Orange Honeysuckle (Lonicera ciliosa)

Dog Mountain, Columbia Gorge, WA, 5/2013.

On a May climb up Dog Mountain, perhaps the classic wildflower hike in the Columbia Gorge, this flowering vine took the prize for the brightest-colored flower we saw.  We worried (based on its color and vine-like nature) that it wasn’t native, but this is not true.  Primarily found in the Northwest, it also turns up in parts of the Southwest and Mexico.  Name after Adam Lonitzer (1528-1586), a German botanist who wrote a widely used text on herbs.

Starvation Ridge Trail, Columbia Gorge, OR, 5/2014.