Oregon Sunshine (Eriophyllum lanatum)

A pale green dense mat ground cover with a silver hue that provide happy yellow blooms all Spring and Summer!

Eriophyllum lanatum

oregon sunshine

Description:

• Groundcover shrub densely covered with woolly hairs, grows low with long stems reaching upward.

• Stems numerous, bare. Leaves 1/2–3 in. long, linear to oval, pinnately divided or entire.

• Flower heads single on stalks, with 8–13 yellow ray flowers or occasionally rayless, many yellow disk flowers.

• Grows in many habitats, most often in dry lands with sandy or rocky soils, sometimes along coastal bluffs from near coastline to mid elevations.

• Var. achillaeoides has leaves divided like yarrow, while var. integrifolium, the typical Oregon sunshine, has fewer ray flowers, leaves entire or with lobes only at tip end.

• Rarity: Common

• Flowering Time: All Spring And Summer

• Life Cycle: Annual, Perennial

• Height: 4--40 inches

• Habitat: Coastal, Meadow, Shrub-Steppe

• Found In: Olympic Np, Mt. Rainier Np, N Cascades Np, Crater Lake Np, Wallowas, Steens, Siskiyous

• Native: Yes

Source: Wildflowers of the Pacific Northwest

Additional resource: Oregon Flora Project

Broad Petal Strawberry (Fragaria virginiana)

Fragaria virginiana

Virginia Strawberry

Description:

• Leaves thin, noticeably blue-green, without hairs on upper surface, divided into 3 leaflets on short stalks, each toothed from middle to tip, central tooth shorter than its neighbors.

• Leaf veins not prominent, as in F. vesca.

• Flowers often 1 per stem, which does not exceed height of leaves; petals almost round, white or slightly pink.

• Fruit succulent, palatable.

• Grows in openings in woods, stream banks, meadows, from near coastline to sub-alpine zone.

• Rarity: Common

• Flowering Time: Late Spring

• Life Cycle: Perennial

• Height: 1--5 inches

• Habitat: Meadow, West-Side Forest, East-Side Forest

• Found In: Olympic Np, Mt. Rainier Np, N Cascades Np, Crater Lake Np, Wallowas, Steens, Siskiyous, West Gorge, East Gorge

• Native: Yes

Source: Wildflowers of the Pacific Northwest

Additional Resource: OregonFlora Project

Baldhip Rose (Rosa gymnocarpa)

“gymmnocarpa” means naked fruit. The sepals on this rose species fall off early, leaving the rosehip bald or ‘naked’.

Rosa gymnocarpa

baldhip rose

Description:

• Slender, weak-stemmed shrub. Stems grayish brown, prickles few to many, slender, more or less straight.

• Leaves: deciduous, with odd number of hairless leaflets. Leaflets with rounded tips, double-toothed glandular edges.

• Inflorescence: loose cluster of 1–3 small flowers with stalked glands.

• Flowers: 5 pink petals, each petal about 1/3 in.

• Sepals: Five green sepals at base have smooth edges and the tips equal length of flower.

• **The sepals fall off early, leaving the scarlet hip bald when ripe - hence the name “baldhip”.

• Grows in forests, shrublands, from near sea level to high elevations. May hybridize with R. nutkana.

• Rarity: Locally Common

• Flowering Time: All Summer

• Life Cycle: Perennial

• Height: 1--5 feet

• Habitat: West-Side Forest, East-Side Forest

• Found In: Olympic Np, Mt. Rainier Np, N Cascades Np, Siskiyous, Crater Lake Np, Wallowas, West Gorge

Source: Wildflowers of the Pacific Northwest

Additional resource: OregonFlora Project

Pearly Everlasting (Anaphalis margaritacea)

Flower petals or bracts?! The tiny beautiful white petals are bracts that hide the actual yellow flower petals inside!

Anaphalis margaritacea

pearly everlasting

Description:

• Stems erect, unbranched from spreading root.

• Leaves: alternate along stem, narrow, green on upper side with sparse white hairs, underside thickly covered with white-woolly hairs.

• Inflorescence: consists of crowded clusters at stem tops.

• Flowers: The flowers are the tiny, yellow clusters. Pearly white bracts surround each cluster of flowers.

• Widespread in forest openings, meadows, roadsides, slopes, at all elevations.

• Often used as a cut flower in dried bouquets.

• Rarity: Locally Common

• Flowering Time: Mid Summer

• Life Cycle: Perennial

• Height: 8--40 inches

• Habitat: Meadow, West-Side Forest, East-Side Forest, Subalpine, Disturbed, Coastal

• Native: Yes

Source: Wildflowers of the Pacific Northwest

Additional resource: OregonFlora Project

Oceanspray (Holodiscus discolor)

Showy and dramatic! This lovely shrub is reminiscent of an ocean wave crashing on the rocks.

Holodiscus discolor

OceanSpray

Description:

• Shrub with stiff slender stems. Young stems somewhat hairy and reddish, turn gray with age.

• Leaves: alternate, 1–5 inches long, oval or somewhat triangular, deeply veined; the petiole, or leafstalk, is round with no flat edges.

• Flowers: Fragrant leafless sprays of white to cream flowers, fading to tan in late summer. Flowers remain on the shrub through most of the winter.

  • Flowers are less than 1/8” in size, each a tiny saucer-shaped cup of 5 petals with hairs on outer surface and hairless on the inside.

• Grows in rocky open places to moist woods, from sea level to mid-elevations.

• Rarity: Common

• Flowering Time: Late Spring, Early Summer

• Life Cycle: Perennial

• Height: 4--9 feet

• Habitat: Coastal, Meadow, West-Side Forest, East-Side Forest

• Found In: Olympic Np, Mt. Rainier Np, N Cascades Np, Wallowas, Steens, Siskiyous, West Gorge

• Native: Yes

Source: Wildflowers of the Pacific Northwest

Additional Resource: Oregon Flora Project

Snow Queen (Synthyris reniformis)

As the name suggests, this tiny but beautiful wildflower is a herald to the coming Spring. Blooms can often be seen even while there is still snow on the ground. But look closely as they are tiny!

Synthyris reniformis

Snow Queen

Description:

• Basal leaves and weak stems prostrate to ascending flower stalks.

• Plant lightly covered with soft to shaggy hair.

• Leaves: heart-shaped shallow lobes with toothed margins.

• Flowers: in clusters at stem ends; bell-shaped; purple to blue-violet or rarely white.

• Grows in open conifer forests, at forest edges, grassy places, at low to mid elevations.

• Rarity: Common

• Flowering Time: Early Spring

• Life Cycle: Perennial

• Height: 2 to 6 inches

• Habitat: West-Side Forest

• Native: Yes

Resource: Wildflowers of the Pacific Northwest

Additional Resource: Oregon Flora Project

Salmonberry (Rubus spectabilis)

A prolific shrub in the Pacific Northwest, this plant the tell-tale thorny stems of the Rubus species, but the edible aggregate berries are orange rather than red or black.

Rubus spectabilis

Salmonberry

Description:

• Erect shrub often growing in thickets, strongly bristly below, with few to many weak thorns above.

• Stems round, yellowish or brownish, bark shredding.

• Leaves divided into 3 or sometimes 5 distinct, sharply toothed leaflets.

• Flowers 1 to 1 and 1/2 inches across, 5 petals pink to magenta.

• Fruit yellow, salmon, or reddish, mushy in texture, edible but not flavorful.

• Grows along coast and streams, in deep moist woods, burns and clearings, banks of Columbia River, to 5000 ft.

• First collected by Meriwether Lewis on the banks of the Columbia on March 27, 1806.

• Rarity: Locally Common

• Flowering Time: Early-Mid Spring

• Life Cycle: Perennial

• Height: 3 to 15 feet

• Habitat: Coastal, West-Side Forest, East-Side Forest, Moist Riverbanks

• Found In: Mt. Rainier Np, West Gorge, Olympic Np, N Cascades Np

• Native: Yes

Source: Wildflowers of the Pacific Northwest

Additional Resource: Oregon Flora Project

Maidenhair Fern (Adiatum aleuticum)

This delicate pale green fern with black veins in the unique finger shaped fronds adds a distinct character to the canyon at Silver Falls. Look for these ferns growing on the rocks behind the waterfalls and lining the canyon walls. This dainty fern likes to grow in rock crevices and in constant mist produced by flowing water.

The number of “fingers” (fronds) determines species differences.

Adiatum aleuticum

Maidenhair Fern

• Plant type: deciduous perennial fern or fern ally

• Rarity: Common

• Life Cycle: Perennial

• Height: Size at maturity 0-3' high, 1-3' wide

• Habitat: Wet/riparian, usually shaded sites, often rocky. 0–2300 m.

• Found in: Common along the Pacific Coast, from Southern Alaska to Mexico, but can also be found more inland, along the Rocky Mountain Region.

• Adiantum aleuticum is abundant in and west of the Cascades but is largely absent from the more arid parts of Oregon.

• Native: Yes

Source: Native Plants PNW

Additional Resource: Oregon Flora Project

Licorice Fern (Polypodium glycyrrhiza)

A delicate fern that grows on mossy tree trunks or on rocks. The rhizomes taste like black licorice (hence the name) and has medicinal properties to soothe sore throats and coughs.

Polypodium glycyrrhiza

licorice fern

Description:

• Stems are moderately stout, scales dense, lanceolate (pointed), brown; sweet licorice taste!

• Leaves are few to numerous, loosely clustered to 60 cm; pale/mid green, often reddish when young,

• Petiole slender, to 20 × 0.2 cm.

• Blades to 40 cm, narrowly ovate to oblong, not leathery, whitish multicellular hairs (at least along the rachis); scales sparse on the rachis abaxially, brown, narrow, and hair-like, mostly less than 3 cells wide.

• Sori (a cluster of spore-producing receptacles on the underside of a fern frond) round, less than 3 mm; sporangiasters absent.

Source: Oregon Flora Project

Cascade Oregon Grape (Mahonia aquifolia)

Oregon’s state flower!

A Cascade Grape bush bearing blue fruits in early August. (2024)

There are 2 species of Oregon Grape common to Silver Falls forests and meadows - Mahonia nervosa (Pictured left) being the second to the M. aquifolia (pictured right) highlighted on this page. Both have attractive yellow flower clusters and blue fruit. The distinguishing characteristic between them is the leaf and the growth pattern. M. aquifolia is low growing and spreading, whereas M. nervosa is a taller shrub with shinier leaves with wavy edges.

Mahonia aquifolia

Shining oregon grape

Description:

• The state flower of Oregon

• Stems have yellow inner bark, twigs smooth; bud scales 4–8(14) mm, deciduous.

• Leaves are leathery on top, dull on the bottom; leaflets 5 to 9 inches, thin and flexible or rather rigid, glossy and smooth, green; terminal leaflets as long as wide, veined from base, wavy edges, each leaf margin with teeth, tipped with spines, tips pointed or sometimes rounded; petioles 1–6 cm.

• Fruits oblong-ovoid, 6–10 mm, glaucous or dull grayish-green or blue color

• Rarity: Common

• Flowering time: March to June

• Life cycle: Perennial

• Height 1 to 4 feet

• Habitat: Open woods and shrublands

• Found in: British Columbia, California, Idaho, Montana, Oregon, Washington

• Native: Yes
  

Source: Wildflowers of the Pacific Northwest

Additional Resource: Oregon Flora Project

Oregon Iris (Iris tenax)

Iris tenax

Toughleaf Iris

Description:

• Erect flower stems shorter than grass-like leaves.

• Leaves bright green with red to pink base, deciduous, to 14 inches tall in tight cluster.

• Flowers usually blue to deep purple, sometimes white to cream. Flowers 1 or occasionally 2 per stem, perianth tube from flower to ovary only 1/4 inch., 1 or 2 clasping leaves protect the buds.

• The tough leaf fiber has been used for nets, snares and ropes.

• Rarity: Common

• Flowering Time: Late Spring

• Life Cycle: Perennial

• Height: 8 to 14 inches

• Habitat: West-Side Forest, Meadow

• Found In: Olympic National Park

• Native: Yes

Source: Wildflowers of the Northwest

Additional Resource: Oregon Flora Project

Red Flowering Currant (Ribes sanguineum)

This shrub is one of the earliest bloomers in the Spring. The berries are edible, though not often consumed by humans.

Ribes sanguineum

Red-Flowering Currant

Description:

• Erect to spreading shrub, without spines on stems.

• Leaves nearly round, 1–3 in. across, palmately divided, 3–5 shallow lobes irregularly toothed, upper side slightly hairy, underside sparsely hairy to covered with white hair.

• Flowers in terminal cluster, 10–20 usually bright blood red, sometimes pink or white. Berries blue-black, tasteless.

• Grows in many habitats in open woods, forests, rocky slopes, near sea level to 7000 ft.

• Sanguineum, meaning "blood red," refers to the flowers. Plants with white-woolly hairs matted on lower surface of leaf are var. sanguineum.

• Rarity: Locally Common

• Flowering Time: Late Spring

• Life Cycle: Perennial

• Height: 3--9 feet

• Habitat: West-Side Forest

• Found In: Olympic Np, Mt. Rainier Np, Crater Lake Np, Siskiyous, N Cascades Np

• Native: Yes

Source: Wildflowers of the Pacific Northwest

Additional Resource: OregonFlora Project

Great Camas (Camassia leichtlinii)

Camassia leichtlinii

great camas

Description:

• Stem erect, sturdy.

• Basal leaves linear, shorter than stem.

• Flowers many, in spike at stem top, few open at one time but do not open out flat. Flower pale blue, purple, or white; pollen dull yellow to violet; petals twist as they dry to cover seeds as they mature.

• Grows in wet, soggy, deep soils at mid elevations.

• Rarity: Locally Common

• Flowering Time: Mid Spring

• Life Cycle: Perennial

• Height: to 48 inches

• Habitat: West-Side Forest, Bog/Fen/Wetland, Meadow

• Found In: West Gorge And Western Oregon., Crater Lake Np

• Native: Yes

Source: Wildflowers of the Pacific Northwest

Source: Neighborhood Naturalist Spring 2011 vol 9

Additional resources:

Oregon Flora Project

Camassia

Scouler's Corydalis (Corydalis scouleri)

A favorite understory plant with soft lacy foliage filling the sides of the trails from late spring to late summer. This plant is related to the Pacific bleeding heart.

Corydalis scouleri

Scouler's Corydalis

Description:

• Stems erect, sturdy, hairless, with a slight covering of bluish waxy powder. Stems hollow.

• Leaves usually 3 from upper part of stem, large, divided into oblong leaflets with rounded or pointed tips.

• Flowers pink, rose, or bi-colored, about 1 in. long, held in neat rows on long narrow spike, long spurs pointing upward or outward.

• Grows in moist woodlands, along shaded stream banks, shaded moist trail sides.

• Rarity: Locally Common

• Flowering Time: Late Spring

• Life Cycle: Perennial

• Height: 20--50 inches

• Habitat: West-Side Forest, Moist Riverbanks

• Found In: West Gorge, Olympic Np, Mt. Rainier Np

• Native: Yes

Source: Wildflowers of the Pacific Northwest

Additional resource: Oregon Flora Project

Devil's Club (Oplopanax horridus)

Devil's club is a dramatic shrub that has immense maple-like leaves, dense spines, and large conical racemes clustered with red fruits. The small shrub acts well as a barrier plant.

Oplopanax horridus

devil’s club

Description:

• Maple-like leaves, dense spines, and large conical racemes clustered with red fruits.

• The small white flowers bloom with 5 petals, green to greenish-white, eventually maturing into the red-fruited "devil's club".

• The spines cover the branches and the undersides of leaves

• Stems are armed with dense long yellow prickles, often sticking straight out at the base, usually upright, from one to four meters.

• Leaves alternate; blades palmately 5(13)-lobed, 1–4 dm wide, margins serrate, veins prickly; stipulate.

• Inflorescences terminal, compact umbels arranged in elongate panicles or racemes.

• Fruits flattened, 5–8 mm, red, shiny.

• Seeds 2–3.

• Habitat Moist woods, talus slopes, streamsides, ditches, wet areas.

• Flowering May through August.

• Native: Yes.

Source: Oregon Flora Project

Red Columbine (Aquilegia formosa)

View fullsize

Aquilegia formosa

red columbine

Description:

• Upright plant with spreading branches

• Basal and lower stem leaves on petioles are 1 to 12 inches long, divided 2 or 3 times; upper leaves sessile (attached directly by its base without a stalk) or nearly so.

• Flowers are nodding, bright red, with some yellow; 5 straight to inward-curved spurs with rounded tips

• Very attractive to hummingbirds and butterflies

• Closely resembles the eastern red columbine, A. canadensis.

• Rarity: Common

• Flowering Time: All Spring And Summer

• Life Cycle: Perennial

• Height: 8 to 48 inches

• Habitat: Coastal, Meadow, West-Side Forest, East-Side Forest, Subalpine, in moist, open to partly shaded areas from coastline to subalpine meadows

• Found In: Olympic Np, Mt. Rainier Np, N Cascades Np, Crater Lake Np, Wallowas, Steens, West Gorge, Siskiyous

• Native: Yes

Source: Wildflowers of the Pacific Northwest

Additional resource: Oregon Flora Project

Bleeding Heart (Dicentra formosa)

Dicentra formosa

Pacific bleeding heart

Description:

• Stems upright.

• Leaves and long succulent flower stems from rhizomes

• Leaves numerous, divided 3 times into fern-like segments, often with a bluish, waxy coating

• Flowers hang in clusters above foliage. Flowers are heart-shaped, with flared tips.

• Subspecies formosa has flowers pink to rose-red, does not grow on serpentine soil

• Rarity: Locally Common

• Flowering Time: All Spring

• Life Cycle: Perennial

• Height: 6 to 20 inches

• Habitat: Coastal, Meadow, West-Side Forest grows in damp shaded places or near large rocks

• Found In: Siskiyous, Olympic Np, Mt. Rainier Np, Crater Lake Np, N Cascades Np

• Native: Yes

Source: Wildflowers of the Pacific Northwest

Additional resource: Oregon Flora Project

Vanilla Leaf (Achlys triphylla)

A beautiful ground cover plant that is not edible, despite the assumption from what the name might suggest. The foliage has a faint vanilla fragrance when dried. Look for large beds of Vanilla leaf covering the patches of the forest floor at Silver Falls.

Achlys triphylla

Vanilla leaf

Description:

• Spreading by underground roots, Vanilla Leaf has a single large, sweet-scented leaf that is divided into three leaflets with scalloped edges that resemble wings.

• The central leaflet is divided into 3 lobes, the leaves are horizontal. single-stem, longer than leaf.

• It holds spike of small white flowers with long stamens giving a starry look.

• The berries are a reddish-purple.

• Similar to Achlys. californica, “deer foot”, which has 6 to 8 lobes on central leaflet, and brown berries.

• Called vanilla leaf for the sweet smell of the dried leaves.

• The fragrant leaves can reportedly act as an insect repellant when dried!

• Rarity: Common

• Flowering Time: Early Spring-Mid Summer

• Life Cycle: Perennial

• Height: 8 to 16 inches

• Habitat: Coastal, West-Side Forest

• Native: Yes

Source: Wildflowers of the Pacific Northwest

More resources:

• Oregon Flora Project

Red Elderberry (Sambucus racemosa)

Taken late July 2024

Sambucus racemosa

Red elderberry

Description:

• A fast-growing large shrub

• The profuse sprays of white flowers on the red elderberry mature into large clusters of red berries that contrast beautifully against the pinnately compound leaves (leaves that are divided into smaller leaflets that grow on either side of a stem)

• The berries are consumed by birds but must be cooked before human consumption

• Rarity: Locally common

• Flowering time: Early Summer

• Life cycle: Perennial

• Height 6 to 18 feet

• Habitat: Coastal, West-Side Forest

• Found in: Mt. Rainier Np, Olympic Np, West Gorge, N Cascades Np

• Native: Yes

Source: Wildflowers of the Pacific Northwest

Additional resource: Oregon Flora Project

Pacific Ninebark (Physocarpus capitatus)

• Deciduous shrub with thin brown bark shredding into many layers on older wood.

• Leaves 1 to 2 inches long, with petioles of about 3/4 inch, 3 to 5-lobed and toothed, shiny green above.

• Inflorescence is a round snowball-like cluster. Flowers more or less 1/2 inch across, with 5 white rounded petals, many stamens, hairs divided like a star on the calyx (green leaf-like tissue surrounding the flower)

• Rarity: Locally Common

• Flowering Time: Late Spring, Early Summer

• Life Cycle: Perennial

• Height: 6 to 12 feet

• Habitat: West-Side Forest, Coastal, moist places such as streambanks, riverbanks north-facing slopes, edges of forests, at low to mid-elevations

• Found In: Siskiyous, West Gorge, N Cascades Np, Mt. Rainier Np, Olympic Np

• Native: Yes

Source: Wildflowers of the Pacific Northwest

Additional resource: Oregon Flora Project