A Springtime Walk in the Woods

Just because I don’t know your name,
doesn’t mean that you are not loved and appreciated any less.

I find this one in the same vicinity every year.
There were a number of baby plants nearby.
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Large swaths of Buttercups are in the grass.
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The small moth stayed in this flower for quite awhile.
I have seen blankets of these flowers
under the native oak trees.
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A small spray of teeny-tiny flowers.
Had not noticed these before now.
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Close-up of another very small flower.
It is barely noticeable while walking by.
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Ubiquitous lawn daisy.
Really pretty in the meadows.

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Oregon Coast

We drove along the Oregon Coast recently.

I stood on the overlook at
Devil’s Punch Bowl and saw
these alyssum flowers on a ledge.
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It is pretty amazing to me
that any plant can survive,
much less thrive, living in the sand.
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I noticed a number of wildflowers
on the highway along the beach.

This yellow blossom was my favorite.
It grew in clumps along the road.
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Queen Anne’s Lace is a prolific grower.
Can you see some of the blossoms have gone to seed?
The seed burrs are most annoying;
I have picked them out of too many socks.
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Everlasting Sweet Peas grow along many roadsides.
I accidentally planted them in my own flower garden.
They are near impossible to eliminate.
But they sure look pretty along the highway.
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Dandelions grow everywhere!

Mt. St. Helens National Monument

On May 18, 1980 Mt. St. Helens,
in Washington State, blew its top,
and a classic upside-down V-shaped peak
turned into to an open caldera.

While flora and fauna have returned after 35 years,
there is still much evidence of the violent explosion.
That was the history part of this blog entry.
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We visited September 1, and found
end-of-summer wildflowers on our hike.

Most of these pink flowers had gone to seed.
The seed pods are most unusual looking.
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The down side of a beautiful, sunny day
is that the glare makes photography a challenge.

Wildflower Hike

We went for a hike up the mountains yesterday to see waterfalls,
and I found some cool wildflowers.

I have never seen this ‘flower’ before.
The first photo is to show its location in a very wet location.

Wild iris are popping up all over – it is their time.
Trillium is not the state flower of Oregon, but many think so.
It is against the law to pick any specimens!
There are a number of wild orchids that can be found in the woods,
I feel I was lucky to spot this one.

Rhododendron grow tall and leggy in the forest,
this is a baby with one stem.
I believe the ground cover is Oregon Grape leaves around it.
Right photo is one of many wild berry flowers.

Here are some waterfalls we visited:

Tokatee Falls and Watson Falls up the North Umpqua River in Oregon.

Wildflower Collecting

Last week I collected wildflowers for the annual Glide Wildflower Show.
  It has been an especially rainy winter and spring,
but that morning we got a break in the showers.
Our route was Whistler’s Bend park at u-turn in the North Umpqua River.

MIMULUS GUTTATUS

Monkey flower was on our list, and we found a cliff-side full of them.
The flower is hard to see in my photo,
so I found a close-up online of mimulus to share.

We did submit these small pink flowers to the wildflower show.
Unfortunately, we did not know their name, so we relied on the plant biologists to identify these specimens.

After we finished collecting flowers, I spotted this pair of Canadian geese heading towards the water.

These Scotch Broom flowers were not on our collection list.
When I first spotted these wayward blossoms years ago, I thought they were so pretty.
I was soon told they are culprits for hay fever, and have naturalized too many places they are not wanted.

Some Local Wildflowers (not lo-cal:-)

This very wet winter and spring have been great for the flora.
Wildflowers are blooming (yeah), so are the weeds (boo)!

Wish I knew all their names…
The yellow ones are buttercups, which look very pretty en masse.

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The little blue flowers are very teeny, about 1/8″ across.
We have hillsides of the white blossoms.

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And now, the weeds:

The purple leaves have very small pink flowers.
This plant has infiltrated a flower bed.
It is not unattractive, but I cannot let it take over a tulip bed.

And I am including a dandelion flower just opening up.
They’re ba-a-ack!