Red Huckleberry (Vaccinium parvifolium)

Vaccinium parvifolium

Red Huckleberry

Description:

  • Erect shrub with green strongly angled twigs. Stems do not root if touching soil.

  • Thin leaves nearly deciduous, oval, with tiny hairs underneath and sharp tips that fall off. Flowers pinkish, hanging singly from base of leaves, urn-shaped, with 5 lobes.

  • Berries bright red, 1/4–1/2 in., edible but somewhat tart.

  • Grows in coniferous forests, in humus, from coastline to mid elevations. Often seen growing out of old rotting stumps.

  • Blooms more prolifically and sets more fruit in forest openings that get a little more light.

  • Red huckleberry’s tart red berries are commonly used in juices, jams, and baked goods. They also attract mammals, birds, and many insect pollinators!

  • Rarity: Locally Common

  • Flowering Time: Mid Spring

  • Life Cycle: Perennial

  • Height: 3--12 feet

  • Habitat: West-Side Forest

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

  • Native: Yes

Source: Wildflowers of the Pacific Northwest

Additional Resource: Oregon Flora Project

Orange Honeysuckle (Lonicera ciliosa)

This vine meanders in amongst the other foliage at Silver Falls, providing pollinators (especially hummingbirds) a sweet treat in the long pipe-like blossoms!

Lonicera ciliosa

Orange Honeysuckle

Description:

  • Trailing to climbing vine with hollow stems.

  • Stems and leaves hairless or with straight hairs on edges.

  • Vines evergreen, trailing to vining up to 10 m; twigs hollow

  • Leaves are deciduous, opposite, green above, whitish below, egg-shaped to oval, 1–4 inches long, upper pair fused around stem.

  • Flowers are held in a short, dense, spiraled spike beyond fused leaves at ends of stems. Flowers are orange, trumpet-shaped, with 5 lobes, stamens (the male fertilizing organ of a flower) and stigma (the female reproductive organ of a flower) protruding

  • The long, pipe-like flowers are pollinated by hummingbirds

  • Many small orange-red berries

  • Rarity: Uncommon

  • Flowering Time: Late Spring, Early Summer

  • Life Cycle: Perennial

  • Height: 6--18 feet

  • Habitat: West-Side Forest

  • Found In: Siskiyous, Wallowas, Mt. Rainier Np, Olympic Np, N Cascades Np from sea level to 5500 ft.

  • Native: Yes

Source: Wildflowers of the Pacific Northwest

Additional Resource: Oregon Flora Project

Candy Flower (Claytonia sibirica)

Candy Flower, also known as miner’s lettuce, is a native groundcover plant with semi-succulent leaves that are edible and white to pink flowers.

Historically, miner’s would use it as a food source and hiker’s of the Pacific Northwest would use it as a trailside tonic!

Claytonia sibirica

Candy Flower

Description:

  • Spreading to erect, with stolons (horizontal stems that help plants spread and reproduce asexually) that sometimes form new plants.

  • Stems are few to several and the foliage color varies from green to bronze.

  • Leaves at the base are egg-shaped, with long petioles; stem leaves are opposite, and heart-shaped

  • Flowers in open clusters of 1 to 3, each cluster with a small elliptical bract (a leaf extending from the base of the flower). Petals are 1/4 to 1/2 inch and white with pink pencil markings

  • Grows in moist places in forests, streambanks, along coast and to mid-elevations. At upper elevations, it grows in shaded swamps, seeps, and wet meadows

  • Is similar Claytonia cordifolia, which has no bracts below the inflorescence and has white flowers without pencil markings

  • Rarity: Locally Common

  • Flowering Time: Mid Spring

  • Life Cycle: Annual, Perennial

  • Height: 6 to 14 inches

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

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

  • Native: Yes


Source: https://www.pnwflowers.com/flower/claytonia-sibirica

Additional resource: Oregon Flora Project

Poison Larkspur (Delphinium trolliifolium)

A beautiful surprise of color!

This plant has different common names according to it’s setting. Naturalists and gardeners refer to it as Delphinium, hikers call it Larkspur, and farmers/ranchers know it as Cow Poison!

Delphinium trolliifolium

Poison larkspur

Description:

  • Stems hollow, erect, easily broken from root

  • Leaves with petioles to 10 inches, shiny, hairless, divided into many wide-tipped lobes with irregular, sharp teeth.

  • Flower spike narrow. Flowers dark blue, with white upper petals in center, spur straight, may have yellow hairs on stalk. Flower is four times as long as it is wide and curved back

  • Delphinine, a poison in this species and many members of this family, can cause death.

  • Rarity: Locally Common

  • Flowering Time: Late Spring, Early Summer

  • Life Cycle: Perennial

  • Height: 2 to 6 feet

  • Habitat: Meadow, Woods, moist shady places in oak woods or chaparral (a type of shrubland with dense, rocky soil) at low to mid elevations

  • Found In: Cascades, West Gorge

  • Native: Yes

Source: Wildflowers of the Pacific Northwest

Additional Resource: Oregon Flora Project

Columbia Lily (Lilium columbianum)

A striking pop of color in an otherwise very green corner of Oregon!

Can grow taller than a park ranger!

Lilium columbianum

Columbia lily

Description:

  • Stem erect and unbranched.

  • Leaves in 2 to 9 whorls, 2 to 4 inches long, lance-shaped, bright and shiny green.

  • Flowers are numerous at the top on separate, bent stalks, light to dark orange with brown spots, facing downward. Flowers are 1 to 2 and 1/2 inches across, widely bell-shaped, with petals flared or often recurved, long stamens extending well beyond petals in a tight cluster.

  • May hybridize with L. pardalinum subspecies vollmeri, L. pardalinum subspecies wigginsii, or L. occidentale, where ranges overlap, making identification difficult.

  • Bulbs were prepared as a food or peppery condiment. For many, it was a staple food

  • Rarity: Locally Common

  • Flowering Time: Early Summer

  • Life Cycle: Perennial

  • Height: 1 to 4 feet

  • Habitat: Coastal, Meadow, West-Side Forest, Subalpine in drier coastal meadows, forests, roadsides, subalpine meadows, in northern part of range

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

  • Native: Yes

Source: Wildflowers of the Pacific Northwest

Additional resource: https://oregonflora.org/taxa/index.php?taxon=6076

Wood Sorrel (Oxalis oregana)

This 3-leaved ground cover is often misidentified as a clover but it is not!

Wood sorrel, also called Oxalis or sourgrass, is a tasty trailside snack! The flavor is remarkably similar to green apples and can be a nice addition to sprinkle a few leaves on a salad! Be careful not to eat too many as the oxalic acid can have a negative impact.

A Case of Mistaken Identity!

Wood sorrel and lawn clover are often misidentified. Here are some differences:

Look for the heart!

Wood sorrel has heart-shaped leaves, whereas clover have rounded and toothed leaves.

Trifolium repens

Blossoms!

The flowers on each plant look very different from each other.

Oxalis oregana

Oregon Wood Sorrel

Description:

  • Flat-lying, with thick creeping roots. The leaves are divided into 3 heart-shaped leaflets often maroon underneath.

  • The white to pink flowers bloom on short slender stalks that project above the bright green clover-like leaves.

  • The small flowers project above its bright green clover-like leaves

  • They grow on undisturbed floors of redwood or Douglas-fir forests at low elevations

  • It is a semi-evergreen herbaceous perennial and can form carpets in the shady undergrowth of forests.

  • Rarity: Common

  • Flowering Time: All Spring And Summer

  • Life Cycle: Perennial

  • Height: 2 to 8 inches

  • Habitat: Coastal, West-Side Forest

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

  • Native: Yes

Source: Wildflowers of the Pacific Northwest

Additional Resource: Oregon Flora Project

Early Blue Violet (Viola adunca)

This blue beauty has extra ecological significance in that it is a host plant to some of the Pacific Northwest endangered butterfly larvae!

Viola adunca

Early Blue Violet

Description:

  • Pale to deep violet flowers with a white patch, purple veins at the base of lower 3 petals.

  • The veins on on the pedals are visible to bees in the ultraviolet as guides to nectar.

  • This dainty flower is a larval host plant to numerous endangered butterflies in the Pacific Northwest and is often used in butterfly habitat restoration projects.

  • The seeds of this plant are explosively thrown a distance when pods burst open!

  • Adunca means "hooked." and the flower is also known as the ‘hooked-spur violet’.

  • Rarity: Common

  • Flowering Time: Mid Spring

  • Life Cycle: Perennial

  • Height: stemless to 4 inches

  • Habitat: Meadow, Coastal, Subalpine, Moist Riverbanks

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

  • Native: Yes

Source: Wildflowers of the Pacific Northwest

Additional Resource: Oregon Flora Project

Salal (Gaultheria shallon)

Salal is a staple in the forests at Silver Falls! This hearty understory plant has deep green, leathery foliage that is common in floral arrangements. The white blossoms emerge in a line formation, and are followed by a blue edible berry. Sticky sweet and pithy, the berries are favorites among some of the wildlife and the occasional human.

Description:

  • Vigorous shrub that forms dense 1’ - 4’ tall impenetrable thickets.

  • Evergreen, leathery sturdy leaves grow opposite on hairy stems.

  • Flowers are urn-shaped, white or pale pink, hanging individually from one side of stem tips in large clusters.

  • Berries dark blue to purple-black and edible.

  • Rarity: Common

  • Flowering Time: Late Spring, Early Summer

  • Life Cycle: Perennial

  • Height: 1--3 feet

  • Habitat: Coastal, West-Side Forest

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

  • Native: Yes

Source: Wildflowers of the Pacific Northwest

Additional Resource: Oregon Flora Project

Western Trillium (Trillium ovatum)

Good things come in threes! This beauty has 3 leaves, 3 bracts, and 3 pedals!

Trilliums are endlessly fascinating! Did you know:

  • They do not produce nectar; pollinators come for the pollen, rather than the sweet treat most flowers produce.

  • Western Trillium plants live a long time! Up to 50 years!

  • Trillium seeds are attached to a fatty substance called an elaiosome. Ants love this substance, and will carry them off for food. This is a clever way for the plant to distribute seeds for future generations of trilliums!

A bee visits a Trillium flower in early April of 2025.

Trillium ovatum

Western Trillium

Description:

  • Stem is erect, lower stem is bare.

  • Leaves are 2 to 8 inches long, linear to widely egg-shaped, with pointed tips

  • Flowers on one to two, 1/2 inch, erect to weak stalk above leaves. Petals are 1/2 to 3 inches and long, oval with pointed tip, white fading to pink or deep rose-red as the bloom ages.

  • Seed capsule is a green or white berry

  • Grows in cool moist mixed woods, coniferous forests, redwoods, to 6000 ft.

  • Rarity: Common

  • Flowering Time: Early Spring

  • Life Cycle: Perennial

  • Height: 4--18 inches

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

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

  • Native: Yes

Source: Wildflowers of the Pacific Northwest

Additional Resources:

Cut-leaved Goldthread (Coptis laciniata)

Look closely! This plant’s tiny flower is intricate, delicate, and nearly invisible! The name ‘goldthread” is fitting as the stamens, and even petals, are thin and thread-like. The shiny, waxy leaves form a lovely green ground cover under the Douglas-firs at Silver Falls.

Coptis laciniata

Cut-leaved Goldthread

Description:

  • This plant grows in seeps, streambanks, often among mosses on wet sites in conifer forests, below 3000 ft.

  • The stems are short and stout. The leaves evergreen and divided into 3 triangular toothed lobes.

  • Flowers are white, and fall early leaving many thread-like stamens.

  • Rarity: Uncommon

  • Flowering Time: Mid Spring

  • Life Cycle: Perennial

  • Height: 4 to 10 inches

  • Habitat: West-Side Forest

  • Found In: West Gorge, Olympic National Park

  • Native: Yes

Source: Wildflowers of the Pacific Northwest

Additional resource: Oregon Flora Project

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

Baldhip Rose (Rosa gymnocarpa)

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

Common names are problematic; this species is called Baldhip Rose or Wood Rose. There is a different specie with the common name Wood’s Rose. Click link here to learn the differences.

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

Tall Oregon Grape (Berberis aquifolium)

Oregon’s state flower! The shiny and spiky leaves on this tall plant resemble holly, but they are not related.

Synonyms: Mahonia aquifolium

There are 2 species of Oregon Grape common to Silver Falls forests and meadows - B. aquifolium (Pictured left) being the second to the B. nervosa (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. B. nervosa is low growing and spreading, whereas B. aquifolium is a taller shrub with shinier leaves with wavy edges.

Berberis aquifolium

Tall 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