Comox Valley Nature

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.

From an email by Jocie to the Botany Group on Aug 27.

Mandy and Krista recently found this out-of-place looking iris blooming along the trail that runs alongside Croteau Lake.

Loys reports that the iris was there last year also, and on iNaturalist a Russian expert has identified it as a native species, the beach head iris, Iris setosa. On iNaturalist it looks like there are some records from Yukon.

Look out for it if you are hiking up that way.

[Click the image to enlarge it.]

From an email by Jocie to the Botany Group on August 26.

There are many beautiful, intriguing aquatic plants that often escape our notice, especially since some are totally submerged (maybe botanical snorkeling would be fun?). Here are a few aquatic plants [click a photo to enlarge it]. If any of you have seen/photographed any more aquatics lately send them on to me to share with the group.

1. Water lobelia (Lobelia dortmanna). This grows in shallow water along lake and pond edges. The leaves form a submerged basal rosette, and the white or pale blue flowers bloom above the water surface. From iNaturalist, most records are from lakes in the Campbell River and Quadra Island area and on the west side of the island. It is on the CV plant list, though I’m not sure where in the CV it grows. Photographed here from Amor Lake (northwest of Campbell River).

2. Bladderwort (Utricularia). Bladderwort has bright yellow flowers that bloom above the water surface in the summer, and thread-like leaves with floating, valve-lidded bladders that trap insects. Photographed here from Mallard Lake on Newcastle Island (near Nanaimo) in July. This one might be common bladderwort (Utricularia macrorhiza).

3. White water-buttercup (Ranunculus aquatilis). Mandy sent in this photo from the Diver’s lake area this summer. This floating white buttercup grows in ponds and streams (low to mid elevations). I’ve also seen it in the stream that flows out of Helen MacKenzie Lake.

4. Pondweeds (Potamogeton). There are many species of Potamogeton on Vancouver Island. Some are completely submerged, while others have leaves that float on the surface like lily pads, but more narrow and elongate. They can form extensive colonies, connected by rhizomes with fleshy, overwintering tubers. This one, photographed at Gosling Lake (northwest of Campbell River) might be the floating-leaved pondweed (Potamgeton natans).

5. Water shield (Brasenia schreberi) and dulichium (Dulichium arundinaceum). Water shield looks like a small lily pad, but note that there is a central point of attachment of the stem on the leaf underside, unlike the pond lily. Dulichium is a common lake/pond sedge, with distinctive 3-ranked leaves.

6. Dulichium close-up.

7. Weird things at the bottom of the lake…I saw a strange worm-like thing at the bottom of Gosling Lake, with fine, whorled leaves. It was a metre or so underwater and I didn’t want to lean too far over in the canoe to photograph it (hence the bad photo). More investigation needed, but this looks like a milfoil. You have all heard of the highly invasive nightmare, Eurasian water-milfoil, that clogs many BC lakes, but there are several lesser known native milfoils. I’m wondering if this one might be Farwell’s milfoil (Myriophyllum farwellii)?? Any thoughts?

Aquatic plants are part of unique freshwater ecosystems, and I have the feeling that botanically speaking, there is a lot more to explore and document in the ponds and lakes in our area.

Photos and notes by Alison M., distributed to the Botany Group on August 22. Click a photo to enlarge it.

King gentians (Gentiana sceptrum) are now in full bloom in the Meadows (photos 1 and 2) – though remember that they will only be open fully in the later afternoon.

Ladies tresses (Spiranthes romanzoffiana), distinctive with the flowers in a spiral around the stem (photo 3). Found in boggy areas especially on the south side of the Centennial loop, a bit east of the Lake Helen MacKenzie junction.

Most spectacular earlier in August was the Northern bedstraw (Galium boreale) both for the profusion of blooms and the perfume, particularly in the evening (photos 4 and 5). Worth braving the voracious mosquitoes! There is an ever-expanding large patch on the north side of the Centennial loop, about 150 or so metres after you turn left at the junction coming from the trailhead. The plants are spreading down from a draw to the left of the boardwalk, but are extending to the other side. Unfortunately by now their blooms will have come to an end

Other flowers in bloom include the three burnets:

Sitka burnet (Sanguisorba stipulata) (formerly canadensis) is yellowish-white and shaggy looking with filaments at least 3 times as long as the calyx-lobes which are 2.5–3 mm long (photo 6).

Menzies’ burnet (Sanguisorba menziesii) is reddish-purple to bright pink, shaggy looking with filaments 2–2.5 times as long as the calyx-lobes which are 2-3 mm long (photo 7).

Great burnet (Sanguisorba officinalis) is reddish-purple to maroon, differing from the other two by its lack of shagginess, the filaments being about the same length as the calyx-lobes which are 2-3 mm long (photo 8).