Spring blooms

Over the last month, I made two trips to Finley National Wildlife Monument in the southern Willamette Valley and two to the Cascades in central Oregon. It is a beautiful spring in the Northwest!

The refuge at Finley is a patch of protected lowland in the most urbanized region of Oregon, the Willamette Valley. A variety of habitats exist at the refuge: hardwood forest, grassland, oak savannah and freshwater wetlands. Like many federally-managed lands, some wildness persists in the refuge, but there are also unmistakable signs of human influence – non-indigenous species, buildings, roads, and bridges. And yet, these small patches of lowland habitat are sorely needed. Across the country there is so little lowland that isn’t burdened heavily by the long shadow of human land use practices. Worldwide, much of our coastal plains and broad low-lying valleys and plains have been devoured by agriculture and urbanization.


Findley was full of flowers: Iris, Claytonia, apple blossoms, Ranunculus, sedges, Camassia, Fritillaria. Here are some specimens below.

Towards the western edge of the refuge, there is a small hill at the base of which is a population of the bright perennial Castilleja levisecta, commonly known as the golden paintbrush. Natural populations of this species no longer exist in Oregon (its native range only spans the Willamette Valley to southern Vancouver Island), but some populations have been reintroduced to western Oregon. The Institute for Applied Ecology, a non-profit group based in Corvallis, Oregon, has been working with the US Fish and Wildlife Service and community volunteers to plant and monitor the species. Castilleja is a species-rich genus with which I am only a little familiar (Castilleja ambigua grows in the coastal wetlands of Oregon and I remember encountering reddish ‘paintbrushes’ a number of times in the chaparral of California).

Currently, some snow remains in the Cascades, at least above about 4000 ft. Spring blooms aren’t as abundant, but in my drives and hikes this month I came across blooming dogwood trees, Trillium ovatum, and other flowers. On one short excursion yesterday, I hiked around a pair of waterfalls along the McKenzie River near Clear Lake in the Willamette National Forest. The falls and rapids were roaring with snowmelt. I found two small populations of a beautiful orchid, Calypso bulbosa, growing under cedars on a sloping bank near the river. These plants have just a single basal leaf and a flower stalk not typically more than a few inches above the soil.

Lastly, enjoy this video of Sahalie Falls:

Reference:
Turner, M. and P. Gustafson. 2006. Wildflowers of the Pacific Northwest. Timber Press.