Scoliopus bigelovii

I was out on the northern California coast last weekend for the excellent low tide series. Saturday night I camped at Stillwater Cove Regional Park with the plan to head up to Mendocino County the next day. The clear moonless night gave way to a cool morning and I hiked a bit up the redwood-filled canyon in the park.

Down in the forest understory I noticed pairs of variegated leaves, standing stout like small green vases and eventually found some in flower. The distinctive leaves I’d probably seen before, but I’m not so sure about the even more distinctive flower. It seemed like a new discovery. Back home, a relatively quick look through the lilies in the Jepson manual landed me on Scoliopus bigelovii, a monotypic genus of plants found on the northern California coast (Baldwin et al. 2012). Lilies, including Calochortus, have long been one of my favorite families of plants and now I have found another!

The showy flower has parts of three (indicating a monocot) and appears early in the calendar year according to Jepson and the Marin chapter of the California Native Plant Society. That latter source indicates that the plant’s leaves are still rather small when the flower appears on a long stalk that eventually nods towards the ground when the flower has been pollinated. If you're out on the redwood coast during the early months of the year, see if you can find this beauty!

Glacier wildflowers

Flowers were abundant throughout Glacier, from the lower elevations at Apgar and St. Mary’s to above 6500 ft at Logan Pass.

Bear grass (a misleading common name since the species is in the lily family) was probably the most spectacular species, with dense concentrations of flowering plants covering high elevation hillslopes, especially near the Weeping Wall. This is a relatively new species to me. I first encountered it at Mt. Rainier last year. The inflorescence is an elegant spire of white flowers sitting atop a hemispherical bunch of grass-like leaves. The flowers are lightly aromatic.

Bear grass, Xerophyllum tenax. Left: aspiring inflorescences. Right: close up of flowers.

Dotted saxifrage, Saxifraga bronchialis.

Along the Highline Trail that led north from Logan Pass, there were flowers of all colors. Species along the trail included Saxifraga bronchialis, Trollis albiflorus, Myosotis sylvatica, Ribes lacustre, Zigadenus elegans and Calochortus apiculatus. In common with western Washington and Oregon, there was also blooming twinberry (Lonicera involucrata), and thimbleberry (Rubus parviflorus), the latter species with its large palmate leaves and showy white flowers.

Aquilegia flavescens, a yellow-flowered columbine, was an exciting find at Glacier. I’ve long been familiar with the red-flowered sister species, A. formosa, which can be found frequently in a variety of habitats in the Pacific states. A. flavescens has a very similar flower shape to its sister species, nodding flowers and with spurs that protrude at the back of the flower. It is also found in some locations in British Columbia, Washington and Canada.  

Columbines. Left: Aquilegia flavescens at Glacier NP, July 2017. Upper right: A. formosa at
Mary's Peak in central OR, July 2010. Lower right: A. formosa from Big Sur, CA, July 2015.

References

Phillips HW. 2012. Northern Rocky Mountain Wildflowers 2^nd ed. Falcon Guides, Guilford, CT.

Turner M, Gustafson P. 2006. Wildflowers of the Pacific Northwest. Timber Press, Inc., Portland, OR.

Other wildflower species at Glacier NP. From left: Rubus parviflorus, Calochortus apiculatus, and possibly Anemone sp.

Zigadenus elegans, commonly known as "showy death camas", a common
name apparently obtained because the plant is poisonous.

Possibly Myosotis sylvatica.

Paradise

Mt. Rainier from the east.

The luminous peak of Mt. Rainier is omnipresent in central Washington, visible near Olympia, looming in the east from Seattle, and touching the western horizon from the edge of the desert of central Washington. At over 14,400 feet, it is the highest member of the Cascade Range and dwarfs the nearby mountains.

For my second visit to Mt. Rainier National Park, we camped for two nights at Ohanapecosh, a low elevation campsite in the southeast corner of the park. The afternoon we arrived we detoured to a short trail starting at the White River campsite on the road to Sunrise. A trail ascended from dense forest near the campsite and followed the frigid turbulent water of the White River. The Emmons Moraine Trial branched towards the south, crossing the White River with a narrow footbridge constructed of a single log. The water jumbled over boulders in such a rush that spray danced into the air. Across the river the trail continued upward along a ridge that overlooked the terminus of Emmons Glacier and its moraine. This valley to the south was barren higher up (perhaps old ground the glacier used to occupy), forested with short trees farther down, and adorned with a beautiful turquoise lake farther still. The lake wasn’t on any map I had seen of the park. I learned that Emmons Glacier is the largest glacier in the lower 48 states.

Left: Unnamed alpine lake near the White River. Right: White River and Emmons Glacier.

On the south slopes of Rainier lies Paradise, a popular stopping point and gateway to the snowy alpine. On the second morning I set out with my two oldest to wander up the slopes of Paradise looking for wildflowers. Most of the Skyline Trail area was still under snow. In street shoes, we were not well prepared, but we hiked on the firm snow anyway, gaining enough elevation to have excellent views of Mt. Saint Helens and Mt. Adams to the south.

Glacier (Nisqually Glacier I believe) on the
south slope of Mt. Rainier visible from Paradise.

When we started the hike most of the bright slopes of Rainier were still visible, framed by a deep blue sky. A few clouds tightly hugged the mountain near the summit, wisping off the east side of the peak. A large patch of grayish white clouds quickly moved in and obscured the top of the mountain. Nisqually Glacier, when it was visible, was a ribbon of ice streaming downslope from near the summit, cracked and shining aquamarine light in places.

Up to an elevation a little above the visitor’s center there were meadows of yellow alpine lilies (Erythronium grandiflorum) and white avalanche lilies (E. montanum), each species generally clustering together with its own. At somewhat higher elevations however, the main flowering species changed to Trollius laxus (American globeflower), paintbrushes, and pink-flowered alpine shrubs where snow was not covering the ground. Chipmunks scurried about; marmots foraged more casually, largely ignoring hikers crisscrossing the snow trying to follow some semblance of trails. Lines of backpackers with ice axes, helmets, and better footware streamed by us headed for the pure white drifts of snow and ice above.

References

Turner M, Gustafson P. 2006. Wildflowers of the Pacific Northwest. Timber Press, Portland, OR.

Cascade Range peaks visible from the southern slope of Mt. Rainier. Left: Mt. Adams. Right: Mt. Saint Helens.

Paradise mammals. Left: Marmot. Right: Chipmunk bounding across a snowfield.

Firs on the slopes at Paradise.

American globeflower. 

Incredible plants: tiger lilies

Lilium columbianum, near Comet Falls, Mt. Rainier
National Park, July 2016.

Lilies are a stunning group of flowering plants, and many members of that family have a strong aesthetic appeal for me. The Liliaceae are monocots, thus the flower parts occur in multiples of three. A prototypical lily flower would have six petals, six stamens, and a single style protruding from the center of the flower. Several lilies such as some members of Calochortus and Lilium have a curved perianth (petals), so that the overall shape of the flower is like an orb.

“Tiger lily” is an informal common name which has been applied to a few species in the genus Lilium that have orange spotted petals. These include Lilium columbianum (the “small-flowered tiger lily”), two subspecies of L. paradalinum (“Vollmer’s tiger lily” and “Wiggins’ lily”), and L.parvum (“Sierra tiger lily”) (Turner and Gustafson 2006; Skinner 2016). Other similar species in the Pacific states include L. bolanderi and L.occidentale, each with reddish spotted petals. 

Characteristics and distribution of five "tiger lily" species in the Pacific states.
References: Turner and Gustafson (2006), Baldwin et al. (2012), Wenk (2015).

Shoots of these lilies are typically 1-3 meters in height, green (non-woody), and have whorls of leaves emerging from the stem at regular intervals. The flowers of some species including L. columbianum and L. paradalinum hang pendant, a humble posture unnecessary for such a glorious flower.

Lilium pardalinum. Left: Ventana Wilderness, Los Padres National Forest, Big
Sur, CA, 2009. Right: Sucker Creek, Siskiyou National Forest, southern OR, July 2016.

Of the five species listed here, L. columbianum is most common, being distributed from British Columbia to northern California (Turner and Gustafson 2006). L. pardalinum occurs in California and southwest Oregon, while L. bolanderi and L. occidentale inhabit the Klamath mountains area in northwest CA and southwest OR (Turner and Gustafson 2002, Baldwin et al. 2012). L. parvum inhabits wetland or riparian areas at higher elevations in the Sierra range (Baldwin et al. 2012).

Lilium parvum, Tahoe National Forest, Sierra Nevada range,
CA, July 2009.

While visiting Oregon Caves National Monument earlier this summer, we camped along Sucker Creek, a quiet beautiful location where the shallow stream ran swiftly among rocks, close to the campsite. Riparian corridors seem to be excellent locations to find tiger lilies and I spotted some flowers along the far bank of the river. I crossed over to photograph them. The first flowers were somewhat on their way out, but farther upstream I found a cluster of several plants at the edge of the river near a rocky outcrop of serpentine, each bearing several flowers in their prime.

The green hues of serpentine rock and beautiful blooming lilies were exciting enough, but suddenly I also noticed a beautiful swallowtail butterfly visiting the flowers too. It was photographic bliss to have two such bright and magnificent organisms in the same place. The swallowtail was mostly undeterred by my close presence and spent some time visiting a few different flowers. It landed on the underside of each flower and then rhythmically bowed to the flower, each time inserting its long black proboscis deep into the flower to extract nectar.

Lilium pardalinum and a beautiful swallowtail visitor at Sucker
Creek, Siskiyou National Forest, southern OR, July 2016.

References

Baldwin BG et al. 2012. The Jepson Manual. Vascular Plants of California. 2^nd ed. University of California Press, Berkeley, CA.

Skinner MW. 2016. Lilium parvum, in Jepson Flora Project (eds.) Jepson eFora, http://ucjeps.berkeley.edu

Turner M, Gustafson P. 2006. Wildflowers of the Pacific Northwest. Timber Press, Portland, OR.

US Geological Survey. 1996. Kerby Peak, OR. 1:24000 topographic map.

Wenk E. 2015. Wildflowers of the High Sierra and John Muir Trail. Wilderness Press, Birmingham, AL.

Snow Lake, Mt. Rainier National Park

Snow lake, the southern end.

Alpine lakes are one of my favorite destinations in the mountain wildernesses of the Pacific states. At higher altitudes the water almost invariably reflects beautiful hues of blue, turquoise, yellow or some other color. The lake margins are usually lined with small wetlands or edge up against beautiful coniferous forests with tall spires of stately trees. Dragonflies and damselflies might dart to and fro while water striders balance on the surface tension of the water. In winter and spring ice blankets the lakes while they quietly sleep through the cold months.

After an evening hike to Comet Falls and a night of camping on the slopes of Mt. Rainier, the next day we set out to see a few other regions of the park. We stopped to see the meadows of lilies (and unexpectedly, the marmots!) at Paradise midday and then drove farther east into the park for a relatively short hike up to Snow Lake. Snow Lake is tucked into a basin at the base of a semi-circular rocky ridge that is part of the Tatoosh Range. The lake is sort of sickle-shaped. After a short jaunt beyond the end of the official trail, one reaches the southern end of the lake where brick orange soils stand out distinctly on the lake bottom.

Map of Mt. Rainier National Park at left (from NPS, 2015), and inset at right with
Snow Lake (from USGS, 1971).

Mt. Rainier from the Snow Lake trail as the sky clears after an early
summer storm.

For the first 24 hours of our visit to the park, Mt. Rainier was shrouded in clouds since a storm that had overtaken the Pacific Northwest that weekend in early July was still lingering. However, the clear skies of summer were returning and on the return hike from Snow Lake back to the trailhead, the clouds shrouding the mountain began to clear and the beaming rugged glaciers of Rainier’s south slopes became visible.

Mt. Rainier is the highest of all the Cascade peaks in Washington, Oregon and California, topping Mt. Shasta by a few hundred feet. Its magnificent slopes culminate in snowfields and cracked glaciers. It is a remarkable beacon in central Washington and I hope to visit again soon to explore all the gems it has to offer: rivers, forests, lakes, waterfalls, and ice!

Reference

Turner M, Gustafson P. 2006. Wildflowers of the Pacific Northwest. Timber Press, Portland, OR. 

Snow and ice on the southeastern slope of Mt. Rainier. 

White torches of blooming bear grass, Xerophyllum tenax
(Liliaceae).

White rhododendron (Rhododendron albiflorum) at left and avalanche lily
(Erythronium montanum) at right.

Comet Falls, Mt. Rainier National Park

Last week was my first visit to Mt. Rainier National Park in central Washington. The peak at the center of the park is the highest mountain in the Cascade Range, rising above 14,000 ft. The park boasts lush temperate rainforest and wide river washes fed by rain and glaciers crowning the mountain.

Vine maple, Acer circinatum, the foliage of which is just delightful in the fall.

Waterfalls dot the Rainier map and we headed towards Comet Falls on the southern slope of the mountain the afternoon we arrived at the park. A short distance from the trailhead, the trail passes over one of the tributaries of the Nisqually River that eventually runs into the Nisqually Delta near Olympia. The creek water rushed through a narrow channel of bedrock in a precipitous drop through a small valley making its way down the mountain. After crossing via foot bridge, the trail runs along the eastside of the creek up the slopes of Rainier. The water’s roar was a companion during the hike.

Flowers increased in number and variety gaining elevation up the trail. Among the most common were white six-petaled blooms of Clintonia uniflora, the flowers emerging not far above the ground next to a pair of smooth spatulate leaves (not unlike commercial orchids). Another frequent small ground cover species with white blooms was Cornus unalaschkensis (a small relative of the much larger tree, the dogwood). Yellow asters which I did not observe closely enough to attempt to identify were also common.

Blooms of Cornus unalaschkensis (left) and Clintonia uniflora (right), both common near Comet Falls.

Near Comet Falls there was a small population of the striking avalanche lily, Erythronium montanum, which I would later see in greater abundance in the higher elevation meadows at Paradise farther up the slopes Mt. Rainier. The flowers of this species hang down towards the ground, having six somewhat dishelved white petals that radiate out from a bright yellow center. Paradise also had many individuals of another species of fawn lily, E. grandiflorum (the Glacier lily), similar to the avalanche lily in habit, but with solid yellow flowers. E. montanum is distributed in the Pacific Northwest while E. grandiflorum occurs from British Columbia to California and into the Rocky Mountain west.

Avalanche lily.

Comet Falls.

There were a few Columbia tiger lilies along the trail too. Other booming species were numerous and included Maianthemum racemosum (large false Solomon's seal), Rubus parviflorus (thimbleberry), Rubus spectabilis (salmonberry), Rubus lasiococcus (dwarf bramble), Corallorhiza mertensiana (western coralroot), Phyllodoce empetriformis (pink mountain heather), Dodecatheon sp. (shooting star), and the striking red and yellow ornate flowers of Aquilegia formosa (columbine). The day was damp and cloudy, otherwise resembling conditions I would expect in late winter or fall, except that the presence of flowers and resplendent foliage reminded one that it was indeed summer.

Coralroot (Orchidaceae).

The rainforest at the base of Mt. Rainier is truly lush - one of the greenest forests I've been able to visit. As with most forests in the western Pacific Northwest's, massive conifers dominate the canopy. Cedars and firs were common in the park, and I also noted western hemlock, mountain hemlock, and Douglas fir. The new growth of needles on the tips of the conifer branches was everywhere, the bright green centimeters of vibrant new growth giving accent to the deeper evergreen of the older growth, such a pleasant sight! Lichens hung from the trees in abundance, giving the landscape a depth of age too.

After hiking to Comet Falls, we camped that evening among the beautiful conifers and had one more day to explore Mt. Rainier. The short trip did not give the extensive park due justice of course, but it was enough time to gain a taste for its beauty and to be enticed to return again.

References

Baldwin et al. 2012. The Jepson Manual. Higher Plants of California. 2^nd edition. University of California Press, Berkeley, CA.

Turner M, Gustafson P. 2006. Wildflowers of the Pacific Northwest. Timber Press, Portland, OR.

New growth on a small fir tree.

The Elwha

This post continues the narrative of my trip in early July to the Olympic Peninsula and Whidbey Island.

Our second night on the Olympic peninsula we camped at Sol Duc inside the national park. The following day we had adventures at a few other places in the park: a short hike to Sol Duc falls, kayaking on Lake Crescent, and a drive along part of the Elwha River.



The Elwha River with a heavy sediment load.

Sol Duc falls.

The Elwha is notable because it is currently undergoing large-scale watershed restoration with the removal of two dams. Most of the dam removal has already occurred at this point in time, and the dramatic changes to the watershed are evidenced by the milky grey water that is churning down the valley. Apparently this project is the largest dam removal in the United States (1). Restoration of the watershed is expected to increase populations of salmonids (which were highly impacted by dam construction and loss of habitat (1,2). As the restoration of the watershed proceeds, some interesting things to look for include  the evolution of water clarity as sediment works its way towards the ocean, whether that sediment will quickly create new estuarine marsh habitat at the Elwha delta and whether salmon runs will recover to pre-dam conditions.


The National Park Service hosts a blog and photogallery of dam removal.

References:
1. http://www.nps.gov/olym/naturescience/upload/Elwha-River-Restoration-Brochure-2013_Final.pdf
2. http://www.americanrivers.org/initiatives/dams/projects/elwha-river-background.html

Tiger lilies (Lilium columbianum) along the Sol Duc River.

Incredible plants: Calochortus

Calochortus luteus from Santa Cruz Island, CA, 2012.

One of my favorite groups of flowers is the genus Calochortus in the lily family (Liliaceae).  Calochortus is of Greek derivation and means “beautiful grass” (Baldwin et al. 2012). Lilies, like grasses, are monocots, and many species in this genus have narrow leaves that can be mistaken at first glance for their grass cousins. 

There are about 70 species of Calochortus globally, distributed in central and North America (Baldwin et al 2012). In the Oregon flora, 18 species are recognized (Cook and Sundberg 2012) and a whopping 45 occur in California (Baldwin et al. 2012) – more than half of all global diversity!



Calochortus ?amabilis near Lake
Berryessa, northern CA, 2009.

The flowers are generally very showy. Perusing through the images for different species in the CalFlora database, for instance, shows a remarkable diversity of flower shape, color, and decoration. The inside surface of the petals are often hairy (as can be easily seen on one of the photographs below) (Baldwin et al. 2012). As would be expected with a plant in the lily family, flower parts are in threes: there are 3 petals, 6 stamens and 1 style that divides into 3 stigmas ready to receive pollen (Baldwin et al. 2012).


Among the attractive species in the genus are the globe lilies. The flowers of these plants are pendant and somewhat resemble a delicate Japanese paper lantern. An example is C. albus in the California flora.







Another beautiful example of Calochortus is C. nuttallii, the state flower of Utah. It is a desert plant occurring throughout the intermountain west at elevations of 5 to 8 thousand feet (Patraw 1977). Flower color varies from whitish to blue or purple hues (Patraw 1977). The plants that I observed on a trip to the desert of eastern Utah two years ago were whitish. The underground bulbs of this species are edible and were consumed by Native Americans (Patraw 1977).



Calochortus nuttallii, Dinosaur National Monument, UT.

References

- Baldwin, B.G. 2012. The Jepson Manual. Vascular Plants of California. UC Press.
- Cook, T. and S. Sundberg (eds). 2012. Checklist of Oregon Liliaceae. Oregon Flora Project
- Patraw, P.M. 1977. Flowers of the Southwest Mesas. Southwest Parks and Monuments Association, Globe,
  AZ.