Summer Wildflowers: Prairie Smoke

I will be spending some time in the Gunnison-Crested Butte area soon and I checked iNaturalist to see which flowers people have noticed; Prairie Smoke (Geum triflorum) came up a lot and I hope to see some soon!

Photo Credit: Matt Lavin, Flickr

This plant has “parsley-cut” leaves and thin, wispy petals in colors that range from red to pink.

Photo Credit: Mississippi Watershed Management Organization, Flickr

When facing upwards with wispy, “feathery plumes,” the flower is completing its growing cycle and has gone to seed. This is likely the reason the common name of this plant references “smoke”!

Photo Credit: USFWS Mountain-Prairie, Flickr

Prairie Smoke grows in subalpine and montane meadows and blooms in the spring and summer.