Comox Valley Nature

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 some early bloomers! Blue-eyed Mary should be making an appearance here soon, but of course it is much earlier down-island.

Here are a few notes & highlights. [Click a photo to enlarge it.]

1. Blue-eyed Mary (in the genus Collinsia). My photo isn’t diagnostic enough to tell the difference between the similar looking parviflora and grandiflora.

2. Common whitlow-grass (Draba verna). This is not a native plant, but it is one of our earliest blooms in the mustard family.

3. Macoun’s meadowfoam (Limnanthes macounii). This is a rare, red-listed plant. I knew of its presence at Yellow Point from an old plant list. Glad to find it!

4. Dwarf owl-clover (Triphysaria pusilla). The deep purple colour and strange growth form of this tiny plant are distinctive.

5. Blinks (Montia fontana). This is a small and nondescript montia…blink and you miss it! It has some tiny early-blooming white flowers.

6. Field madder (Sherardia arvensis). Another tiny plant, does it madder? Small and non-native, with a whorled leaf arrangement that is similar to cleavers.

7. Hairy/purple honeysuckle (Lonicera hispidula). Common on the drier gulf islands. Note the hairy leaf edges that are different from orange honeysuckle.

8. Yerba buena (Clinopodium douglasii). A fragrant, trailing plant that is often found growing in the same habitats as the purple honeysuckle.

9. Small-flowered nemophila (Nemophila parviflora). This lovely, albeit overlooked, native plant can be found around the Comox Valley and will be in bloom soon…look out for it!

10. Maritime juniper (Juniperus maritima). There are some ancient maritime juniper in this area. It was neat to see the purple-blue juniper berries.

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 a food source! Thanks to Mandy for sending this. [But note the caution about toxicity below the photos.]

These invasive shrubs (I’m sure you are all well familiar with them) are both in the pea family. Here are a few photos of local examples [click a photo to enlarge it].

1. Scotch broom (Cytisus scoparius): leaf and seed pod detail (from Piercy Rd. wasteland near the inland highway).

2. Gorse (Ulex europaeus): in bloom last December at Woodhus Slough.

Notes on the toxicity of these plants from a follow-up email by Jocie:

Please don’t go out and eat these plants, as they can be toxic to humans and livestock! The article mentioned “isolating the protein to make it safe for consumption” which must involve removing the toxic alkaloids.

Gary S. sent me an email which raises some good points about this:

“I was surprised that the article does not deal with the known toxicity of Scotch broom to humans and livestock. There is a documented history of poisoning in British Columbia beginning with the use of broom for brewing tea by Chinese labourers building the railroad.”