Plants in the Valley

Showing 181–192 of 335 results

  • Lotus corniculatus / birds-foot trefoil

    • roadsides and other disturbed areas
    • numerous bright yellow, pea-like flowers
    • three, oval and pointed leaflets
    • seed pods are arranged like toes on a bird's foot

  • Lupinus spp. / silvery and silky lupins

    • palmately compound, usually silvery-green leaves
    • 5-9 leaflets per leaf; long petioles
    • flowers on long, spikey racemes, blooming from bottom upward
    • numerous flowers, but all rather teeny; most purple or blue
    • flowers are above the leaves
    • seeds in short, hairy pods

  • Madia glomerata / mountain tarweed

    • stems, leaves, flowers - strongly aromatic, like tar
    • sticky glandular hairs cover foliage and floral bracts
    • flowers in clusters with 1 to 3 yellow ray florets
    • disk florets retain visible petals; black stamens

  • Mahonia repens / creeping Oregon grape

    • pinnately compound with toothed, holly-like leaflets
    • clusters of yellow flowers in spring; blue berries in late summer
    • low, creeping shrub
    • evergreen - but winter leaves are reddish

  • 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

  • Malva neglecta / cheeseweed

    • leaves look like grocery store geraniums (Pelargonium)
    • flowers are small, pink-ish and often buried in the foliage
    • fruits are small (ca. 1/2 in) and round

  • Medicago lupulina / black medic

    • prostrate, long creeping stems
    • compound leaves with 3 small, rounded leaflets
    • teeny yellow flowers in very small button-like clusters
    • disturbed areas with compacted soil - roadsides & wastelands

  • Medicago sativa / alfalfa

    • escaped forage plant
    • bright purple flowers in dense clusters
    • pea-like flowers with broad upper petal, 2 small laterals, keel
    • compound leaves with 3 leaflets, the central one extended on a short stalk
    • disturbed sites - roadsides, full sun

  • Melilotus spp / sweetclover

    • yellow or white, floppy, tubular flowers in long-ish clusters (racemes)
    • 3 small, pointy leaflets with petioles
    • rangy, unkempt branching
    • roadsides, waste places and sometimes in fields, grasslands

  • Mentha canadensis / American cornmint

    • crushed leaves smell like peppermint
    • clusters of teeny white-blue-pink flowers in the axils of stem leaves
    • square stems, lance-shaped leaves
    • shaded, moist areas
    • may form large clones

  • Mertensia ciliata / mountain bluebells

    • taller than others bluebells - up to four feet
    • often forms dense stands by streams and seeps
    • flowers dark blue, bell-shaped, held on one side of stem
    • leaves blue-green, pointed, with prominent veins, marginal pointy hairs

Showing 181–192 of 335 results