Elmera (Elmera racemosa)

Mt. Ellinor trail, Olympic National Forest, WA, 8/2020.

We often see these spikes of cream-colored bells on rocky peaks and ridges.  If we don’t often photograph them, perhaps it’s because they usually look a bit battered by their exposure to sun, wind and rain. Alternately, it may be due to the fact that we’re exhausted when we reach the elevations they prefer.  We’ve never encountered quite as many as we did recently, approaching the peak of Mt. Ellinor, on Washington’s Olympic Peninsula.

Sometimes referred to as Yellow Coralbells, these rock-lovers are only found in high elevations and only in the Pacific Northwest.  Once considered a member of the Heuchera  genus (it could be mistaken for H. cylindria), Elmera is now its own genus.

Mt. Rainier National Park, WA, 7/2015.

Mt. Ellinor trail, Olympic National Forest, WA, 8/2020.

Mt. Ellinor trail, Olympic National Forest, WA, 8/2020.

Mt. Rainier National Park, WA, 7/2015.