coniferous forests

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  • Acer glabrum / Rocky Mountain maple

    • understory shrub, small tree, multiple stems
    • opposite leaves; red twigs
    • maple-like leaves
    • teeny flowers; double-helicopter fruits

  • Allium geyeri / Geyer’s onion

    • smells like onions
    • magenta (occasionally white) flowers on ca. 15 inch stem
    • each flower urn-shaped with flared, pointy tips; yellow anthers
    • leaves persistent during flowering
    • rocky slopes in brush and pines, sometimes in dense stands

  • Corallorhiza wisteriana / spring coralroot

    • small, easily missed in the forest duff
    • no leaves, no green parts
    • flowers have white lips, possible spots, no eared tabs
    • scape (flowering stalk) purple, or yellow, or brown
    • may stay dormant for years at a time

  • Huechera cylindrica / coral bells

    • oval-shaped leaves growing in clumps/tufts - all basal
    • leaf edges with small lobes or teeth
    • teeny pale yellow, creamy, green or pink flowers on a leafless stem
    • flowers more dense at top of spike than lower down
    • in woods, on cliff-side ledges, rocky slopes and subalpine meadows

  • Orthilia secunda / sidebell wintergreen

    • evergreen herb or sub-shrub
    • boggy understory and forest stream banks
    • basal, egg-shaped leaves with prominent veins
    • very small to teeny creamy or green-ish flowers all on one side of stem

  • 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

  • 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

  • Ribes viscosissimum / sticky currant

    • shrub to 7 feet tall
    • stem and leaves covered with sticky, glandular hairs
    • white, bell-like flowers in drooping or erect clusters (up to 15)
    • rough leaves, 3-5 equal lobes, toothed margins
    • fragrant flowers and leaves

  • Vaccinium scoparium / grouse whortleberry

    • low growing deciduous shrub
    • clonally spreading
    • green twigs and small (3/4 inch), oval, light green leaves
    • teeny, pendant, urn-shaped white/pink flowers
    • red berries in fall

  • Valeriana dioica / wood valerian

    • perennial herb, up to 18"
    • stem leaves lobed with egg-shaped "leaflets"
    • inflorescence - compact, round-topped umbel-like cluster; white flowers
    • flowers are teeny! ca. 1/8" with protruding stamens
    • mostly in dry to moist forests

  • Valeriana sitchensis / Sitka valerian

    • rhizomatous perennial - possibly in large colonies
    • sizable head of small white flowers; 5 petals
    • stamens extend beyond petals
    • leaves opposite, deeply lobed (almost compound)

Showing all 11 results