NORTHERN BUTTERBUR 
Petasites hyperboreus Rydberg 
Northern butterbur is rarely seen in bloom by visitors to the Cana- 
dian Rockies, because it flowets very early in the season. The silky 
seed heads topping its stout woolly stems are not likely to attract atten- 
tion. If, in summer, one is fortunate enough to find a sheltered spot 
whete the ice and snow have recently melted, the northern buttet- 
bur is sometimes found in flower, grouped with springbeauties and 
buttercups, in swampy soil or near snow water rivulets. The flowers 
are sweet-scented, and brightly colored. The ponies dearly love to eat 
the plant to vary still further their diet of “all sorts of feed”. 
This species of butterbur ranges from the mountains of Washing- 
ton and Alberta northward to the Arctic Coast, from Hudson Bay to 
Alaska. 
The specimen sketched was found at Vermilion Pass, thirty-five 
miles south of Banff, Alberta, at an altitude of 6,500 feet. 
PLATE 189 
