Category Archives: Plants and fungi

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. 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.  Our target was to see the red-listed Hosackia pinnata ( formerly Lotus pinnatus) – bog bird’s foot … Continue reading

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Botany Group Report – April 1st Outing to the Comox Lake Bluffs Ecological Reserve

15 of us had a glorious day in the shade of the forested areas, and out in the sun on the old road that skirts around behind the open bluffs (which we avoided because of the extreme aridity).  The hot … Continue reading

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Botany Outing Report: April 1 2019

Greetings all, Spring is suddenly upon us.  Luise reported that there were goldstars (crocidium multicaule) blooming on Hornby on Sunday 17th; check out Point Holmes, usually one of the earliest spots here on the mainland. The coltsfoot (Petasites palmatus) that … Continue reading

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Outing: Shoreline and Botany, Miracle Beach, 4th March 2019

Between the Botany group and the Shoreline group, we had a big turnout on a lovely late winter day. Conditions were so great, in fact, that we were hardly bothered by the lack of seaweeds that were supposed to be … Continue reading

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