Comox Valley Nature

From an email by Jocie to the Botany Group on September 15.

Here are a few photos from a hike I did up Mt. Becher with Mandy a few weeks ago. Some wonderful colours starting and lots of interesting plants though most of the summer blooms are over. [Click a photo to enlarge it.]

1. Colour mix (mountain ash, blueberries, heather). Photo by Mandy V.

2. Sitka mountain-ash (Sorbus sitchensis)

3. Fringed grass-of-parnassis (Parnassia fimbriata)

4. Mountain mare’s-tail (Hippuris montana)

5. False asphodel (Tofieldia glutinosa): very bright red seedheads!

6. Alpine alumroot (Heuchera glabra)

7. View of Mt. Drabble (right) and Indianhead (left) with Mt. Washington beyond. Photo by Mandy V.

From an email by Jocie to the Botany Group on September 4.

Here’s part 2 from the Bedwell and Cream Lakes area. See part 1 here. Click a photo to enlarge it.

1. Cream Lake view

2. River beauty or dwarf fireweed (Chamaenerion latifolium): bushels of this on the Cream Lake gravel flats.

3. Yellow monkey-flower (Erythranthe guttata) and what I think is redstem saxifrage (Micranthes lyallii)

4. Eschscholtz’s buttercup (Ranunculus eschscholtzii)

5. Alpine ladyfern (Athyrium distentifolium)

6. On the trail

7. Tarn with view of the 9 peaks

From an email by Jocie to the Botany Group on September 4.

Apart from Alison’s lovely photos of Paradise Meadows, we haven’t delved into subalpine/alpine plants much this summer. So, here is a blast of the mountain flora.

I went backpacking with my kids to Bedwell and Cream Lakes in Strathcona Park from August 18–20th. We camped at Baby Bedwell and did a day hike to Cream Lake. I hadn’t done this hike for quite a few years, and in my mind the terrain was more level and easy (funny how that is). It was a rough, rocky uphill slog! In short, my kids have vowed to never backpack again, but I think they will get over it.

Despite the dry summer the Cream Lake area was full of lush blooms. It’s an area that has late-lingering snow and seems to have quite a lot of water. Even the blueberries were plump. We were lucky to see an enormous black bear plowing through the berries (a slight trail detour but no big deal).

Here are some of the plants and views (part 1). Click a photo to enlarge it. More to come in a second instalment.

1. View of Bedwell Lake and Mt. Tom Taylor

2. Lewis’ monkey-flower (Erythranthe lewisii)

3. White pasqueflower, or “tow-headed baby” (Pulsatilla occidentalis)

4. Olympic aster (Eucephalus paucicaptitatus)

5. Western sweetvetch (Hedysarum occidentale)

6. Alpine sorrel (Oxyria digyna)

7. Mt Septimus view, with western columbine (Aquilegia formosa), cow parsnip (Heracleum lanatum), and harebell (Campanula rotundifolia)

From an email by Jocie to the Botany Group on August 30.

I don’t know how you all coped with the excessive heat this summer…but I ended up spending more time out on the water than I did hiking. I paddled some parts of the Sayward Canoe route, which is a chain of lakes northwest of Campbell River.

The timber around these lakes has been logged in the past and logging is ongoing. Though the area is mostly unprotected, much of the lake flora remains intact and I imagine it is quite similar to what it would have been like pre-logging. Despite the ongoing abuses to this area, these lakes have a quiet, peaceful character and some lovely native plants, a few of which I’ll share here. These are from Amor Lake. [Click a photo to enlarge it.]

1. King gentian (Gentiana sceptrum). Alison recently sent a photo of this lovely blue flower from Paradise Meadows, but gentians can also be found along the edges of lower elevations lakes.

2. Northern water horehound (Lycopus uniflorus). This member of the mint family has tiny white flowers in the axils, but it lacks a mint scent.

3. Field mint (Mentha arvensis). This mint, with clusters of lilac-coloured blooms in the axils, has a strong minty odour and makes a nice tea.

4. Aster….so many asters but this is likely Douglas’ aster (Aster douglasii) though I didn’t look at it very closely.

5. Lake shores glisten with red-coloured sundews, whose sticky leaves trap insects. This is a patch of great sundew (Drosera anglica).

6. Lake reflections to contemplate from the canoe.

7. Here’s a creature that isn’t celebrated much…a leech (subclass Hirudinae) that was lurking in the shallows. It had some quite handsome black & brown speckling. It didn’t stop me from having a swim!

8. Lots of dragonflies on the lakes. According to “Dragonflies of BC & the Yukon” (Cannings) this looks like the saffron-winged meadowhawk, Sympetrum costiferum (note the golden veins on the wing).

9. Resting the Grumman (built like a tank and almost as heavy) on a short portage from Amor Lake to Surprise Lake. There’s a camping spot here known as “Mr. Canoehead” which has a nice display of old historic logging boots and various shoes.