Silverleaf Phacelia (Phacelia hastata)
Upper Canyon Creek Meadows Trail, Mt. Jefferson Wilderness, OR, 7/2019.
We found this guy holding on amidst alpine scree and snow near the crest of central Oregon’s Three Fingered Jack this summer. (more…)
Idaho Blue-eyed Grass (Sisyrinchium idahoense)
Willow Creek Nature Preserve, Eugene, OR, 5/2016.
This is the most common of the bashful blue-eyed grasses we encounter, (more…)
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. (more…)
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, (more…)
Round-Headed Buckwheat (Eriogonum sphaerocephalum)
Umtanum Creek Recreation Area, Yakima River Canyon, WA, 6/2018.
We encountered this bright yellow buckwheat shrub dotting the pale dry sagebrush steppe in the Yakima River Valley in early summer. (more…)
Fuzzy-tongue Penstemon (Penstemon eriantherus v. argillosus)
Iron Mountain, Willamette National Forest, OR, 6/2016.
These fuzzy-tongue penstemon, display amazing markings to guide pollinators to their nectar. (more…)
Sagebrush Mariposa Lily (Calochortus macrocarpus)
Umtanum Ridge Trail, Yakima River Canyon (BLM), WA 6/2018.
The exquisite sagebrush mariposa lily, the largest in size of the many calochortus, (more…)
Common Blanket Flower (Gaillardia aristata)
Horsethief Lake, Columbia Hills State Park, WA. 5/2017.
While this plant is widespread and native to much of the western U.S., we still find ourselves taken with the rustic beauty of the flowers (more…)
Gray Rabbitbrush (Ericameria nauseosa)
Sheep Rock Unit, John Day Fossil Beds National Monument, OR, 10/2017.
Golden rabbitbrush (Ericameria nauseosa) framed the arid piñon-juniper desertscape in our recent fall trip to Eastern Oregon. We saw them blooming everywhere across the rolling hills near the John Day Fossil Beds. They look similar to sagebrush (more…)
Tolmie’s Mariposa Lily (Calochortus tolmiei)
Baskett Slough National Wildlife Refuge, Dallas, OR, 5/2017.
This low elevation west-side species of Calochortus is notable for the extreme hairiness inside the flower. More than other Mariposa lilies (“butterfly” in spanish), (more…)
