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…)
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…)
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…)
Small-flowered Godetia (Clarkia purpurea)
Saddle Mountain Trail, Saddle Mountain State Natural Area, OR, 6/2015.
Looking very much like its better know relative Farewell-to-spring (Clarkia amoena), (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…)
