Mountain Plants of the Western Cascades

Posts Tagged ‘Blair Lake’

The group following the narrow trail through the meadow. Lilies and lovage abound.

Last Friday (August 5), I helped lead a field trip to Blair Lake with Molly Juillerat, Middle Fork Ranger District botanist. It was a lovely day and very relaxing for me, especially not having to drive—Molly and two other Forest Service employees, Kate and Anna, took care of that. There were lots of flowers in bloom. The brightest and most noticeable plant was subalpine spiraea (Spiraea splendens). Its gorgeous bright pink flowers lined the road. A few hybrids (called S. xhitchcockii) between this species and the later blooming hardhack (Spiraea douglasii) were evident. These are somewhat cone-shaped—an intermediate form between the relatively flat tops of splendens and the narrow wands of douglasii. There were also multitudes of tiger lilies (Lilium columbianum), always a favorite. Since one of my fascinations is plants that close part of the day, I watched carefully as the pretty blue-eyed grass (Sisyrinchium idahoense) seemed much more abundant after a few hours. I’ve waited before for them to open so I could photograph them. It seems they are late risers, preferring to keep their petals closed up until around noon. Until then, they are much harder to spot. Read the rest of this entry »

I spent the day at Blair Lake yesterday. I would have said “spent a relaxing day…” but while negotiating what passes for a path around the end of the lake, I discovered I’d lost my hat. I had to duck under and plow through those stinky Ribes bracteosum 3 times instead of once. Aargh. Thankfully, I did find where my hat had gotten knocked off and will be more careful next time I’m in jungle conditions like that.

The flowers were lovely. The Spiraea splendens and Lilium columbianum were outstanding. Most of the meadow was white with Ligusticum. That one is still confusing me. It is not particularly leafy, like the ones that grow on my property or at Lowder, but it seems way too tall to be L. grayii. Closer to the lake, the Pedicularis groenlandica and P. bracteosa made a beautiful combination. There were lots of Platanthera dilatata as well. The many graminoids had me intrigued, so I collected some and hopefully can get more of them figured out this winter. Neither my list nor the old NPSO ones have any graminoids.

Four blues enjoying a picnic of sweat

I also had a good time “collecting” butterflies. While there weren’t as many on the wing as I’ve seen in August, there were many blues and checkerspots and some crescents in the mud spots on the trail. With the help of some sweat (no problem with the weather as warm as it has been), I got 4 blues on my hand at the same time! Some of them even flew back on my hand when accidentally knocked off. In fact, I had a tough time convincing the northern blue (on the left) that the party was over after 10 minutes. Unfortunately, the checkerspots and crescents weren’t as friendly. They were too nervous to partake in a free salty meal. Read the rest of this entry »

I got to go out yesterday and decided to explore the area along Road 730 near Blair Lake. I’ve been up there before with Neil Björkland on a butterfly trip and by myself another time but never had time to properly look around. Sabine came with me, and we had a very good day. Bruce Newhouse mentioned something about a wet meadow up that way that had Kyhosia bolanderi. I’m guessing that was Spring Meadow, just below Beal Prairie. I only had a few minutes down there as Sabine had strained her leg recently and wasn’t up to bushwhacking. I got there via the nice little trail to the lower of the two cute lakes and then cut east. I returned by heading north up to the road—a much longer bushwhack. I can’t wait to go back. In my 20 minutes or so I did see sundew, Spiranthes, loads of Kalmia, cottongrass, the same willow that’s so common down at Blair which I’m guessing is S. commutata or boothii, Epilobium oregonense (probably), Saxifraga odontoloma, and Trifolium howellii in a side creek and lots of more common things. I didn’t see any Kyhosia bolanderi, but without my boots (sitting in the car!) and more time, I couldn’t properly explore it.

The upper pond was also quite nice with some reblooming Kalmia, a little Sagittaria cuneata, both Spiraeas as well as the hybrid, Ranunculus gormanii and Packera subnuda [Senecio cymbalarioides] like down at Blair Lake, and lots of a little groundcovering Epilobium which I think might be E. anagallidifolium. Nice sedges there as well. The lower pond doesn’t have much of a shoreline and no aquatics either, just spiraea and some willows.

rocky outcrop above Road 730 south of Blair Lake. Beall Prairie can be seen not too far away.

Our last exploration was up the huge outcrop along the side of the road just south of the upper pond. Along with lots of the usual Sedum oregonense and Eriophyllum lanatum, we saw lots of Selaginella scopulorum and Lupinus lepidus lobbii (some still blooming!) and some Eriogonum marifolium (also some still blooming) growing near E. umbellatum again. There were also several places there and along the rocky part of the road with Pedicularis contorta (like on the rock outcrop overlooking Blair Lake).

Before leaving, we did a fairly quick spin around Blair Lake. All the Sagittaria was done (I got some good pictures of it flowering last year in August), but there was another aquatic I can’t identify. There were no signs of any flowering structures. I know very little about aquatics, but will be studying them this winter. Could it be some type of Potamogeton?

I’ll definitely be up Road 730 next spring if possible when things will be a lot easier to identify. Can’t wait!