Mountain Coyote Mint (Monardella odoratissima)

Hyatt Lake Recreation Area, Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument, OR, 7/2019.

Apparently David Douglas found this quite lovely member of the mint family while botanizing the upper reaches of the Columbia River in the 1820s

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Henderson’s Stars (Triteleia hendersonii)

Pacific Crest Trail near Green Springs, Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument, OR, 7/2019.

We were excited to find this dramatically-colored flower in a recent trip to the Siskiyou Mountains in southern Oregon.

Farewell to Spring (Clarkia amoena)

Tire Mountain, Willamette National Forest, OR, 7/2019.

Often seen growing amid browning grasses from drying soil, this lovely flower gets its common name from the fact that it appears as many spring blooms are dying back, often carpeting full hillsides.   

Striped Coralroot (Corallorhiza striata)

Hamilton Mountain Trail, Columbia Gorge, WA, 4/2015.

We find coral roots, except for this striped species, faithful companions that reward those that closely scan the pine-needle  floors throughout the wilderness areas of the Pacific Northwest.

Bach’s Calicoflower (Downingia bacigalupii)

Hyatt Lake Recreation Area, Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument, OR, 7/2019.

What a pleasant surprise to discover large patches of these tiny blue & yellow flowers in the dry outlet of Hyatt Lake, in Southern Oregon.

Royal Jacob’s ladder (Polemonium carneum)

Cone Peak Trail, Willamette National Forest, OR, 6/2016.

We rarely see this flower in full bloom, and then hardly ever without an insect of some sort on its lovely petals. 

Scabland Penstemon (Penstemon deustus)

Cone Peak Trail, Willamette National Forest, OR, 6/2019.

Amazingly….we continue to find more northwest penstemons! This one is unique in its stems of creamy white rather than the traditional purple, pink, or blue flowers

Giant White Wake Robin (Trillium albidum)

Camassia Nature Preserve, West Linn, OR, 4/2019.

“What a pleasure, seeing the year’s first trilliums in March or April, just when the winter rains feel like Forever!”  —  Daniel Mathews, Cascade-Olympic Natural History

We couldn’t agree more!

Leatherleaf Saxifrage (Leptarrhena pyrolifolia)

Bagley Creek, Mount Baker National Forest, WA, 7/2016.

We didn’t initial think this plant was a saxifrage because we mostly saw the red seed heads and stems,

Turkey Peas (Orogenia fusiformis)

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

This small and humble flower is often one of the earliest we find on hikes in the eastern gorge, and could be around now in places like the Dalles Mountain Ranch and Seven-Mile Hill west of The Dalles,