in the alpine Olympics and do some searching, and have some
luck, to spot the rare and lovely – and due to a very restricted growing area,
endangered – Piper’s bellflower”.
I thought that I was such a person or at least was trying to be such a
person. It may have been more an
issue of knowing what to look for since, soon after reading this, I almost put
my hand on one while inching my way along a rock face trying to avoid a thick
mat of mountain hemlock between Tull Canyon and Silver Lake. I was slightly separated from my group,
although I could easily hear them, and didn’t have much time to do much else
besides get a few photos and be really excited.
They may be growing farther west but I have not seen them there yet.
Although
the bellflower usually has 5 petals, I have seen anywhere from 4 to 7 petals on
a single flower.
The color is
usually a light blue but it does range from dark blue to white. The leaves are elongated with small
teeth along the edges. The entire
plant is only an inch or 2 tall. I
find them huddled in cracks in bedrock in the alpine zone from the southeast
corner of the Olympics up the east side of the mountains to the northeast
corner and then west to about the north-central.They may be growing farther west but I have not seen them there yet.
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