Hey! I found this flower on top of Quiniscoe Mountain in Cathedral Provincial Park (Near Keremeos in the BC Interior) on June 1st last year. My closest guesses are Subalpine Buttercup (Ranunculus eschscholtzii) but that species is listed as hairless (I'm using Plants of Coastal BC) and this isn't. PoCBC suggests Snow Buttercup (Ranunculus navilas) but my sepals are green not brown. You can find larger images here: http://www.johnharveyphoto.com/CathedralRoadTrip/SomeButtercup.html Help! Thanks! John
Hey John, Good to see you on here (I linked to your site as a resource site one day on BPotD here: http://www.botanicalgarden.ubc.ca/potd/2005/08/cypella_herbertii.php ). I'd be happy to help you figure this one out, but I'd need to go through the Illustrated Flora of BC. I won't have access to the reference though before mid-April, when I return from the US southwest, so I hope you can be patient (unless someone responds in the interim).
Don't you think that this is another potentilla? It doesn't have the abundance of stamens that buttercups usually have. The potentilla that you pictured in your beach picture thread was indentified for me as Potentilla villosa when I saw it on a beach in the Queen Charlottes. It is possible that the Mt. Quiniscoe flower is also Potentilla villosa but you may have to wait until Daniel returns to find out. Your pictures of the park are great. My husband and I spent several days last July hiking there but we never climbed Mt. Quiniscoe and never saw that picnic table.
Now I'm embarrassed - I think you are both right - it probably is Potentilla villosa. It matches Pojar and Mackinnon exactly. I was so centered on the flowers, I didn't look to the leaves. Thanks for the help! I was really impressed with park as well - hiking the ridge line was some of the best day hiking I've ever done. A lot of it is moonscape so there isn't that much to see for plants but the views are tremendous. Thanks again everyone! John
