Mountain Plants of the Western Cascades

The great camas (Camassia leichtlinii) was stunning. We simply had to climb up the wet, rocky slope to get a better look.

Even the clovers were growing en masse. Tomcat clover (Trifolium willdenovii) might be the showiest of our annual clovers.

Great camas and seep monkeyflower (now called Erythranthe microphylla, I believe) spilling down the wet slope above the trail. The actual tree-covered summit of Tire Mountain is the high point on the left.

Looking across the main meadow from up on the ridge, you can see some swathes of colorful flowers in the distance. Cliff penstemon (Penstemon rupicola) and harsh paintbrush (Castilleja hispida) light up the rocks in the foreground.

Adam photographing flowers in a damp area of camas, monkeyflower, saxifrages, and larkspur.

Several years ago, I noticed that the flowers of Mertens’ saxifrage (Saxifraga mertensiana) reflex as they mature until the seed capsules are completely bent backwards. I’ve never seen this mentioned in other floras. As I’m currently editing the Saxifragaceae treatment for the Flora of Oregon, I’m hoping to find out if this is true everywhere or just in the Western Cascades. If anyone sees this plant in fruit, send me a photo or let me know what you see! The saxifrages grow on the north-facing side of the ridge, where a strong breeze made it hard to photograph the delicate flowers.

So much color! Dark purple Menzies’ larkspur (Delphinium menziesii), light purple large-flowered blue-eyed Mary (Collinsia grandiflora), and pink rosy plectritis (Plectritis congesta). 

Here I am sniffing the rosy plectritis. When it grows as abundantly as this, you really don’t need to lean over though, and it can actually be too potent sometimes. Photo courtesy of Adam Schneider.

I kept my eyes open for bees all day, but this little one was among the few I spotted and was able to photograph, enjoying the large-flowered blue-eyed Mary. Grammatically, it may be hard to tell who was enjoying the flower from that sentence, but actually it was both the bee and me!

Like the bees, butterflies were surprisingly sparse for so many thousands of great nectar plants available. But just as we were heading back in the late afternoon, I spotted two checkerspot caterpillars. This is the first time I’ve seen them on an annual Castilleja, narrowleaf owlclover (Castilleja attenuata), although they frequently use the larger perennial paintbrushes. Tomcat clover can be seen in the background.