22 
FLORA OF MOUNT RAINIER NATIONAL PARK. 
grows abundantly here, with its long slender stalk, bearing a white 
cotton-like tuft on the summit. Sometimes this plant seems to 
take complete control of small areas, but more often grows mixed 
with other plants. The rosy spiraea, Spiraea densijiora , is a well- 
known little shrub bearing dense clusters of small red flowers on 
numerous short slender stems. In similar situations in the Olympic 
Fig. 16. — Purple aster ( Eucephalus ledophyllus). 
Color of flower, pinkish purple; height of plant, 1 to 2 feet; blooms July to September. 
Photograph by Asahel Curtis. 
Mountains the Douglas spiraea of the lowlands grows with the 
above, but this combination has not been seen here. Salix com- 
mutata, the common alpine willow, grows abundantly in these low 
meadows and bogs, and is in bloom about the 1st of July. There 
are few plants in bloom on the mountain before that time, unless 
the season should be unusually early. Leptarrhena, Saxifraga, 
Mitella, and Erythronium are some of the other genera composing 
