Western Spring Beauty (Claytonia lanceolata)
Cone Peak Trail, Willamette National Forest, OR, 6/2017.
Spring Beauties are part of a group of plants sometimes called “spring ephemerals”, also including Blue-Eyed Grass, that harness the insulating properties of winter snowfall to send a shoot up from their underground bulb through the cold wet soil, during winter (more…)
Gordon’s Ivesia (Ivesia gordonii)
Cone Peak Trail, Willamette National Forest, OR, 6/2017.
From a distance, one might assume it to be Oregon Sunshine, given its bright yellow color and tendency to grow amid dry rock and shale near the top of mountains like central Oregon’s Cone Peak and Iron Mountain. (more…)
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. (more…)
Hooded Ladies Tresses (Spiranthes romanzoffiana)
Eden Park Trail, Mt. Hood Wilderness, OR, 8/2016.
We stumbled across this fen of Ladies Tress orchids in the moist alpine meadows of Mt. Hood’s north side in late August. (more…)
Fringed Pinesap (Pleuricospora fimbriolata)
Table Rock Trail, Table Rock Wilderness, OR 8/2016.
Easy to miss, and difficult to identify (more…)
Prairie Smoke (Geum triflorum)
Tubal Cain Trail, Buckhorn Wilderness, WA, 7/2017
We’ve only recently become aware of these attractive plants. (more…)
Ocean Spray (Holodiscus discolor)
Hamilton Mountain Trail, Columbia Gorge, WA 6/2016.
This flowering shrub, a mainstay along roads and trailsides throughout the west, begins blooming in June at lower elevations (like our photos here) and peaks in July and August at higher elevations. (more…)
Mountain Lady’s Slipper (Cypripedium montanum)
Badger Creek Trail, Badger Creek Wilderness, OR 5/2016.
This rare orchid is a special treat if you can find it. (more…)
Western Azalea (Rhododendron occidentale)
Near Eight-Dollar Mountain, Selma, OR, 4/2015.
In the same southern Oregon fen where we found the unusual pitcher plant, these amazing flowering shrubs were just beginning to bloom. (more…)
Annual Fleabane (Erigeron annuus)
Hardy Ridge Trail, Columbia Gorge, WA, 6/2015.
Although native to the eastern US, this weed grows in moist, disturbed soils across the country.
The flower is very small, perhaps a centimeter or a bit more in diameter.
