Spring Woodland Wildflowers, Part 2

The earliest flowers in our woods seem to have mostly finished blooming now (like those confusing Cardamines) so I'll start a new post for later spring bloomers. So far, these are not as spectacular as the early bloomers. On April 29, the floor of the woodland was carpeted in green... and not many other colors.

The delicate Western Bluebells are providing touches of blue...

Mertensia platyphylla

The Siberian Miner's Lettuce or Candy Flower appears white at a distance but has red stripes close up.

Claytonia sibirica

Claytonia sibirica

And then there's white... Although the Fringe Cups have a tiny dot of red in their centers. The books say the flowers are greenish-white turning purple as they age. Well, maybe.

Tellima grandiflora

Bedstraw (Cleavers) is everywhere, but its flowers are tiny...

Galium aparine

Woodland strawberries with their serrated edges are blooming their precisely regular flowers...

Fragaria vesca

The Bleeding Hearts are mostly done blooming, now making their seed pods...

Dicentra formosa

Pacific Waterleaf  (or Fendler's Waterleaf?) forms dense colonies. The books say it has greenish-white to lavender flowers but you couldn't prove it by me. Maybe these puffballs haven't opened yet...

Hydrophyllum tenuipes or maybe fendleri

 There is one showy flower just opening (April 29): False Soloman's Seal.

Maianthemum racemosum

Lots of various types of buttercups are blooming but they may be as confusing as the toothworts so I'll leave them for another time.

May 12: Pacific Starflower

Trientalis latifolia

The Waterleaf has opened. Now I'm not sure if it's Pacific Waterleaf or Fendler's Waterleaf (Hydrophyllum fendleri). (My botanist source Howard Bruner says Pacific... H. tenuipes) The flowers are white.

And on May 19...

Also on May 19, the giant Cow Parsnip is flowering (photo, however, taken May 25).

On Sunday, May 25, I toured the woods one more time hoping the lily that has been budding but not opening would open before some deer nipped it off, which is what usually happens. Alas, some deer nipped it off and trampled it. One plant with intact buds remains, hiding under low-hanging Grand Fir needles. Here's hoping...

The hedge nettles that grow alongside the stinging nettles are now beginning to flower. Not only do they not sting, but the flowers are quite pretty. Every book seems to give it a different name: Coastal Hedgenettle, Cooley's Hedge-Nettle. Nor can the botanists agree on a Latin name: Stachys chamissonis var. cooleyae or Stachys cooleyae or Stachys who-knows-what.

Also blooming and climbing all over the place is the very invasive Old Man In The Ground. Or that's what we've always called it. Some call it wild cucumber. I call it a nuisance. It has an enormous taproot and climbs everywhere. It forms huge football shaped fruits (not edible) in the fall and is poisonous to goats.

Marah oreganus ;Echinocystis oregana

Next installment will be summer flowers...