Odd looking flower

this is on a bush, not just a plant or grouping.

This closeup is not as sharp as I wish. Also along the San Miguel River on the way to Telluride.

edited to add proper id: Distegia involucrata (Twinberry) These are the bracts, not the total flower. Thanks ~'Spin~

This message was edited Jun 28, 2004 8:24 AM

I think It's called a 'bow tie' vine, don't know the Bot.,sorry.

That certainly fits the flower's shape.

Yes, It does resemble a bow tie, although I have only saw this as a vine and you say that it was a bush you saw it on?.I didn't know their was a bush type and the one I saw was a dark blue and not as pretty as your burgandy.

You did get some cuttings didn't you??, sent me one if ya did, heh heh, got lots to trade.

Bill

Nope no cuttings, but I do know where it's growing and I was disappointed in the picture.... ..mmmmmh

Thee picture wasen't that bad, Dalechampia dioscoreifolia.

Not bad, moko, but bowtie (or butterfly) vine is minimum *sub* tropical and Blooms took pic in high-country of SW Colorado. This one has been bugging me since it was posted!!!

Finally, tonight, I decided that it WASN'T a flower, those must be bracts of some sort, and I reasoned the flower would not have had to have been red at all... so I began to page through swcoloradowildflowers by color, and opening the sub-pages for anything I did not recognize as impossible to be a bush to match this one -- such as the cacti, alliums, buckwheats, etc.

After searching 4 pages of red/pink thumbnails, 4 of blue/purple (my second pass thru these two colors), 1p. of green flowers, and 8 of white, I started through the yellow pages -- on page 6 of 8, I saw a smaller than usual thumbnail (see below) and the name TWINBERRY... ah-ha I thought! two berries would account for the two brown dimples in Blooms' "flower"! So I opened the page
http://www.swcoloradowildflowers.com/Yellow%20Enlarged%20Photo%20Pages/distegia%20involucrata.htm
and the second picture was promising but not quite proof of identity, so I browsed some more with the given scientific name --

Distegia involucrata, and found out it is AKA Lonicera involucrata AKA Xylosteum involucratum and called, besides Twinberry: bearberry honeysuckle, fly honeysuckle, twin-berry honeysuckle, four-line honeysuckle, and bush honeysuckle. It is of the Caprifoliaceae (Honeysuckle) Family.

Also notably, other photographers have had just as hard a time taking a good pic of the bracts!
http://wildflowers.jankirkpatrick.net/SubalpineAlpine/ArapP/175-18b.jpg
http://www.ibiblio.org/herbmed/pictures/p08/pages/lonicera-involucrata.htm
http://plants.usda.gov/gallery/standard/loin5_1v.jpg
(even the government!) However, I am convinced this is it.

Whew, ~'spin!~

whew!! is right Crystalspin. Thanks for the time this took.

It does look in shape like the bow tie vine, but it WAS in Colorado mtns. And it was stiff-like not floppy like flower petals. Forgot about bracts, I'm just a stumbling amateur attracted by the unusual.

Have looked at all your pics and agree you've found the plant's name and I'm going back one day soon to see if it has produced another full flower with it's yellow petals.

If I'd posted this in the ID section I could declare it solved.

Right, I meant to say, those you took pic of must be from last year, as it says "Flowers in June, berries in July."
~'spin!~