Montane, subalpine.  Streamsides.  Spring, summer.
Lower Scotch Creek Road, June 25, 2000.

When it occurs singly, Oxypolis fendleri goes unnoticed because it is slender and because its flowers, like those of its Osmorhiza cousins, are such tiny sprays of white.  But O. fendleri becomes very noticeable when it gets wet roots and densely carpets high mountain stream-sides turning them white with thousands of flowers.  Heartleaf Bittercress, about the same height as Cowbane, also loves streamsides and produces masses of plants with many, but larger, white flowers.

"Oxys", Greek for sharp and "polios" "white", refer to the bracts and white petals.  Augustus Fendler, 1813-1883, for whom a number of plants in our area were named, was, for a short time, a botanical collector for the renowned Asa Gray and George Engelmann.  (More biographical information.)

Montane, subalpine.  Streamsides.  Spring, summer.
West Mancos Trail, June 26, 2004.