Category Archives: Plants and fungi

Plants & blooms from the wet west coast

From an email by Jocie to the Botany Group on March 28. I was over in Ucluelet from March 20-23 with my family, which coincided with 3 days of pelting monsoon rain alternating with drenching misty rain. Anyway, it was … Continue reading

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Early blooms at Comox Lake Bluffs and Tsolum River flats

Notes and photos from Alison M. emailed to the Botany Group on March 27. It seems that our usual first spring blooms are very slow to appear. After the long winter, there has not been sufficient warmth on average to … Continue reading

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Early blooms and plants from Yellow Point

From an email by Jocie to the Botany Group on March 22. I was down at Yellow Point Lodge (a bit south of Nanaimo) with my mother for a weekend in late February and found some interesting plants there and … Continue reading

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Hip to be a botanist!

From an email by Jocie to the Botany group on March 6. Before the spring growing season explodes, take a moment to check out some colourful rose hips! [Click a photo to enlarge it.] Our native Nootka rose (Rosa nutkana) … Continue reading

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Cooley spruce gall

From an email by Jocie to the Botany Group on January 30. Fanciful-looking Cooley spruce galls add a splash of colour to these grey, dreary days. Many have funky shades of purple, red and yellow. They vary depending on what … Continue reading

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Gorse and broom a source of protein?

From an email by Jocie to the Botany Group on January 29. An article from the Guardian, here, tells how gorse and broom could potentially be used as a source of protein. Maybe we should be using more invasives as … Continue reading

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More Nordic botany

From an email by Jocie to the Botany Group on January 22. Here are a few more trees from the subalpine (photos from the Jutland nordic ski trail). One of my favourite trees is the amabilis fir (Abies amabilis). The … Continue reading

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Nordic botany

From an email by Jocie to the Botany Group on January 17. I was up the mountain on Saturday, x-country skiing on the upper west-Jutland loop. The conditions weren’t great…it had rained heavily up there a week or so ago. … Continue reading

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Winter observations

From an email by Jocie to the Botany Group on December 24. Wishing you all a belated happy solstice and a Merry Christmas. A rare white Christmas this year! Between deluges of rain and the current wintery state, botany walks … Continue reading

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More mega polypores, plus bear’s heads

Notes and photos by Alison M. distributed to the Botany Group on November 7. After the extremely hot dry summer, many of our favourite fungi have been noteworthy by their almost total absence. In Strathcona Provincial Park, both in the … Continue reading

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