Mountain Plants of the Western Cascades

Pretty patches of pink alpine laurel (Kalmia microphylla) could be seen all over Quaking Aspen Swamp.

Two long-necked pink birds nibbling on a delicacy? Actually mountain shooting stars and their best friends, marsh marigolds.

Mother Nature is an avid decorator, so much so that she changes her color scheme every few weeks. On Sunday (May 25) at Quaking Aspen Swamp, she was going for a pink and white theme with yellow accents. On the way down the trail were many western trilliums (Trillium ovatum), some fresh white, others aging to pink and even purple. Pink fairy slippers (Calypso bulbosa) were in their prime. White candyflower (Claytonia sibirica) was in bloom, and its larger cousin, heart-leaf miner’s lettuce (C. cordifolia), was just beginning along one of the side creeks. Last week at Elk Camp, its anthers were opening up to reveal black pollen, but here they kept with the theme and showed only pink anthers. The little red and white flowers of vine maple (Acer circinatum) fit in well. Scattered round-leaved violets (Viola orbiculata) and a lone glacier lily (Erythronium grandiflorum) added touches of yellow.

The open wetland was quite stunning. Grand sweeps of marsh marigold (Caltha leptosepala) and mountain shooting star (Dodecatheon jeffreyi) covered much of the area with their white and pink blossoms. Underneath, trying to get noticed, were large patches of Gorman’s buttercup (Ranunculus gormanii). Despite their bright yellow flowers, they are just too small and too close to the ground to get much attention under the far larger marsh marigolds and shooting stars. This is the common buttercup of wetlands in the southern half of the Western Cascades, but it was my first time seeing it this year, as the last few wetlands I’ve been to were all home to the larger and showier but less common mountain buttercup (R. populago). Interesting how almost every Cascade wetland seems to have one and only one species of buttercup. North of the mountain buttercup sites, water-plantain buttercup (R. alismifolius) seems to predominate.

En masse like this, I think I could actually detect a sweet fragrance coming from the small white violets (Viola macloskeyi).

I decided on this trip to loop around counterclockwise around the perimeter, there being no trail. I was happily surprised at how much alpine (or bog) laurel (Kalmia microphylla) there was, and it was all coming into bloom except along the south edge, which is north-facing and still had a few small patches of snow. I remembered some wonderful stands of Kalmia, but I’ve never seen so much in bloom—more bright pink! The pale yellow flowers of bluefly honeysuckle (Lonicera caerulea) were blooming among the laurel and the huckleberries, which were still only in bud. I was also thrilled to find large mats of the well named small white violet (Viola macloskeyi) in perfect bloom exactly where I remembered photographing it 10 years ago. Usually it is just scattered about, peaking out from under other plants’ leaves. Rarely is it this photogenic.

Left) Unusually pink male flowers of Booth’s willow (Salix boothii). Right) Female flowers also showing quite a bit of red.

An ant finds something of interest on a fresh female flower of Sierra willow (Salix eastwoodiae)

Of course, what I really came to see were willows. It had been 5 years since I’d been here for the early bloom (although in 2009 that was mid-June), and I knew far less about willows at the time. The flowering is so early this year, I’m rather concerned for how the summer will play out. But for now, there’s nothing to do but enjoy it and see as much as possible before it is over. Happily, my timing was perfect for the willows. There are numerous willow thickets in this wonderful wetland (irritatingly intentional illiteration!). Most are Booth’s willow (Salix boothii). Their shiny, bright green, enlarging leaves helped me match the separate male and female plants. As at Elk Camp, the female willows had a lot of pink and red in the flowers. While at Elk Camp the flowers had bright pink stigmas, here many of them had red ovaries as well. What really surprised me was one particular thicket near the center of the north edge that had pink male flowers. The unopened anthers were red—not so unusual as several other willows do this frequently—but their filaments were light pink. This gave the whole shrub a pink glow. In the other boothii thickets, they were the more commonplace white filaments with yellow anthers. There were also several smaller thickets of Sierra willow (S. eastwoodiae) in bloom. Interestingly, these were farther away from the edges and mostly on the west end of the wetland—something slightly different about the water table or other conditions, I guess. The Geyer’s willows (S. geyeriana) seemed to prefer being close to the pond and creek that runs through the wetland.

Johnson’s hairstreak (Callophrys johnsoni) has a bright white, zig-zaggy stripe and and can be distinguished from the similar thicket hairstreak by the band of dark spots on the outer hingwing, which only goes part way around.

I noticed a surprising number of ants crawling around on the willow flowers. They were also quite interested in the Kalmia flowers. As there has been lately at other wetlands, green commas were fluttering about, occasionally drinking from the willows. There weren’t many other butterflies out—it wasn’t terribly warm and only partly sunny—but I saw one other butterfly, and an exciting find it was as I’d never seen it before. I was squatting down photographing tiny flowers of a cute graminoid that I think was few-flowered spikerush (Eleocharis quinqueflora). When I looked up I realized I was staring right at a beautiful butterfly seated just a few feet away. It was obviously a hairstreak with his pretty tails, but he didn’t quite look familiar. Checking with the books (and the wonderful folks at our local NABA chapter) afterwards, it turns out it is a Johnson’s hairstreak. Apparently they are rare because they are particular about their host species, hemlock dwarf mistletoe (Arceuthobium tsugense), which is found on old-growth western hemlock and firs. It was also a good day for larger wildlife as I saw three deer, a toad, a frog, and a salamander, and while I didn’t actually see a bear, I saw what looked like a bear trail through the wetland that led into a grove of trees with some telltale bear scat.

All in all, it was a fabulous day. Budding tall bluebells (Mertensia paniculata) and elephant’s head (Pedicularis groenlandica) tell me Mother Nature will probably be redecorating to more blues and purples soon. I’m sure she’ll do a fabulous job!

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