Summit County Citizens Voice

The most cheerful flower ever!

Stairway to ... somewhere.

By Bob Berwyn

*Editor’s note – this story has been edited to reflect the fact that I was totally mixed up on plant identification. The plants in the photos are oxeye daisies, considered by local authorities to be a noxious weed. My bad! See the comments at the end of the story.

SUMMIT COUNTY — It’s a banner year for wildflowers, and one of the most profuse down along the Meadow Creek wetlands is the oxeye daisy (Leucanthemum vulgare).

When I first moved to this Frisco neighborhood, I couldn’t believe that these bright and cheerful flowers were growing everywhere in the wild. Much to my dismay, I learned that they are not native to North America, but considered to be “invaders” from Europe and Asia.

That makes me wonder how they got here — perhaps European immigrants brought them along to plant as ornamentals, since they are tough and don’t need a lot of care. At any rate, they now grow in all 50 states and in every Canadian province, so it seems absurd to think that they could ever be eradicated from the landscape.

Meanwhile, here’s an entire photo essay dedicated to daisies, and maybe this way I’ll get the daisies out of my system. And even though I’ll be branded as a heretic by the weed warriors of Summit County, I will say that I’m glad they’re growing. My morning walk through the meadows would be slightly less cheerful without them.

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Filed under: Colorado, daily photoblog, photography | Tagged: Colorado, Colorado wildflowers, Shasta daisies, Summit County, wildflowers | 4 Comments »