Elkhorns Clarkia (Clarkia pulchella)

Tygh Creek Trail, Badger Creek Wilderness, OR, 6/2017.

After seeing these beauties in books (the latin Pulchella  means beautiful), we’d long dreamed of finding them in the wild.  

Sidebells (Pyrola secunda)

Union Creek Trail, William O. Douglas Wilderness, WA, 7/2014.

Although perhaps the least showy of the pyrolas, the tell-tale curved stalk is endearing when repeated in a grouping, explaining it’s common name of sidebells or one-sided wintergreen.    

Wood Nymph (Moneses uniflora)

Deer Mountain Trail, Ketchikan, AK, 7/2017.

Some books put this plant in the Pyrola (wintergreen) genus, while others give it it’s own: Moneses.

Oregon Anemone (Anemone oregana)

Crescent Mountain Trail, Willamette National Forest, OR, 6/2017.

Thanks to Ross & Chambers classic Wildflowers of the Western Cascades (a flora of Iron Mountain, which, coincidentally is just a few miles west on Oregon Highway 20 from where these pictures were taken), we now can differentiate Anemone oregana from the very similar lyallii.

Western Spring Beauty (Claytonia lanceolata)

Cone Peak Trail, Willamette National Forest, OR, 6/2017.

Spring Beauties are part of a group of plants sometimes called “spring ephemerals”, also including Blue-Eyed Grass, that harness the insulating properties of winter snowfall to send a shoot up from their underground bulb through the cold wet soil, during winter

Cutleaf Fleabane (Erigeron compositus)

Marmot Pass, Buckhorn Wilderness, WA, 7/2017.

These pretty daisies were among many flowers blooming on Marmot Pass during our July visit.

Smooth Douglasia (Douglasia laevigata)

Royal Lake Campground, Olympic NP, 7/2016.

Last July we found a single specimen (above) of this uncommon primrose peeking out from among the rocks near Royal Lake Campground.  One year later, and a few miles west,

Gordon’s Ivesia (Ivesia gordonii)

Cone Peak Trail, Willamette National Forest, OR, 6/2017.

From a distance, one might assume it to be Oregon Sunshine, given its bright yellow color and tendency to grow amid dry rock and shale near the top of mountains like central Oregon’s Cone Peak and Iron Mountain. 

Flett’s Violet (Viola flettii)

Buckhorn Peak Trail, Buckhorn Wilderness, WA, 7/2017.

These lovely flowers are endemic to the Olympic Mountains.  

Steer’s Head (Dicentra uniflora)

Crescent Mountain Trail, Willamette National Forest, OR, 6/2017.

To find these unique and delicate members of the  bleeding heart family, you  have to be looking for them.