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Steamboat Springs — I gave the same answer every time - mule's ears - to the repeatedly asked question by locals and visitors alike as to what the yellow flowers were that conspicuously painted our hillsides, hilltops and fields and dotted our ditches. I look forward to them every spring, but I also was struck by how profuse and long-lasting they were this year, and I decided to do a little research to learn more than just their name.

Mule's ear (wyethia amplexicaulis) are large yellow flowering plants and part of the Asteraceae, or sunflower, family. They grow throughout the West in grasslands and low- and high-altitude landscapes and depending on the plant's location, late spring and early summer are traditional blooming times. If you've noticed a slight difference in the mule's ears you've seen, it is because there are ten species of wyethia - three of which reside in Colorado, according to the USDA. We have wyethia amplexicaulis, arizonica and x magna with the latter being a hybridized version of the first two.

Mule's ear, or mule ears, are perennial plants that have a long lifespan. The common name comes not from its cheery yellow flowers but from the plant's long and pointed leaves resembling the ears of a mule. Although the flowers do not grow as large as sunflowers, they can - depending on the particular species - grow to a fairly large size. The plant itself is tall and stout, growing easily with good rainfall to a couple of feet. Like other members of the sunflower family, the flowerhead actually is made up of numerous tiny flowers (florets). Each of the petals is a single floret bearing one enormous petal, combining to form a ring of petals. As the above-ground foliage dies back, it feeds the large taproot that then stores energy for the next year's growth.

Cattle or other grazing animals, especially elk and deer, love to eat the new leaves as they emerge. If the plant is never allowed to get big enough to bloom and make seeds, then eventually all the stored energy from the tap root is used up making leaves, and this leads to the demise of the plant. If the plant makes it to the flowerhead stage, deer and elk relish these, as well, because by then, the leaves are bitter and coarse. This year, the cool wet spring was very much to their liking, and the "ears" got well ahead of any foraging grazers and bloomed prolifically for weeks on end.

The plant was named in honor of Nathaniel Wyeth, an 1800s explorer, by famous naturalist Thomas Nuttall in one of his expeditions west. Although the expedition was not a commercial success as planned, it was a scientific one, as 113 species of Western plants were collected and identified, which in itself was financially lucrative because Europeans had an insatiable appetite for new and different plants found in America.

Along with our famous Rabbit Ears, we have other "ears" that each spring cheerfully nod from the hillsides and announce another perfect summer is on the way.

Jane McLeod is a master gardener through the Colorado State University Cooperative Extension Office in Routt County. Call 879-0825 with questions.