July

Showing 109–120 of 200 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
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
Micranthes odontoloma / brook saxifrage
- streamsides (or in the streams) especially at higher elevations
- white petals with beautiful red center
- yellow/green spots on the petals
- multiple drooping flowers on foot-long, leafless stems
Myosotis asiatica / forget-me-not
- azure blue to violet to white flowers - very small
- yellow ring around the center of each flower, like a doughnut
- usually many flowers in an inflorescence
- flowers initially in compact clusters, more spread out later in season
- leaves and stems a bit hairy
Nasturtium officinale / watercress
- emergent aquatic in slow-ish flowing steams
- four petaled white flowers in clusters
- thick, shiny leaves
- often in dense colonies
Neottia banksiana / northwestern twayblade
- orchid - with two stem-clasping leaves halfway up the stem
- moist, dim understory habitat, in clonal patches
- very small green orchid flower - 5 sickle-shaped petals and sepals, 1 broader green labellum (lip)
- small, insignificant and easily overlooked
Oenothera villosa / hairy evening primrose
- yellow flowers on tall stalks, several flowers in a cluster
- 4 petals; 8 stamens; large, 4 part stigma
- hairy - often reddish - stems; hairy leaves
- lance-shaped leaves, larger on stem than basal
- disturbed areas and stream banks
Onobrychis viciifolia / sainfoin
- forage legume, taller than alfalfa
- pink pea-like flowers with striped banner petal and darker keel
- spiky inflorescence (a raceme) blooming from bottom up - up to 50 flowers
- pinnately compound leaves with single terminal leaflet
- naturalized with sagebrush and mountain shrubs, but also in the central Valley