Category Archives: Plants and fungi

Featured plant: Tiny veronicas (speedwells)

From an email by Jocie Brooks to members of the Botany Group on May 18. Backyard micro-botany Staying closer to home this spring, I am noticing just how many plants, wanted and unwanted, are in my backyard. This year, I … Continue reading

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Featured plant: Horsetail and scouring rush

This post is by Jocie Brooks, leader of the Botany Group, adapted from her email to members of the group on May 12. General notes Horsetail and scouring rush are distinctive plants, with bamboo-like jointed stems and a strange rough-to-touch … Continue reading

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Odd trilliums: An explanation

Loys Maingon provided the following explanation for the trilliums with double and triple flowers reported in the previous post Strange Trilliums! The answer to the question about the trillium is one that I have often given to questions on my … Continue reading

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Featured plant: Stinging nettle

This post is by Jocie Brooks, leader of the Botany Group, adapted from her email to members of the group on May 4. Stinging Nettle (Urtica dioica ssp. gracilis) General notes Many people first learn about stinging nettle the hard … Continue reading

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Strange trilliums!

This post is by Jocie Brooks, leader of the Botany Group, from an email to members of the group on April 26. Dawn Moore recently sent me some photos of unusual trilliums, some with double flowers and some even stranger … Continue reading

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Invasive plant: Garlic mustard (Alliaria petiolata)

This post is by Jocie Brooks, leader of the Botany Group, from an email to members of the group on April 27. I was out walking along the Puntledge River recently (downstream from the Condensory Bridge on the Courtenay side), … Continue reading

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Featured plant: Gnome plant

This post is by Jocie Brooks, leader of the Botany Group, from an email to members of the group on April 20. Joy recently sent in a photo of a gnome plant from the Maple Lake area near Cumberland.ย This unusual … Continue reading

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Featured plant: Coltsfoot

This post is by Jocie Brooks, leader of the Botany Group, from an email to members of the group on April 15. I recently came across a nice patch of coltsfoot at the entrance to the Nile Creek trail (inland … Continue reading

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Botany Outing Report: Seal Bay Sept 9th 2019

At our last gathering at Seal Bay on September 9th we were not disappointed in the array of botanical forms : flowers in still bloom, including the musk-flower- Erythranthre moschata ( yellow monkey flower with slimy leaves) and the abhorred … Continue reading

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Outing: Botany, Harewood Plain, May 7th 2019

Greetings all, On May 27th eight of us were treated to a brilliant display of later spring flowers at Harewood Plains in Nanaimo.ย  Our target was to see the red-listed Hosackia pinnata ( formerly Lotus pinnatus) โ€“ bog birdโ€™s foot … Continue reading

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