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.  We were thrilled to find a few specimens recently on Crescent Mountain, after nearly giving up searching for them the previous day on Iron Mountain and Cone Peak.  The flowers are small (around a half inch), and blend in with the background.  Each flower is on a separate stem from the interesting leaves, but most leaves we saw didn’t have an accompanying flower.  They grow in shaded, well-drained, south-west facing open slopes soon after lagging snow drifts have melted.  We’re still on the lookout for the related Dicentra pauciflora aka “Short-horned Steer’s head”.

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

Burnt Mountain Trail, William O. Douglas Wilderness Area, WA 6/2018.