Thick-leaf Thelypody (Thelypodium laciniatum var. laciniatum)
Lyle Cherry Orchard Trailhead, Columbia Gorge, WA, 4/2016.
This early bloomer is only found in dry rocky sites at lower and middle elevations. In fact, most of the photos we’ve seen of this uncommon plant have it springing directly from a rock face. (more…)
Oregon Geranium (Geranium Oreganum)
Pacific Crest Trail, Hobart Bluff, Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument, OR, 7/2019.
We found these large purple flowers in alluring sun-spotted drifts while hiking this summer in the Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument along the Pacific Crest Trail. (more…)
Wedgeleaf Violet (Viola cuneata)
Eight Dollar Mountain, Selma, OR, 4/2015.
A special two-colored violet found only in serpentine soils at the Oregon-California border, a unique botanical environment we return to again and again. (more…)
Bell Catchfly (Silene campanulata)
Viewpoint Mike Trail, Lost Creek Lake, OR, 4/2018.
We recently photographed this uncommon catchfly, and then realized we had also seen it on a previous trip visiting, Oregon’s southern Cascades. Although common in this limited area, we more often see Parry’s Catchfly, elsewhere in the northwest. (more…)
Henderson’s Stars (Triteleia hendersonii)
Pacific Crest Trail near Green Springs, Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument, OR, 7/2019.
We were excited to find this dramatically-colored flower in a recent trip to the Siskiyou Mountains in southern Oregon.
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…)
Varied-leaf Collomia (Collomia heterophylla)
Glacier Lake Trail, Goat Rocks Wilderness, Gifford Pinchot NF, WA, 6/2018.
The Varied-leaf Collomia is a much smaller sibling to the previously-posted Grandiflora collomia. Although their tiny sweet pink flowers (more…)
California Groundcone (Boschniakia strobilacea)
Jacksonville Cemetery, Jacksonville, OR, 4/2018.
We found this parasitic, purple-hued “flower” in a couple wooded locations in an early southern Oregon trip, (more…)
Sitka Mistmaiden (Romanzoffia sitchensis)
Mary’s Peak, Siuslaw National Forest, 6/2016.
The common name “mistmaiden” is surely appropriate for these delightful flowers. (more…)
Martindale’s Desert Parsley (Lomatium martindalei)
Silver Star Mountain, WA, 5/2015.
Although we’ve long enjoyed the “spring gold” dusting of these flowers across rocky landscapes in the early spring, (more…)
