forest openings

Showing 37–48 of 63 results

  • Maianthemum racemosum / Solomon’s plume

    • "feathery" inflorescence - panicle
    • 6 white tepals on teeny flowers
    • long-blooming in late spring, sometimes into summer
    • green berries --> red as they ripen
    • alternate, clasping leaves on erect stems

  • Maianthemum stellatum / starry false Solomon’s seal

    • blooms in late June (ish) in the Valley, mildly fragrant.
    • teeny star-shaped flowers with 6 white tepals
    • one inflorescence (raceme) per stem
    • small berries progressing from green to purple to red with maturity
    • alternate, long and narrow leaves clasping the stem

  • Noccea fendleri ssp. idahoensis / wild candytuft

    • white crucifer, four petals in two parallel rows
    • flowers in terminal clusters
    • basal rosette leaves with a few on the stalks
    • wetter areas

  • Osmorhiza spp / sweet cicely

    • broad compound, bluntly toothed, fern-like leaves 3 times compoundly divided
    • compound umbels of tiny white flowers; May-June
    • short, understory herb

  • Packera streptanthifolia / Rocky Mountain groundsel

    • yellow-flowered composite; "flowers" on branched inflorescence
    • 8-13 half-inch ray florets, usually spaced apart
    • thick, spatula-shaped basal leaves without teeth or clefts
    • thin, often deeply lobed stem leaves
    • dry woodlands and rocky places

  • Paxistima myrsinites / Oregon boxwood

    • low shrub
    • small, opposite leaves; lightly toothed, leathery, oval
    • very early spring flowering
    • teeny flowers with 4 red petals, 4 yellow stamens; in clusters
    • usually on open, dry, sunny sites or open forests

  • Pedicularis bracteosa / towering lousewort

    • dense, narrow inflorescence on upper half of stem
    • yellow, beak-like flowers with upper and lower lips
    • flowers from bottom to top
    • conspicuous, fern-like leaves
    • old flowers become light brown but remain on stalk

  • Pedicularis racemosa / leafy lousewort

    • clumps of plants with maroon stems in forest understory
    • white to pink flowers in upper leaf axils
    • flowers have beak-like upper lip and wide three-lobed lower lip
    • leaves narrow and tapering, slightly serrate, maroon when young

  • Plantanthera unalascensis / slender-spire orchid

    • teeny, green flowers, well-separated, not spiraled
    • a "tall, thin, green nothing"
    • basal leaves prostrate, but not appressed to the ground
    • leaves often wither before pollination occurs
    • found in many different habitats

  • Prunella vulgaris / self-heal

    • compact spike of tiny purple, mint-like flowers
    • upper/lower lips purple and white respectively
    • square stems, opposite leaves

  • Prunus virginiana / western chokecherry

    • oval leaves with serrated margins and abrupt taper at tip
    • reddish twigs with prominent lenticels
    • drooping clumps of white flowers w/ yellow centers in spring
    • red to black cherries in fall, up to ½ inch diameter
    • leaves turn orange or yellow in fall

  • Pteridium aquilinum / common bracken

    • a fern with large, triangular fronds, up to 4 ft tall
    • fronds subdivided into triangular leaflets
    • herbaceous perennial
    • deciduous with annual regrowth first appearing as fiddleheads in spring
    • wide range of habitats, including full sun

Showing 37–48 of 63 results