Photographs of the watershed, open for submissions.
Please send your photographs to lori4675@gmail.com along with any information you would like attached [i.e. the plant/s or animal/s or location definitions, and your name if you would like it included].
Unless stated otherwise: all notes are from Plants of Coastal British Columbia by Pojar & MacKinnon [1994 edition].
Top of page are the most recently posted
April 26th and April 27th, 2022:
These two flowers, photographed one day apart, are a fun switch-up.
Above, a White shootingstar [Dodecatheon Hendersonii] is a bit rare, as they are usually a deep pink colour.
Below, a Pink Fawn lily [Erythronium revolutum] also a bit rare, as they are usually white.
Satin flower, see below for more info. April 12/ 21
Common selfheal [Prunella vulgaris], private property, one 1/ 2020. An edible flowering herb, used in folk medicine, young leaves can be eaten raw in salads, or cooked in various dishes.
Garden lupine [Lupinus polyphyllus], private property, June 1/ 2020. Cultivated in some areas, considered invasive in others; attracts bees and retains nitrogen in the soil.
Common Camas [Camassia quamash]. April 24/ 20
Chocolate lily [Fritillaria lanceolate]. April 20/ 20
Western Trillium [Trillium ovatum]. April 20/ 20
Common Camas [Camassia quamash]. April 20/ 20
Lobaria pulmonaria is a large epiphytic lichen consisting of an ascomycete fungus and a green algal partner living together in a symbiotic relationship with a cyanobacterium—a symbiosis involving members of three kingdoms of organisms.
Hair ice: photographed at 09:50 Feb 17/ 2020
Same day, same twig with same Hair ice: photographed @ 10:45
SMITHSONIANMAG.COM
Here’s How a Strange Phenomenon Called ‘Hair Ice’ Forms on Dead Trees
The white ice filaments look a lot like cotton candy
By Marissa FessendenJULY 27, 2015
Fungus is responsible for some weird things: Some species are deadly for snakes and bats, others might help humans rid themselves of bed bugs, Cordyceps species can control insects for their own nefarious purposes, and most are bizarre-looking. Add another unusual thing to this list: Fungus shapes a strangely wondrous kind of ice called hair ice that is found only on rotting logs, according to the European Geosciences Union.
To see hair ice, one’s best chance is to hike into a broadleaf forest between the latitudes of between 45° and 55° N on a cold morning. There, amid patches of snow and frost, a keen eye might spot delicate crystals extending from wood in filaments about 0.01 millimeters thick — about the diameter of a human hair. But as soon as the sun rises, the fragile sculpture will melt away.
Hair ice first officially entranced researchers more than 100 years ago. Alfred Wegener, who first proposed the theory of plate tectonics, tried to solve the more delicate mystery of how hair ice forms too. He noticed that the ice filaments only grew on logs that also bore the thin threads of fungus mycelium and thought the two might be related.
Much more recently, physicist Christian Mätzler from the Institute of Applied Physics at the University of Bern in Switzerland and his colleagues, also grew determined to find the cause of hair ice. After sampling logs for fungus they determined that one kind consistently showed up on wood that produced hair ice, a species called Exidiopsis effusa. Experiments in the lab revealed how this fungus cultivated the icy filaments.
A press release explains:
[The] driving mechanism responsible for producing ice filaments at the wood surface is ice segregation. Liquid water near the branch surface freezes in contact with the cold air, creating an ice front and ‘sandwiching’ a thin water film between this ice and the wood pores. Suction resulting from repelling intermolecular forces acting at this ‘wood–water–ice sandwich’ then gets the water inside the wood pores to move towards the ice front, where it freezes and adds to the existing ice. Analysis of the ice itself showed that several molecules including tannin and lignin end up in the ice. The team suspects that at least one of those organic molecules keep the ice crystals from growing too large, explains chemist, Diana Hofmann of the Institute of Bio and Geosciences in Jülich, Germany.
The team published their findings in the journal Biogeosciences.
Thankfully, solving the mystery, even if only partly (the researchers still aren’t sure exactly which organic molecule controls the ice crystal growth) doesn’t make the frosty growths any less entrancing.
2019
Shootingstar [Dodecatheon pulchellum] April 22/ 2019
Chocolate lily [Fritillaria lanceolata], not quite blooming yet: April 16/ 2019.
From South Prospect Lake Park, April 15th/ 2019:
Fungus growing on a log stump.
Miner’s-lettuce [Claytonia perfoliata]: a somewhat succlent annual, called Miner’s-lettuce because early miners and settlers used it as a salad vegetable. [from Pojar & Mackinnon]
From Estelline Road, April 15th/ 2019
Pink fawn lily [Erythronium revolutum]: First Nations ate the bulbs of the pink fawn lily [from Pojar & Mackinnon].
Double-headed White Fawn lily [Erythronium oregonum] April 15th/ 2019
Private Property: Trillium
Western Trillium [Trillium ovatum] 14 April 2019.
Western Trillium [Trillium ovatum], not quite as open. 14 April 2019.
Bigleaf maple [Acer macrophyllum]: “… the winged seeds descend like little helicopters, which greatly increases their dispersal… and sprouts can grow over 3 m tall in a single year.” from Plants of Coastal British Columbia by Pojar & MacKinnon, 1994. This photo taken March 26th 2019
Satin-flower [Sisyrinchium douglasii]: “… perenial to 30 cm… [found on] dry rocky bluffs and meadows, open opak woodlands… one of our earliest spring flowers” from Plants of Coastal British Columbia by Pojar & MacKinnon, 1994.This photo taken March 26th 2019
Skunk cabbage [Lysichiton americanum], detail of greenish yellow flower hooded by bright yellow large bract. March 23/2019
Same Skunk cabbage from above.
Crocus [Crocus tommasinianus], found roadside Prospect Lake area. March 17/ 2019Skunk cabbage [Lysichiton americanum], detail of greenish yellow flower hooded by bright yellow large bract.
Found on the Prospect Lake public wharf, Jan 2nd.
2018
Rose hips, Oct 22nd
Oregan grape, sending out a bud on Oct 22nd.
Shaggy mane mushrooms. Oct 12/2018
Friday 12th Oct, 2018: Same site, same tree as last year. See photo below for: “Monday, 30th Oct 2017: If correctly identified from “The Pocket Guide to Wild Mushrooms” by Holmberg & Marklund: these mushrooms might be Conifer tuft [Hypholóma capnoídes]. They grow on rotting tree stumps, late fall.”
12th Oct 2018
x 3 more woodland photos…
Common camas [Camassia quamash]: in the Lily Family, found on grassy slopes and meadows, low to middle elevations.
Found next to camas and Garry oak: Chocolate lily [Fritillaria lanceolata]. Like the camas, the bulbs were eaten by the Coast Salish.
Calypso orchid [aka Fairyslipper], forest floor. Once the flower is picked the plant usually dies. 20 April 2018
Rattlesnake-plantain [Goodyera oblongifolia] a native orchid, no flower yet. This one found among mosses in confierous forest. 3rd April 2018
Trillium, private property: 30th March 2018 photo by Judy Frabotta.
Skunk cabbage, flourishing: 25th March 2018.
Skunk cabbage. Private property. March 16th 2018.
Cedar trees, creek side, private property. 16th March 2016.
Alder grove, creekbed, private property. 16th March 2016
Jan 1st 2018: Tod-Gowland Trail, mushrooms [to be identified].
2017
Monday, 30th Oct 2017: If correctly identified from “The Pocket Guide to Wild Mushrooms” by Holmberg & Marklund: these mushrooms might be Conifer tuft [Hypholóma capnoídes]. They grow on rotting tree stumps, late fall.
28th April 2017: Garry oak meadow with Shooting stars
27th April 2017: Calypso bulbosa [Fairy slipper orchid] private property Kerryview Hill
12th April 2017: Lysichiton americanus [Western skunk cabbage] private property Kerryview Hill
10th June 2017: Digitalis [Foxglove] private property off Prospect Lake Road
10th April 2017 – Erythronium [ Fawn lilies] on property neighbouring Whitehead Park
Trillium on Walking Trail between Stevens Road and Echo Road: 25th March 2017
Jan 11th: Ragbag Lichen, attached to Garry oak tree.
Monotropa uniflora, also known as the ghost plant, Indian pipe, or corpse plant. See the last photo here for the dialogue regarding ‘saprophyte’ versus ‘parasite’ designation and why there was a change in this status within the last few years.
Photographed on Prospect Lake private property, July 2017.
This plant is white as it does not contain chlorophyll; considered parasitic because it doesn’t get energy from the sun, but from hosts which are a type of fungi, which in turn are in a symbiotic relationship with photosynthetic trees, therefore it can grow in very dark environments [i.e. the understory of dense forest]. Until recently, Indian Pipe was considered a saprophyte (meaning it lives on dead plant material recycling the nutrients) not a parasite (meaning something that lives on living material, plant or animal). But recent science has changed the designation: “Monotropa uniflora is, indeed a plant, but it has evolved into an entity that no longer needs chlorophyll to produce energy for itself. Instead, it steals energy from other plants—specifically from trees. It does this in a tricky, roundabout way by joining its roots with the mycelia of mushrooms that, in turn, are networking symbiotically with the roots of nearby trees. The Ghost Plant is a parasite. The mushrooms involved, are not.” http://sci-why.blogspot.ca/2015/05/the-ghost-plant-monotropa-uniflora.html