Once again, I’m featuring some unexpected animals I found in the Colorado landscape, both along Black Bear Pass and along Mount Evans Road … the Elephant Head wildflowers, also known as Little Pink Elephants (Pedicularis groenlandica). Ever since finding these unique wildflowers in 2013, it always cracks me up when I find them. You really don’t have to have much of an imagination to see how these beauties got their name!
These wildflowers are found mainly in moist and wet, marshy meadows of both the Montane to Alpine areas. They tend to grow in clusters … I guess you could say they stay together as a “herd” :o) The Pink Elephants reside in the Figwort family, along with the domestic snapdragons and foxgloves, and the wild and domestic penstemons.
Photographic Equipment Used:
- Canon 5D Mark 3 body
- Canon EF180mm, f/3.5 macro lens
- Bogen 3221 tripod with Graff Studioball SB-QR ballhead
- ISO 400
- Aperture f/6.3
- Shutter 1/50 sec. to 1/100 sec.