Montane. Streamsides, wet areas. Summer.
Mesa Verde National Park, Prater Ridge Trail, June 17, 2006.

These four foot tall beauties surprised us in the midst of charred Gambel's Oaks on a dry Mesa in the midst of one of the driest years on record.  These are wetland loving plants, so the plants pictured must be tapping into moisture kept near the surface by rock.  Iliamna grandiflora is rare in Colorado; it is found only in the Southwest mountains. 

Edwin Greene named this genus in 1906, renaming David Douglas' Malva rivularis to Iliamna rivularis and renaming Per Axel Rydberg's Sphaeralcea grandiflora to Iliamna angulata.  The latter species' name was changed by Ira Wiggins in 1936 to Iliamna grandiflora.  The meaning and derivation of the genus name is unknown. 

The type specimen for Iliamna grandiflora was collected at "Mesa Verde", June 14, 1901 at an elevation of 2,200 meters by F. K. Vreeland.  (Intermountain Flora information.)  Mesa Verde National Park did not come into existence until 1906 so the reference to "Mesa Verde" refers to the 150,000 acre mesa, not to the Park.

Montane. Streamsides, wet areas. Summer.
Mesa Verde National Park, Prater Ridge Trail, June 17, 2006.

Montane. Streamsides, wet areas. Summer.
Mesa Verde National Park, Prater Ridge Trail, June 17, 2006.

Montane. Streamsides, wet areas. Summer.
Mesa Verde National Park, Prater Ridge Trail, June 17, 2006.