More Discoveries Just South of Bristow Prairie
I had to wade into this little pond to photograph the amazing display of white water buttercup (Ranunculus aquatilis).
After our great day on Friday (see A Grand Day Exploring Bristow Prairie’s Varied Habitats), John and I were both anxious to do more exploring near Bristow Prairie. We had originally thought we might be able to head down along the trail to the south, but we ran out of time on Friday, so we thought it would be well worth a return trip. I wanted to get back before the heatwave dried up all the little annuals, so we headed back up again on Monday, July 1 (July already!).
We wanted to hike in from the southern trailhead, which is a little ways past Bradley Lake, so we headed up Coal Creek Road 2133. We stopped briefly at a seep along the roadcut where we found a new population of Thompson’s mistmaiden (Romanzoffia thompsonii). Unfortunately, a whole family of ticks also discovered me. I had to flick at least 10 off my pants before entering the car. I really hate ticks, but the feeling doesn’t seem to be mutual. At least we got the low point of the day out of the way quickly. Although I wanted to get the hike done first and make our stops on the way back, especially because the heat of the day, we couldn’t help ourselves and had to check out at least a few of our favorite places along this long but floriferous route. A shallow pond was filled with water buttercup. Many butterflies were enjoying the spot, too. One of them, a hoary comma, became enamored of John and spent quite some time checking out his hat, shirt, and binoculars. We finally had to send him on his way, so we could get back into the car and on our way. Just a little ways before the trailhead, I finally got to experience the fabulous bloom of a large area of spreading phlox, growing in what look like they might be gravel piles created when the road was built. I’d collected seeds there before but had never been early enough for the flowers.
Binoculars are very handy for watching butterflies!
My plan for the trail was to follow it through all of the several meadow areas along the ridge but not go as far as where we had been several days before. Naturally, we got sidetracked at the first opening and ended up following it downhill, each interesting spot leading us to the next. The dry meadow on either side of the trail had many blooming marumleaf buckwheat (Eriogonum marifolium) and pussypaws (Calyptridium umbellatum). At the far downhill corner, we went down to see a thick stand of gorgeous red skyrocket (Ipomopsis aggregata). Seeing another opening down through the trees, we went to check it out. There were oodles of tiny lavender naked broomrape (Orobanche uniflora) among the abundant creamy stonecrop (Sedum oregonense). Again it opened up in the northwest corner, so on down the hill we went. Here we came out to a very large open slope with a wide variety of habitats. Exploring this kept us busy the rest of the afternoon.
A miniature white oak forest covers parts of the steep slope. Rocky and seepy sections are found in between.
False mermaid (Floerkea proserpinacoides) is unusual among dicots in having its parts in 3’s. Of course, you have to get on your hands and knees to see the 3 sepals and even tinier 3 white petals.
Both John and I like nothing better than exploring new areas like this, and we found many exciting plants (at least exciting to us!). Lazuli buntings singing from the tops of the shrubs gave us music to botanize by, so we dubbed the area “Bunting Meadow”. Although it was open for a large area, the habitat seemed to continually change as we headed down and across it. Drier, gravelly spots were filled with bluefield gilia (Gilia capitata). There were many seeps that were still damp and filled with tiny annuals. We did not find the three most unusual ones at the bald just north of Bristow Prairie: candelabrum monkeyflower (Mimulus pulsiferae), mountain blue curls (Trichostemma oblongum), and whisker brush (Leptosiphon [Linanthus] ciliatus). But we did find a number of others, including an abundance of false-mermaid (Floerkea prosperinacoides), the uncommon little plant I’d seen a few of near the lake at Bristow Prairie. It was growing among masses of tiny pink Brewer’s monkeyflower and the equally small-flowered harsh popcorn flower (P. hispidulus) and miniature gilia (Navarretia [Gilia] capillaris) we’d seen in seeps in the area and I wrote about last year (see Lure of the Little). There had also clearly been a great show of Thompson’s mistmaiden. Another abundant plant in the seeps was rareflower heterocodon (Heterocodon rariflorum). This inconspicuous plant is a member of the bellflower family, Campanuluceae, and, like its relatives, has purple tubular flowers—but you have to get lucky to find any. I searched and searched but never saw a single one. Reading up on it later, I discovered the botanical name holds the explanation. Heterocodon means “different bells”, alluding to the fact it has two different types of flowers; the upper ones may be “showy” but most of the lower ones are cleistogamous, meaning they are basically closed and self-pollinating. Rariflorum obviously refers to lack of showy flowers. I was fortunate enough to find some in bloom at Eagles Rest last year. Normally this species seems to be at lower elevations, so I was a bit surprised to find it here at about 5300′.
The quaking aspen trees were quite large, some with a diameter of about 18″. They must be quite old.
Working our way down through a forest of hip-high Oregon white oaks (Quercus garryana), we stopped at a seep with a short rocky dropoff below. Below this was an area of lush vegetation, with lots of horsemint (Agastache urticifolia), tall bluebells (Mertensia paniculata), and other tall plants. John spotted some deciduous trees at the bottom with tall, very pale trunks. Could they be aspens?! We went back and forth on this for quite a while, trying to make out the leaf shape with binoculars. We were both a bit reluctant to go even farther down the hill—knowing we’d have to come back up—and not feeling like bushwhacking through thick vegetation. Finally I said we should just do it. We’d be wondering if we didn’t, and it’s not like we’d come back another time and be any more inclined to go all the way down to check. It turned out to be an easy and quick walk down. And they were quaking aspen (Populus tremuloides)! They were quite large. We spent a while counting them, arriving at 12 live trees and a few dead ones. We were concerned that the population might be dying off, but eventually we started to spot the young trees coming along. There were at least 18, some of which had been browsed, others which looked somewhat unhealthy. Under the masses of bitter cherry, however, there were some healthy-looking, uneaten, taller plants, so hopefully this hidden stand of quaking aspen will continue for some time. I’ve heard some questions about whether aspens are native on the west side of the Cascades or whether the few populations might be planted (I love them so much I planted one on my property!). This would be a very odd place to plant them, so I’d say at least this bunch came in on their own.
Cup clover is uncommon in the Cascades, but where it occurs, it can grow prolifically. Here it is joined by common monkeyflower, another seep lover.
On our way back up the steep slope, we headed up a slightly different route in order to see an outcrop area we’d missed on the way down. It turned out to be quite moist and filled with more Thompson’s mistmaiden and also some large-flowered Blue-eyed Mary, which oddly hadn’t been evident anywhere else. I got excited when I saw several stalks of the uncommon, though rather dull, cup clover (Trifolium cyathiferum). I had John hold some other foliage out of the way, so I could get a good photo of it. A few more yards up the hill, however, there was a solid sweep of it spreading 20′ or more! I sure felt silly at all the time I’d wasted on the first spindly one! I’m certainly glad it wasn’t the only one, though, and that there are so many interesting plants in this area. With the late hour of the day at this point, and a few willow patches we wanted to look at, we had to head back to the car, so it looks like it will require at least one more return trip to see the meadows closer to the prairie. Can’t wait!