Mountain Plants of the Western Cascades

Archive for June, 2008

The flowers of Mimulus pulsiferae are almost radially symmetrical

More good R&E news from Youngs Rock. Today, Sabine, Molly, Jill, and I did the middle section of the Youngs Rock trail. In one of the meadows, we discovered lots of Mimulus pulsiferae in bloom. There was quite a bit of it at one end growing with Githopsis specularioides, Navarretia divaricata, and other belly plants. It seemed to be particular about open ground like we’ve seen it before. It was even coming up in several gopher mounds. My guess is it is not quite as rare as we thought (similar to Githopsis). It is just so tiny and ephemeral that one has to be very luck to catch it in bloom. That seems to be my 11th time through that meadow and I’ve never noticed it before. My last trip there was the first time we saw the Githopsis. There was lots of that in bloom today in the same meadow only (note the finished plant in the lower left of the photo).

Youngs Rock was our backup as we had hoped to get to Moon Point but did not make it. We hit snow at about 4600′, basically as soon as we were on the north-facing slope. We were maybe a mile from the trailhead when it was too deep to drive through. It probably looks that way on at least some of the trail. This upcoming hot weekend may dry out Youngs Rock more, but perhaps we’ll be able to get onto some of the middle trails. With only 2 1/2 weeks left until the NPSO Annual Meeting, it is pretty frustrating that we’ve only been able to get to 4 trails and that includes Tire Mountain which wasn’t even on the original list. I’m crossing my fingers that we’ll be able to get to Moon Point, Blair Lake, and Grasshopper in the next week. And hopefully Patterson has melted out by now. What a year!

Dodecatheon pulchellum

I thought you might be interested in what Sabine Dutoit and I found at Cone Peak yesterday. Not surprisingly, things are way behind. There’s quite a bit more snow than when I was there on either 6/3/06 and 5/24/04. I’d say it’s 4 weeks or more behind the last few years. Almost everywhere I’ve been able to get to so far is 3-4 weeks behind. There was a lot of snow right at the beginning of the trail but we could see the top was open so we figured we’d give it a try. The trail cleared off shortly but then, before the series of switchbacks, we ran into lots of snow again and lost the trail. We just headed for the top across the snow and eventually got right up to the main meadow and the trail which were half open and covered with Claytonia lanceolata. Then we crossed a bit more snow right at the base of the trail and were all clear from then on.

green hairstreak on top of Cone Peak

From the many Erythronium grandiflorum and Orogenia fusiformis blooming near the snow, it got better and better. The seep area is outstanding right now. Solid Romanzoffia thompsonii, Saxifraga rufidula, and Dodecatheon pulchellum. By the time we got to the top there were lots of Lomatium martindalei, Cerastium arvense, Delphinium menziesii, Phlox diffusa, and Ivesia gordonii in perfect bloom. The Castilleja rupicola was starting, but the Douglasia laevigata was actually fading. Boy, do you have to get out early to catch that one! One addition to my list was Valeriana scouleri coming into bloom. It was growing in the west-facing rocks right next to Castilleja rupicola. I’ve seen that combination many times. Also there was quite a bit of the Arabis I sent Sweet Home District botanist Alice Smith pictures of several years ago from the top of Iron Mountain. I was also really excited to see 2 green hairstreaks right on top and a cute ground squirrel. The air was pretty clear and the view was outstanding. Even Mt. Hood looked really close. It was really interesting to see blooming Senecio integerrimus when they were all still in bud at Tire Mountain (<4000′) on Friday. Cone Peak really blooms from the top down!

Ivesia gordonii and nice view of Iron Mountain from top of Cone Peak

On the way back down, we were able to follow the trail down most of the switchbacks with minimal snow crossing. There were loads of fresh trilliums and the Viola sheltonii had already finished. We felt rather foolish having done so much bushwhacking on the way up… until we lost the trail again in the snow. We simply couldn’t find the blue markers, so we just headed down and picked up the trail, lost it again, headed down and found it again near the beginning. Luckily, you can’t really get lost there. And on a weekend, the traffic is steady enough that you can hear the road all the time. For someone unfamiliar with the trail, however, I’d suggest waiting a week for it to melt out more near the bottom.

As you can see from the photo of the Ivesia, there’s lots of snow on Iron Mountain. We walked over plenty of 5 foot drifts, so it is probably even worse over there. Tombstone Prairie is mostly snowed in, but the open areas have blooming skunk cabbage. Also, the road to Echo Basin was clear (we moved some small trees) until just before the trailhead where you hit lots of snow.