Cuscuta salina

Cuscuta salina (salt-marsh dodder) lacks chlorophyll and occurs as a symbiont on Salicornia virginica (pickleweed) or less commonly on other salt-marsh species. Stems are yellow to bright orange in color, leaves are much-reduced scales, and flowers are small, bell-shaped and white. This is the only dodder species that occurs in saline environments in our area. Cuscuta salina derives nutrients through haustoria that penetrate the host plant vascular system. Dodder is at least partially attracted to host plants by airborne volatile chemical cues.

Haustorium (pl. haustoria) = a specialized root-like organ used by parasitic plants to draw nourishment from host plants.

Fritillaria affinis

Pretty spectacular, this species. I'm a big fan of a muted pallet of earth tones so this bloom is up there as one of my favorites. Fritillaria affinis (chocolate lily) flowers in midspring and is common in moist meadows and forests and in coastal herbaceous communities. In the Lilaceae (Lily) family. The scent of this inflorescence is subtle but potent and not for the faint-of-heart - a fetid rank scent that attracts fly and insect pollinators. Treated as F. lanceolata in Hitchcock. 

There are three other native Fritillaria and all are easy to tell apart. One is an east side species: F. pudica(yellow bells) with yellow flowers in early spring. F. atropurpurea (spotted mountain bells) occurs in east-side forests, alpine and subalpine communities and has blooms that are similar in color as the chocolate lily but tepals are noticeably shorter, leaves are also thinner. F. camschatcensis (Kamchatka fritillary) occurs from King County north in coastal communities and has maroon-colored blooms with parallel ridges on the inside of the petals (Turner & Gustafson). Fritillary flowers are generally nodding, often mottled, gland-bearing near the base, and have six stamens that are shorter than the tepals (Hitchcock).

Cardamine nuttallii

Cardamine nuttallii (Nuttall's toothwart) is also known as beautiful bittercress because of those showy blooms. The leaves at the base (not shown) are entire and look pretty similar to Cardamine angulata (angeled bittercress).



Cauline leaves (shown below) have 3-5 entire leaflets and occur midway up the stem. This species is common throughout western Washington in moist forests. Family is Brassicaceae (Mustard) - flowers have four petals and four sepals, four tall stamens and two short stamens; seed pods (called silicles or siliques) split open from both sides to expose a clear membrane in the middle; superior, bicarpellate ovaries (Elpel).



cauline = of, on or pertaining to the stem, as leaves arising from the stem above ground level.
silicle = a dry, dehiscent fruit of the Brassicaceae family, typically less than twice as long as wide, with two valves separating from the persistent placentae and septum.
silique = a dry, dehiscent fruit of the Brassicaceae family, typically more than twice as long as wide, with two valves separating from the persistent placentae adn septum.
bicarpellate = with two carpels.
placenta (plural placentae) = the portion of the ovary bearing ovules.
septum (plural septa) = a partition, as the partitions separating the locules of an ovary.
locule = chamber of cavity of an organ, as in teh cell of an ovary containing the seed or the pollen bearing compartment of an anther. (All definitions Harris and Harris)

Synthyris reniformis

Synthyris reniformis (snow queen) is in the Scrophulariaceae family. Leaves are prostrate and covered with fine hairs. If unfamiliar with this species, the first genus that may come to mind is Heuchera. Leaves are shallowly lobed and have toothed margins. Inflorescences are in terminal racemes and are characteristically tubular in shape, violet to blue in color. Hitchcock describes the flower for the genus as campanulate to subrotate (defined below) and unequally four-lobed. Blooms occur in early spring. Leaf shape easily distinguishes this species from others in the genus.

campanulate = bell-shaped
subrotate = almost disc-shaped; flat and circular, as a sympetalous corolla with widely spreading lobes and little or no tube
sympetalous = with the petals united, at least near the base

Scrophulariaceae (figwort) family characteristics include: flowers are bisexual and mostly irregular, 4 or 5 sepals at least partially united, 4 or 5 petals united into a tube usually 2-lipped with 2 lobes above and 3 lobes below, usually four stamens in 2 pairs but a fifth stamen may be present in some species, ovary has a superior position and consists of 2 united carpels (Elpel).

Myrica gale

Myrica gale (sweet gale) is in the Myricaceae (sweet gale) family. Only other western WA native of this family is Myrica californica (California wax-myrtle = aka Morella californica) easily distinguishable by evergreen foliage and a range that is strictly coastal. M. gale's foliage is deciduous, covered in yellow dots/glands and is oblanceolate in shape. Occurs in coastal swamps and lowland to mountain bogs. Bark is almost reminiscent of Prunus (cherry) striations, glossy with distinctly horizontal lenticels. Flowers are catkins and the species is dioecious. Male catkins are considerably longer (10 - 30 mm) than female catkins (5-10 mm).

Utriculata inflata

Utriculata inflata (swollen bladderwort) is an introduced weed from the eastern US and is in the family Lentibulariaceae (the bladderwort family). Species native to western Washington in this family include U. minor (lesser bl.), U. macrorhiza (greater bl.), U. intermedia (flat-leaved bl.), U. gibba (humped bl.) and Pinguicula macroceras (common butterwort). The Utriculata species are quite easy to tell apart based upon leaf shape and bladder shape and location. All occur in slow moving or standing water. This individual was photographed at Grass Lake in Olympia.

The bladders of this species are photographed below. The valves of the bladders open when prey agitate trigger hairs. Small crustaceans and protozoa are trapped in the bladders and broken down by plant enzymes, providing the plants with nutrients. Most, if not all of the bladderwort species are rootless and occur suspended in the water column with much-reduced, heavily-dissected leaves that would not allow for much photosynthesis (hence it's carnivorous nature).

Euonymus occidentalis

At the first pass I had no idea what this was - opposite arrangement so immediately, the options narrowed. The first individual I came across was not in fruit so based upon the leaves and buds I thought "A small Cornus nuttallii? No." Buds were dead wrong and no parallel veination. Then when I came across an individual in fruit there was no doubt: the rare Euonymus occidentalis (western wahoo/burning bush) - Celastraceae. A great place to see this species is Lewis and Clark State Park near Mary's Corner, WA - it's all along the main hiking trail that spurs off the interpretive trail. Not common enough to merit a photograph in Pojar - it's listed under Pachistima myrsinites (Oregon box) also in the Celastraceae family.













The inflorescence of the western wahoo are greenish-purplish to purplish-red (I've yet to see this in reallife - but in photographs, similar in color to the bloom of Asarum caudatum) - Hitchcock describes the flowers as "mostly 3-flowered axillary cymes". What is the fruit all about? - pictured above, with seeds covered by a reddish-orange aril (in Hitchcock - "fruit a 4-5-celled leathery capsule, seeds arillate"), Pojar describes the fruit to be similar in construction to a cashew. I was careful not to disturb the individuals I found - but if any readers have information on how this fruit is put together - I would love to hear about it. This species is of "threatened" conservation status and the ones I came across, I let be.

How about some more terms:
aril = an appendage growing at or near the hilum of a seed; fleshy thickening of the seed coat, as in Taxus.
hilum = a scar on a seed indicating its point of attachment (How great to have a term for this!)
cyme = a flat-topped or round-topped determinate inflorescence, paniculate, in which the terminal flower blooms first.
determinate = describes an inflorescence in which the terminal flower blooms first, halting further elongation of the main axis (all Harris and Harris).