wetlands

the broad area in the central valley typified by Juncus spp.

Showing 1–12 of 26 results

  • Allium schoenoprasum / chives

    • globe-shaped umbels of pink flowers with darker midveins (stripes)
    • hollow, tubular leaves and flower stalks
    • smells like onions
    • grows from bulbs in clumps or sometimes individually
    • wild in wetlands, fens, meadows; cultivated in gardens

  • Angelica arguta / Lyall’s angelica

    • white to yellow to pink-ish
    • compound umbel with teeny individual flowers
    • many-toothed compound leaves with sheath surrounding petiole
    • leaflets egg-shaped to narrowly oval
    • pungent parsley/celery/anise scent when leaves crushed

  • Argentina anserina / silverweed

    • silvery, compound leaves on low, creeping stems
    • yellow, 5+ petaled flowers; lots of stamens
    • fens, other wetlands, but also roadsides

  • Betula pumila / bog birch

    • limited to bogs/fens/swamps and wetlands
    • shrub to about 6 feet tall
    • reddish bark on twigs
    • leaves rounded-fan shaped, ca. 1 inch; coarsely toothed
    • inflorescences - catkins (cone-like); separate male and female

  • Camassia quamash / small camas

    • immediately visible for its star-shaped blue flowers and yellow anthers
    • flowers borne on a spike-like raceme, opening from the bottom up
    • multiple flowers open at one time
    • leaves are grass-like, growing from a bulb
    • large seed capsules with ca. 30 roundish black seeds, ripe in late summer

  • Dodecatheon pulchellum / shooting star

    • five pink to lavender lobes projecting backwards
    • white or yellow petal bases above a squiggly purple ring
    • anthers joined into a projecting point; stigma projecting past the point
    • snowmelt to early spring
    • wet meadows to sagebrush communities

  • Equisetum hyemale / rough horsetail

    • thin green stems with black bands; no branches
    • possible cone-like structure at the apex
    • usually in large colonies
    • prefers continuously moist soils

  • Eriophorum angustifolium / narrow-leaved cottongrass

    • limited to bogs/fens with standing water
    • "just a pointy-leaved plant" until the fruit develops
    • fruits are big white, cotton-like tufts

  • Erythranthe guttata / seep monkeyflower

    • yellow flowers with red spots in clumps of 5 or more
    • flowers large for the plant, but otherwise "normal" size
    • two "lips" - lower lip larger than upper, each with 2 petals
    • found in wetlands of all kinds

  • Iris missouriensis / western blue flag iris

    • wetland monocot - long leaves, parallel veins
    • large blue flower with yellow "signal" stripe, purple veins
    • 3 petals, 3 sepals make up the flower
    • blooms in spring
    • "like a domestic iris on a diet"

  • 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

  • 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

Showing 1–12 of 26 results