Mountain Plants of the Western Cascades

Archive for the ‘Plant Identification’ Category

Drifts of Romanzoffia thompsonii (L) & Cascadia nuttallii (R)

When admiring a froth of tiny white flowers growing over seepy rocks in the Western Cascades, it’s usually necessary to take a closer look before putting a name on the plant. Despite being in entirely different families, Thompson’s mistmaiden (Romanzoffia thompsonii) and Nuttall’s saxifrage (Cascadia nuttallii, formerly Saxifraga nuttallii) are very similar in appearance and enjoy the same habitat. This is an interesting case of convergent evolution. While Romanzoffia thompsonii tends to be found at higher elevations, in some places, including at Cloverpatch, they grow side by side. Romanzoffia thompsonii is an annual, while Cascadia nuttallii is considered a perennial. To me at least, this isn’t apparent from sight. Read the rest of this entry »

Romanzoffia californica blooming profusely along North Shore Drive

Several days ago, I got a very informative letter about Romanzoffias (mistmaidens) from Vern Marttala. Vern is undoubtedly the expert on our Romanzoffia species and is the author of Romanzoffia thompsonii, our only annual species and a Western Cascade endemic. The letter was in response to a conversation we had after I gave a talk on plant adaptations to the Portland chapter of NPSO the previous week. Along with some excellent information and keys to Romanzoffia, Vern included some of his best sites from my neck of the woods in Lane County. While the recent cold weather seems to have passed, the snow is not quite gone from the lower mountains, so I decided this would be a perfect day to check out Vern’s roadside sites around Lookout Point Reservoir, between Lowell and Westfir, just up the road from my house.

Romanzoffia sitchensis by Fern Creek

Heading east of Lowell on Hwy 58, the first spot I came to was the most intriguing to me. Just past milepost 19 is a pulloff at the bottom of Fern Creek. From the road it doesn’t look like much: a pile of rocks and lots of blackberries. If anyone else had told me there was a population of Romanzoffia sitchensis there, I would not have believed them. I usually see it at much higher elevations in cool, damp, north-facing rocky areas. The only place I’ve seen it in Lane County is below Fuji Mountain in the High Cascades. Well, there in the woods, hiding behind the weeds (awful Geranium lucidum as well as blackberries), was a waterfall, and on the mossy cliffs beside it was a large population of R. sitchensis. Even through the binoculars, I recognized it by the large leaves—even larger than I’ve seen at higher elevations. The walking was quite treacherous, as there were many large rocks covered with wet moss and half hidden by branches of blackberries and salmonberries. How Vern ever found this site, I have no idea! The main population is high up on the west side of the creek. Luckily, there were a few plants in the rocks on the east side, so I was able to study them up close. It was easy to see the hairs on the stems I’d seen in other populations and the wide open, saucer shape of the flowers Vern mentioned. The base of the plant is also an important feature, and on these plants the bases were mostly exposed, making it easy to see the loose bulb formed by the overlapping widened ends of the basal petioles. Read the rest of this entry »

Over the last year or two, I’ve found a new challenge to amuse myself—learning to identify plants by their cotyledon leaves. Dicots get their name from the two cotyledon leaves that emerge from a newly germinated seed. This first pair of leaves often, if not usually, bears no resemblance to the regular leaves found later on the plant. Most likely, the form of these leaves is defined more by the shape or some other characteristic of the seed. Typically, they are more or less oval. Sometimes they have distinct petioles, sometimes they are sessile. One would be hard pressed to identify these unless they were growing in quantity under the mother plant. Some plants, however, have very unusual cotyledon leaves. These really pique my curiosity.

The compound true leaves of two tiny Lotus micranthus solve the puzzle of the red-striped cotyledons

A couple of years ago, while out on Heckletooth Mountain just east of Oakridge in the fall, some little cotyledon leaves caught my eye. While the shape of the leaf was fairly generic, each one had a distinct red stripe starting at the base and going halfway up the leaf. What could they be? There were plenty of them, and I surmised they were one of many common annuals growing on this low elevation mountain. I brought one home and put it in a pot, hoping to find my answer in the spring. Naturally I forgot about it over the winter. The following spring, however, there it was again on Tire Mountain, this time with the first true leaf appearing. It was Lotus micranthus, a little annual member of the clover family that is abundant on many of the lower elevation mountains in the area. What a surprise! I checked my pot when I got home, and sure enough, there was a tiny Lotus micranthus. Since then I’ve seen it several times with both the red-striped cotyledon leaves and the first tiny compound true leaves. The stems are red, so perhaps this has something to do with the unusual red stripe on the cotyledons. Read the rest of this entry »

Castilleja seedlings germinating while still inside the capsule

Several days ago, I was poking around under some of the cushion plants in my rock garden, searching for slugs. The little brats have been demolishing the new foliage on some of my little treasures. This is extremely frustrating. They tend to hide during the day under rocks or underneath plants with dense foliage. Then, while checking under an Eriogonum, I discovered a little capsule filled with tiny seedlings. Evidently some seeds hadn’t fallen out of the capsule when it landed.

When I brought it in to look at it under the microscope, I recognized the visible seed as that of a Castilleja (paintbrush). Last fall, I looked at a number of seeds I’d collected on my hikes before sending them off to the North American Rock Garden Society seed exchange or sowing them myself. The most unusual ones turned out to be from species of Castilleja. I’ve never noticed anything interesting about them when spilled in my hands. Under the microscope, however, the unusual mesh-like coverings are fascinating.

Seeds from a variable population at Hills Creek Reservoir that might be Castilleja hispida, C. pruinosa, or maybe even a hybrid swarm

Then I remembered that I had tossed some of the seeds and the remaining seed capsules under various suitable natives in the garden including penstemons and eriogonums. So this was one of those capsules. A couple of years ago, the first fall after I built a gorgeous new rock garden bed, I tossed some Castilleja hispida seeds under a Penstemon davidsonii. Last year, it not only grew, it flowered! It is emerging again now and looking quite healthy.

Castilleja plants are hemiparasitic—they need a host plant for at least some of their water or nutrition. They may germinate in a pot without a host, but do far better with one. I had tried growing them in pots, but apparently I didn’t plant them out soon enough, and they always died. Tossing the seeds in the garden seems not only more successful, it is much easier!

When Sabine and I were out last week, we found 3 more populations of Nemophila pedunculata (meadow nemophila) growing along Road 21 in southeastern Lane County. They were already blooming on February 18. This is a low growing species that forms prostrate mats in seeps. It does not appear to reach too high up in the mountains. The photo to the left is from last year on Tire Mountain at around 4000′, around as high as I’ve seen it so far.

Note the differences in the sepals of Nemophila pedunculata and N. parviflora

It might be confused with the far more common Nemophila parviflora. The lobed leaves of the latter are usually larger, but they are quite variable, and do not always effectively distinguish the two. N. pedunculata also usually has dark purple spots on the corolla lobes. But again, this is not always true.

If you look carefully, however, you can see definite differences in the flower structure, something usually more reliable than color or leaf size. The corolla tube of N. pedunculata is widely flaring and its calyx lobes are much shorter than the tube. The abruptly narrowed tube of N. parviflora, on the other hand, is pretty much hidden by the much longer calyx lobes that reach out to the edge of the corolla. It was easy to compare them at Tire Mountain where they were reasonably close together.

To be sure this wasn’t just a local population characteristic, I’ve looked at flowers of each from a number of populations, in Lane County at least, and it seems to be a good way to distinguish them.

Yesterday, Sabine, Ingrid, and I went to Horsepasture. The Ipomopsis aggregata was at peak and the hummers were going nuts. It was also peak time for the Antennaria luzuloides. The little propagules are forming on non-flowering branches.

Stellaria obtusa at Horsepasture Mountain

The only interesting addition/change to the list is that the Stellaria there is obtusa, not crispa. There is some growing along the trail right at the beginning by the road and again before the first damp Alder thicket. I’d never heard of this species before this year when I finally attempted to sort out the Stellarias. I’d seen it on the list for Grizzly Peak near Ashland and was pleased to find it blooming there when I went down in June. Since then I’ve been looking carefully at every patch of low-growing Stellaria. In the past, I found them easily ignorable and assumed they were all crispa, so all my listings for that one are now suspect. John and I discovered it at Wild Rose Point over the border in Douglas County a couple of weeks ago. Then last week, I saw it growing all along the Buck Canyon trail in the Rogue-Umpqua Divide. My next 2 hikes there were just over the ridge and I expected to see it again, but instead found some small patches of S. crispa. My trip to Blair last week also turned up several patches of S. crispa. Read the rest of this entry »

Kyhosia bolanderi (Bolander's tarweed)

Quaking Aspen Swamp was very nice yesterday although cold (about 50° all day). Sabine bailed at the last minute, so it turned out we only had two of us anyway. Doramay and I both had our rain pants on and were glad we did. The clouds had lifted by the time we arrived, but the foliage was quite wet at first. The sun came out quite a bit, but it never totally cleared up, and there was not enough sun to open up the Drosera, Sisyrinchium, or Gentianopsis flowers. There was a lot still in bloom. Things were not as far along as I expected. The Aster [Canadanthus] modestus was just barely starting. There were lots of hybrid Spiraeas (Spiraea xhitchcockii) as well as S. douglasii, lots of Oxypolis occidentalis, Aconitum columbianum, Stachys cooleyae (and some accompanying hummers), and Angelica genuflexa. The Kyhosia bolanderi was quite impressive and in even more places than I remembered. It looks better when it isn’t hot and sunny. The Aster [Oreostemma] alpigenus was in very good bloom as well. What was odd was no floating leaves of Potamogeton in the pond. There were only submerged leaves.

I added 3 new species to the list: Arnica mollis, a Utricularia (minor again? I haven’t gone through my photos yet. It was in the creek just before it goes into the pond), and Rosa pisocarpa. I reolcated the patch of Phyllodoce empetriformis but not the grapeferns. I also confirmed that the alders on the west side of the meadow are Alnus incana, although the ones along the trail are the usual A. viridis sinuata (boy, were they wet walking under!). I suspect the huge sweep of Alders going up the hill at the far end of the meadow are Sitka also. I still don’t have enough data, but the incana I’ve been seeing lately always seems to be in flat wet meadows, while the Sitka is often on wet slopes. I’m pretty sure the little scraggly ones along the edge of Bruno Meadows were also incana. I’m just starting to figure out alders. Unlike A. viridis, A. incana never seems to have very many flower buds or old cones. I did manage to find some plants with buds, and they had the long peduncles on the male buds and short ones on the female ones characteristic of incana, as well the dull leaves.

Single-ranked Spiranthes stellata is much more delicate than the larger S. romanzoffiana above.

Lastly, I was able to collect some of the Spiranthes stellata, my main goal for the day (some for OSU, some for the orchid folks). They were scattered all over the meadow and just coming into bloom. Just before we left, we came to the best spot of all, with over 40 ones in good flower, just south of the major willow patch at the north end, northwest of the pond. We also found some Spiranthes romanzoffiana, but not as much and some of it still totally in bud. It was much heftier. I got a photo of one next to a S. stellata and the size difference was really pronounced. S. stellata is such a delicate thing.

Today Clay, Gail, John, and I went to check out Hells Half Acre. The way things have been going, my expectations weren’t very high. But after we saw 4 handsome bull elk on the road on the way up, I felt maybe my luck had changed. I was right. We had a terrific and productive day.

Fritillaria affinis with wide leaves and bell-shaped flower

First off, the trail is a go. No problem getting to the trailhead. There is still lots of snow in places on the lower parts of the trail. It is only along the edges of the lower meadows and there are lots of glacier lilies, Anemone lyallii, and also Dicentra uniflora, some still in bud. There should still be some snow melt species in 9 days under what is now snow. Lots of other things coming along as well. There is a very snowy area right after the lower meadows and it may be that the group will be split up and only some people go to the upper meadow. The other bad news is that it is very buggy in the woods, but it is fine out in the open meadows. I was there on June 9th in 2004 when the flowers were pretty similar but there was less snow (though still lots remaining in the one bad spot) and no bugs. I suspect this will be an unusual year in that respect as well.

Fritillaria atropurpurea with narrow leaves and flaring flower

Only one tiny patch of snow was left in the upper meadow. The Dodecatheon jeffreyi, Ranunculus gormanii, and Mertensia paniculata were very pretty and there were lots of other nice things budding up. After we ate, John spotted some lovely Fritillaria affinis in bloom, a very nice addition to the list. Viola macloskeyi was another one I hadn’t seen there before. After admiring the grand show of shooting stars, we crossed to the west side of the meadow. Clay pointed out another Fritillary in bud. I immediately got excited because I was pretty sure it was Fritillaria atropurpurea, not affinis, and I’d never seen it nor heard of it in Lane County. We started searching for more and eventually found around 15 in bloom and another 20 or so in bud or just vegetative. It was REALLY hard to spot them in the grass. Clay and Gail were much better at it than I was. They were indeed F. atropurpurea, with smaller, more widely flaring flowers and extremely narrow, glaucous leaves. I’m thrilled. I’ve only seen it in the Rogue-Umpqua Divide and once along the Metolius. There are no records for it in Lane County on the OFP Atlas. We did not want to collect any.

For anyone wanting to check out the trail later, it looks like it will be a great beargrass year, there were many in bud, and later in the summer there is Parnassia cirrata and Kyhosia bolanderi to see.

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!

As of yesterday, the Dodecatheon pulchellum, Castilleja hispida, and Erythronium oregonum are coming into bloom at Horse Rock Ridge (maybe 2 weeks later than the last few years). The Delphinium menziesii and Fritillaria affinis are still in bud but will open soon. The onions and balsamroot have a ways to go before blooming. The special giant form of Erigeron compositus is near its peak and there are still lots of Calypso bulbosa in the woods. The Mimulus guttatus is really beautiful right now coloring the slopes with yellow, but this hot stretch may dry out those and other seep plants pretty quickly.

The unusual Mimulus growing with Saxifraga rufidula

I’ve been studying a strange Mimulus there for several years and took a lot of pictures yesterday (see left growing with Saxifraga rufidula and S. nuttallii). It has small flowers, just a bit larger than Mimulus alsinoides. Its leaves are often quite large. It is only found in the seepy rocks, often under an overhang. Surprisingly, I saw a couple of plants of the same thing under an overhang in Jasper on my way home yesterday. I’ve also seen it in the same habitat in Douglas County near Twin Lakes. Its upper calyx tooth is the largest, as in M. guttatus, and maybe it is yet another strange form of M. guttatus, but the flower shape is different and there are enough other differences that I have doubts. The calyx of the nearby Mimulus guttatus is angled and basically glabrous while those of this one are deeply pleated, longer and definitely pubescent (photo 2). Of course I find it hard to believe the 3 foot tall ones in wet meadows like Patterson are the same as the tiny-leaved short seep loving ones like those at Horse Rock Ridge and Tire Mountain, and it doesn’t fit anything else too well either. It would be an interesting experiment to grow it and see if looks the same in different conditions. If anyone has seen plants like this or can shed any light on this, please let me know.

Note the difference in the calyx size and lobe shape

Sabine and I also went to Heckletooth Mountain in Oakridge on Monday. It is still very early and the thousands of Erythronium oregonum have barely started. There are lots of beautiful Lomatium hallii in bloom everywhere, lots of Calypso bulbosa, Viola sheltonii, Crocidium multicaule on some of the rocks and fragrant Phlox diffusa at the top. The Romanzoffia californica should be coming out soon. No sign yet of the stunning Madia elegans. Lots of other good stuff to come as well.