NORTHERN BUTTERBUR 



Petasites hyperhoreus Rydberg 



Northern butterbur is rarely seen in bloom by visitors to the Cana- 

 dian Rockies, because it flowers 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 

 where the ice and snow have recently melted, the northern butter- 

 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 



