wildflowers

Chocolate Lily (Fritillaria affinis)

May 7, 2013
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Chocolate Lily (Fritillaria affinis) is one of my favorite northwestern wildflowers. It’s beautiful, but doesn’t quite hit you in the face with it’s good looks, the way more showy blossoms can. It’s charms are more subtle. Getting a good look at a Chocolate Lily takes a little bit of work. First of all…

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Early-blooming Wildflower: Grass Widow

March 11, 2013
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I recently made it out to Catherine Creek in the Columbia River Gorge. My mission was to find Grass Widows (Olsynium douglasii) and find them I did. Check out the video…

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Western Anemone

September 22, 2012
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When a Western Anemone (Anemone occidentalis) produces seeds in summer, it looks like a fantastical plant from the pages of a Dr. Seuss book. Many of the other common names for this plant– Dishmop, Towhead Baby, Old Man of the Mountains, Mouse-on-a-stick, Moptop– describe its appearance when…

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Upland Larkspur – Delphinium nuttallianum

August 25, 2012
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A handful of Larkspur species (all in the genus Delphinium) are native to the Pacific Northwest. The ones I’ve seen all have purple or blue flowers. A hollow, tube-like spur juts out the back of a Larkspur flower. The spur contains nectar that entices bumblebee and hummingbird…

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Bumble Bees and Camas

June 9, 2012
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A few weeks ago, I spent an afternoon watching and photographing bumble bees at Camassia Preserve in Portland. The bees were buzzing around, collecting nectar…

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Oxalis oregana

May 31, 2012
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Here is a plant that most people probably recognize by its leaves, rather than its flowers. Redwood sorrel (Oxalis oregana) is a small plant with leaves that form the classic shamrock shape. It grows in dense carpets on the floor of shady, wet, coastal forests, as in…

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Tom McCall Preserve in Late April

May 6, 2012
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The Tom McCall Preserve on the Oregon side of the Columbia Gorge is a wildflower wonderland. Dozens of showy wildflower species dot the rolling plateau and hillsides of the preserve in spring and early summer. The Nature Conservancy owns the 231 acre preserve and the adjacent lands are owned and managed by the BLM and Oregon State Parks. This place is protected primarily because it is home to over 300…

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