interesting bits

Showing 73–84 of 100 results

  • Poa bulbosa / bulbous meadow-grass

    • short, tuft-forming grass
    • funny-looking flower stalks... having bulblets instead of florets
    • doesn't produce pollen or seeds

  • Polygonum aviculare / prostrate knotweed

    • long, prostrate stems around a central point
    • copious red-edged white flowers
    • small green leaves
    • along roadsides, parking lots and wherever trampling occurs
    • an ugly weed you'll see on most of your walks around town

  • Potamogeton richardsonii / Richardson’s pondweed

    • submerged aquatic with emergent inflorescence
    • crinkly, broad-ish leaves which clasp the stem
    • variable length internodes
    • often tangled up with sago pondweed

  • 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

  • Pterospora andromedea / woodland pinedrops

    • sticky-haired, reddish brown plant; no chlorophyll
    • nodding, yellow and pink flowers like upside-down urns
    • unbranched stem with "invisible" scale-like leaves at base
    • old, woody stalks with pumpkin-shaped capsules persist at least one season
    • in pine or mixed conifer forests

  • Purshia tridentata / antelope bitterbrush

    • small yellow, 5-petal flowers in early spring
    • small shrub, often in large "clumps"
    • leaves look like sagebrush (Artemesia tridentata)

  • Ranunculus adoneus / alpine buttercup

    • short, high altitude plant
    • rocks or moist meadows
    • yellow "buttercuppy" flowers, 5-10 petals
    • huge numbers of stigmas
    • highly lobed, finely dissected leaves

  • Ranunculus glaberrimus / sagebrush buttercup

    • one of the earliest spring flowers
    • yellow flowers, ca. 1" across
    • usually 5 shiny/waxy petals, numerous stamens
    • short, mostly elliptical leaves
    • in small to field-sized clumps
    • very poisonous

  • Ribes aureum / golden current

    • shrub up to 10 feet tall
    • spring bloomer, golden yellow flower in clusters
    • small, maple-like leaves
    • 1/2 inch berries in late summer, golden to black

  • Ribes lacustre / prickly currant

    • deeply lobed, maple-like leaves
    • prickly stems with spines at nodes
    • shrub to ca. 4 feet tall
    • teeny cream & purple flowers in dangling clusters in spring
    • red berries in late summer maturing to very small black berries

  • Rumex crispus / curly dock

    • rather large, lance-shaped leaves
    • curly leaf margins, like crisped bacon or "crinkly-wavy"
    • tall flowering stalks with many, many small yellow/green-ish flowers
    • fruits are just like the flowers but deep red
    • widespread and very much a weed

  • Scrophularia lanceolate / lanceleaf figwort

    • teeny, snapdragon-like flowers
    • flowers urn-shaped with yellow with red or green on the outside
    • flowers look like they aren't yet opened
    • flowers on elongated panicle at the top of a tall-ish plant
    • opposite leaves like stinging nettle without the stingers
    • up to 5 feet tall in full sun/partial shade

Showing 73–84 of 100 results