Mountain Plants of the Western Cascades

Posts Tagged ‘Garrya’

While the center yellow lines were painted by a road crew, Mother Nature created the line along the edge of the road with a bright yellow ribbon of gold stars. They are also sprinkled all over the cliffs along Hills Creek Reservoir.

A little rove beetle(?) has gotten completely covered with pollen from the tiny flowers of skunk cabbage (Lysichiton americanus).

I almost always start my botanizing year with a trip in March to the Rigdon area in southeastern Lane County. With the cold, wet weather of March and April and the lateness of the wildflower emergence, I didn’t get out there until April 26! As I suspected, the wet spring was ideal for gold stars (Crocidium multicaule), and most everything was at least 3 weeks later than usual. Here are a few highlights.

Glaucous spring beauty (Claytonia exigua ssp. glauca) is a diminutive, early annual. While I usually see it on mossy rocks, this population grows in a mound of dirt in the ditch below the cliffs.

After being mistakenly cut down several years ago, the Fremont’s silktassel (Garrya fremontii) by the bridge at Hills Creek Reservoir has at long last recovered enough to put its energy into flowers! A dioecious species, this one is a male with longer tassels.

The skunk cabbage swamp hidden behind Everage Flat Picnic Area was one of the highlights of the day. The flowers were fresh and fragrant, and the leaves hadn’t yet started to give off the skunky odor they are known for.

California mistmaiden (Romanzoffia californica) is distinguished by its hairy, tuber-like bases. The little axillary bulbils that are typically present in this area also show the hairy bases. They drop off and form large colonies in the right spot, usually cliffs or rocky slopes.

This wasp enjoyed the little flowers of California mistmaiden. There were also small bees visiting some of the gold star flowers. I was disappointed to see only a few butterflies (a red admiral, a propertius duskywing, and a handful of California tortoiseshells), but as I’d only seen one butterfly so far this year and just a few days before, it was great to see any. I can’t wait for more of them to emerge from their various stages of overwintering.

The rocky bluff next to the Sacandaga Campground was also covered with gold stars.

From the west opening on the bluff next to Sacandaga campground, you can see the snow on the area that burned in the 2009 Tumblebug Fire.

I was so happy to see so many handsome male catkins on the Fremont’s silktassel (Garrya fremontii) next to the bridge and boat ramp at Hills Creek Reservoir. This lovely native plant was accidentally cut down by a Forest Service crew while working on nearby weedy shrubs a few years back. It has been slowly recovering ever since.

One of the best benefits of having a remote job doing layout and design is that I set my own hours. Or in other words, I can usually play hooky when I feel like it! When I saw that the forecast for Oakridge was supposed to be in the 70s (!) on Wednesday, March 31, I dropped everything to see how things were progressing down in Rigdon. And after spending several weeks focusing on butterflies while preparing my slide show on “Favorite Plants of Butterflies of the Western Cascades” for the North American Butterfly Association and the Middle Fork Willamette Watershed Council (you can view the recording here), I couldn’t wait to spend a day with some butterflies. Read the rest of this entry »

It’s been a busy winter and spring with a lot of unexpected setbacks—snowstorm and broken wrist among the worst. The snow’s long gone, and the wrist is healing, but I’m still not caught up on everything I had hoped to do in the last few months. While I haven’t been out as much as usual, I did make it out to Rigdon several times, so I’ll share some photos from those early spring trips.

March 17

My friend Karl hadn’t seen the big show of gold stars (Crocidium multicaule) along Hills Creek Reservoir, so we headed out there on March 17. We only made it out as far as Big Pine Opening because of all the downed trees and remnants of snow on the road, but the show along the reservoir was beautiful.

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A male Garrya fremontii blooms with Mount June in the background

At only 3000′, early spring flowers are already decorating Eagles Rest near Dexter. This rocky knob is only a 15-mile drive from my house, so I don’t know why I haven’t spent more time there. I only had a few hours yesterday afternoon (March 31st) to get out and enjoy the warm weather, so Eagles Rest seemed like a good destination. While hikers looking for exercise take the long route up from Goodman Creek or farther up where the trail crosses Road 5833, I wasn’t looking for a long walk (and my leg is sore), so I took the easy path up from Eagles Rest Road.

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Last week, Sabine and I went out to Hills Creek Reservoir. It was a gorgeous day, and the botanizing turned out to be even better than we had anticipated. We knew there was Crocidium multicaule out there, but I don’t think we’ve ever seen so many there. They are outstanding on the cliffs between the 7 and 8 mile markers on Road 21 along the west side of the reservoir, creating sweeps of yellow on the rocks. The Lomatium hallii and Ribes roezlii var. cruentum are just starting there as well and just a couple of little Mimulus alsinoides. We climbed up one of the less steep banks to see if we could get higher up the rocks. Loads of poison oak and, although we got to the edge of the cliff, there wasn’t much new to see there. But on the way out, under the many ocean sprays on the upper bank, we found 2 dried flower stalks of what I’m almost positive is Orobanche pinorum. Since it is near the beginning of the deer trail we took, it should be easy to check for fresh flowers later in the season without getting into the poison oak. When we got back to the road, there was a chorus of frogs in a ditch, along with lots of egg masses. I saw one frog, but alas, they quieted down as we approached. That’s one of the prettiest sounds in the whole world.

male Fremont’s silktassel (Garrya fremontii)

A quick stop at the bathroom at the bridge on the south side of the lake brought another surprise. In the dozens of times I’ve stopped there, I never noticed there is a Garrya fremontii growing in the parking area. It was a handsome male in full peak bloom, the most beautiful I’ve ever seen. Its long dangling flowers were dispersing tons of pollen, my camera bag was yellow from a thick coating of it. That was worth the whole trip.

We continued on to Youngs Flat Picnic area for lunch and a quick check on the Piperias. They are starting to come up, but there should be many more emerging in a little while. Nothing else blooming there but snow queens, but we did see two California tortoiseshells. Then we stopped at a south-facing road cut where over 20 tortoiseshells were fluttering about! More Crocidium blooming on the rocks here and one Clarkia rhomboidea plant with the coleus like purple veins on the young leaves. We had fun trying to identify all the annual leaves coming up as well. We hiked up through the woods and back down through a small meadow to the road. The seeps were filled with blooming Nemophila pedunculata and tiny Montia fontana. I was surprised to see so much of it and out so early. Farther east along the road by Campers Flat and then at Big Pine Opening, we saw more of both in seepy spots. Big Pine Opening was burned a couple of years ago. Last year it was filled with supersized annuals presumably enjoying the extra carbon. It is filled with annuals again. It was also interesting to see a number of shrubs that have come back from the roots after burning including several willows coming into bloom that looked like Salix scouleriana, but they had bright red branches.

I hope you all get a chance to get out and enjoy this insanely early spring!