Need a plant ID

I stumbled upon this plant while hiking in the mountains in Breckenridge, Colorado this past June. I love it. Does anyone know what it is? Thanks!

It looks like Solomon's Seal. Look at this picture and see if you agree:

http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/showimage/48757/

http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/showimage/17130/

It's a false hellebore, Veratrum species. You might look into which species occur in that area.

This message was edited Aug 4, 2008 11:30 AM

Glad you could identify it, altagardener. As you can see, wild flower & plant identification arent my strong suit!

yes on the false hellebore, but I must say it has an amazing resemblance to the solomons seal in the shape of the leaves.

Oh, thanks GJ. I don't feel quite so dumb now.

THANK YOU!!!!! I considered Soloman's Seal too but it was much thicker stemmed than any that I have seen here on the east coast.

Now that I have seen other pictures of it, I have to plant some in the wet regions of my yard.

Veratrum are much broader-leaved than any solomon's seal, though that was not at all a bad guess. They are exquisitely beautiful as they emerge (before the stems elongate) and actually sort of resemble a ribbed-leaf hosta - gorgeous plants - equally beautiful later when in bloom. Here's the one that occurs in the mountains here, Veratrum eschscholtzii* (which I believe is more correctly considered a subspecies of V. viride, one of the species that also occurs in Colorado):



*Wow, that's hard to spell after a glass of cava!

This message was edited Aug 5, 2008 2:07 PM

And in bloom, with a refined beauty:

altagardener,
Those are beautiful pictures! Any chance of getting you to put them in Plant Files?

Well, there are a fair number there already for that species and I didn't think mine were unique, but if I can find one of them just emerging, I'll post that one.

I'm in plant lust now!