Notes of an Amateur Botanist (and his Dog)

Deception Pass

pnwnativeplants — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 06:33:46 +0000

This afternoon Rodeo and I headed to Arlington for a sheepherding lesson, and afterward I decided to swing by Deception Pass and check out the early spring wildflowers. The trip was prompted by Mark Turner’s recent blog post, the highlight of which was finding the season’s first camas flower.

I followed his route, beginning at the parking area on Pass Island and following the trail system in the scrubby bluffs that overlook the Pass.

The first thing I noted was a red flowering currant (Ribes sanguineum) in full bloom at the edge of the bridge. Then I spotted the pink-purple flowers of Grass-widows or Satin-flower (Olsynium douglasii, iridaceae) and Spring-gold (Lomatium utriculatum, apiaceae).

Also in flower:

Scotch broom (Cytisis scoparius, fabaceae)

Coastal strawberry (Fragaria chiloensis, rosaceae)

Trailing blackberry (Rubus ursinus, rosaceae)

Small-flowered woodland star (Lithophragma parviflorum, saxifragaceae)

And finally, I also spotted a lone, blooming Camas flower (Camassia quammash, liliaceae)

Skyline Divide

pnwnativeplants — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 01:45:26 +0000

On Saturday, Ivy and Rodeo and I trekked up to Skyline Divide. We climbed up to the ridgetop and I chose to botanize the subalpine meadow rather than continue along the ridgeline and climb the final 1/2 mile or so to the nearby peak. We paused for lunch and Rodeo had several playmates. They romped through a snowpatch and then Rodeo found a spaniel who was willing to run with him, so he sped up and down the trail with the down in pursuit, prompting some worry from the owners as they disappeared down the trail. But Rodeo never leaves us and sure enough he came sprinting right back wit the other dog still on his tail.

Bracted lousewort (Pedicularis bracteosa), a figwort (scrophulariaceae).

Sitka valerian (Valeriana sitchensis)

Mountain bistort (Polygonum bistortoides), a buckwheat (polygonaceae)

A white paintbrush (either Castileja hispida or C. parviflora), a figwort (scrophulariaceae).

Indian hellebore (Veratrum viride), a lily (liliaceae).

Yellow glacier lily (Erythronium grandiflorum), a lily (liliaceae).

Avalanche lily (Erythronium montanum), a lily (liliaceae).

Sitka mountain ash (Sorbus sitchensis), a rose (rosaceae).

Creeping raspberry (Rubus pedatus), a rose (rosaceae).

Damfino Lakes/Excelsior Mountain

pnwnativeplants — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 00:05:16 +0000

Yesterday I decided to take a day away from the office, so Rodeo and I headed into the North Cascades for a hike. We stopped into the Glacier Public Service Center to check the trail conditions and learned that one of my favorites — Damfino Lakes (which proceeds on to Excelsior Peak) — was clear. I stopped into the bookshop and bought a copy of Mountain Plants of the Pacific Northwest (Taylor/Douglas), which I don’t recall having seen before.

It has nice photographs and plants are organized by family — important to me because my focus is learning to classify plants into families before worrying about genus or species. In fact, I often move past a flower once I’ve determined its family, if I think it will take a lot of effort to work out the species. I’d much rather move on to other flowers, classifying the ones I know and reinforcing that knowledge than spend time working on species identification. In future years, when my knowledge of families is more solid, I’ll spend more time on individual species.

After a 15 mile drive along a forest service road, the trail climbs gently for a little over half a mile to Damfino Lakes (Vaccinium, marsh marigolds). It proceeds uphill for another mile or so (Clintonia) and then breaks into a long subalpine meadow occupying a valley with a dramatic view of Excelsior Peak up ahead. Lupines (pea family), Valerian (valerian family), mountain arnica (aster), glacier lilies (lily), and claytonia lanceolata (purslane) dominated the meadows.

partial plant list:

Clintonia uniflora (Queen’s Cup), a member of the lily family.

Arnica latifolia (Mountain Arnica), an aster.

Phyllodoce empetriformis (Pink Mountain Heather), a heather.

Ranunculus eschscholtzii (Subalpine Buttercup), a buttercup.

Erythronium grandiflorum (Yellow Glacier Lily), a lily.

Caltha leptosepala (Marsh Marigold), a buttercup.

Sorbus sitchensis/scopulina (Sitka Mountain Ash/Western Mountain Ash), a rose. I wasn’t able to distinguish between the two species.

Oplopanax horridum (Devil’s Club), a member of the ginseng family (and the only one found in the pacific northwest).

Claytonia lanceolata (Western Spring-Beauty), a purslane.

Lummi Island Baker Ranch Preserve

pnwnativeplants — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 04:12:12 +0000

This trip took place on Saturday, July 11, with 7 other members of the Washington Native Plant Society. It was a return trip to the Baker Ranch Preserve on Lummi Island, where other WNPS members recorded over 100 species in May.

The trail was a little over one and a half miles and ascended roughly 1,000 feet to a couple of open areas (balds) with fantastic views of Orcas Island and the rest of the San Juans. Nodding onion (Allium cernuum) was common in the balds, as well as several species of orchids along the trees at the edges of the balds. Other highlights for me included a mock orange shrub in full bloom (Philadelphus lewisii), a bone white phantom orchid (Cephalanthera austinae), and Cooley’s hedge nettle (Stachys Cooleyi), which is a member of the mint family with tubular flowers that radiate out from whorls atop the stem in a square pattern that looks somehow engineered.

As a beginner, my contributions were fairly minimal, but I did manage to add one species to the list: Pyrola asarifolia, or pink wintergreen.

I had stopped to admire a wide swath of blooming twinflower (Linnaea borealis) along the forest floor at the edge of the trail when I noticed a pink flower stalk with pink buds rising up several inches above the green carpet of twinflower. I immediately thought it was pink wintergreen, but I could see no sign of the dark green basal leaves that should have been present. I conferred with a couple of other members of the group and we all agreed it looked like pink wintergreen. As we read Pojar more carefully, it noted that some wintergreens (Pyrolaceae) have much reduced chlorophyll, not unlike the related Indian-Pipe (see my last post). These plants are apparently subsisting primarily on rotting vegetation in the forest duff, drawing nutrition from dead matter and (perhaps) associated fungi and other microorganisms, and dispensing with the typical strategy of producing photosynthesizing leaves.

Pojar even goes so far as to assign the leafless varieties of several pyrolas into their own designation, Pyrola aphylla (leafless wintergreen), but admits that this isn’t a true species. If not a species, what is it? I’d have given each species its own variety aphylla (ie, Pyrola asarifolia var. aphylla). But I suppose I’d just have been labeled a splitter — which is not a reference to Monty Python’s Life of Brian, but rather to biologists who divide families, genuses, or species into additional categories. Lumpers, by contrast, merge related related groups into broader categories.

Hood Canal, Duckabush Recreation Area

pnwnativeplants — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 19:55:40 +0000

This weekend’s excursion was a camping trip to the Olympic Peninsula with my wife Ivy and friends Jack, Janna, and R. We stayed on some private land along the Hood Canal near the Duckabush Recreation area.

Species included: Foamflower (Tiarella trifoliata), a saxifrage; twinflower (Linnaea borealis); Siberian Miner’s lettuce (Claytonia sibirica), a purslane; Pink wintergreen (Pyrola asarifolia), a wintergreen; Indian-Pipe (Monotropa uniflora), which Plants of the Pacific Northwest notes is a very rare species; Prince’s Pine (Chimaphila umbellata), which PPNW also notes is rare; and Streambank arnica (Arnica amplexicaulis).

Indian-Pipe (Monotropa uniflora)

Monotropa uniflora (Indian-Pipe). Shot shows developing flowers (pale white) and last year's fruit capsules

Chimaphila umbellata (Prince's Pine)

Arnica amplexicaulis (Streambank Arnica)

I was enthusiastic, but Rodeo was bored