From an email by Jocie to the Botany/Mycology Group on April 19. Click a photo to enlarge it.
We had a wet and cold walk in Roy Morrison Nature Park on Monday April 17 (should I have canceled?) Nonetheless, 7 intrepid botanists showed up. All the plants looked wonderfully fresh in the rain. The “cabbage patch” was magnificent, and it seems to be a good year for trilliums.
Here are a few highlights. Thanks to Véronique for being our “designated photographer.” No one else wanted to take out their camera in the downpour!
- Wet botanists! (but appropriately attired).
- Skunk cabbage patch (Lysichiton americanum).
- Detail of the small flowers dotting the spadix (central column) of skunk cabbage.
- Black gooseberry (Ribes lacustre).
- Detail of black gooseberry (note the golden spines all along the stem).
- Water purslane (Ludwigia palustris). This semi-aquatic plant likes to hang out in ditches, swamps and pond edges. It is in the evening primrose family (Onagraceae).
- Western trillium (Trillium ovatum). After pollination, the white blooms turn pink or maroon coloured.
- Catkins of black cottonwood (Populus trichocarpa) are larger and more purple-toned than red alder. The catkins are packed with male flowers.
- Oval-leaved blueberry (Vaccinium ovatifolium). Though more common in the subalpine, blueberry is found sporadically through our lowland forests (and more common further north along the coast). The little white bell-like flowers, which bloom before the leaves, stand out in early to mid-April.
- Blueberry flower closeup showing the red twigs that differ from the green twigs of red huckleberry.
- Green false hellebore (Veratrum viride). Another plant that’s more common in the subalpine. There is some along the edges of Morrison Creek. Very poisonous!
- Stream violet (Viola glabella), likes the floodplains of creeks/rivers.
