Northern Monkshood (Aconitum delphinifolium)
Lower Dewey Lake, Skagway, AK, 7/2017.
We’re posting this Northern Monkshood, found on the westside flower garden bordering Lower Dewey lake above Skagway, Alaska this summer, even though we’ve notyet posted the more common western columbianum. (more…)
Tufted Saxifrage (Saxifraga caespitosa)
Marmot Pass, Buckhorn Wilderness, 7/2017.
Nearly twenty species of saxifraga occur in the pacific northwest, and up until now, we’ve only posted three! (more…)
Tall Silvercrown (Luina nardosmia)
Leavenworth Ski Hill, Leavenworth, WA, 5/2017.
Variously called Luina or Cacaliopsis, this waist-high plain-looking plant’s leaves resemble those of Coltsfoot, with flowers that look somewhat like a Rainiera. Upon close inspection, (more…)
Diamond clarkia (Clarkia rhomboidea)
Tygh Creek Trail, Badger Creek Wilderness Area, OR, 6/2017
The Diamond or Common clarkia, showed up near its close relative the Elkhorns Clarkia,
Gairdner’s Penstemon (Penstemon gairdneri)
Rattlesnake Dance Trail, Yakima Canyon, WA. 5/2017
We found these lovely, endemic penstemons on an impromptu hike just south of Ellensburg, WA, on our way back to Portland from Leavenworth this past spring. (more…)
Northern groundcone (Boschniakia rossica)
Yakutania Point Trail, Skagway, AK, 7/2017.
We found this odd non-green plant in a couple locations in flood-prone Cottonwood-Alder forests outside of Skagway, Alaska. (more…)
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. (more…)
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. (more…)
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. (more…)
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. (more…)
