Caprifoliaceae

Caprifoliaceae (honeysuckle family): major woody family with opposite arrangement and it's not Aceraceae is how I remember this one. Native genera include Sambucus, Viburnum, Symphoricarpos, Lonicera and Linnaea. Two Lonicera examples are pictured here, the developing fruit of Lonicera involucrata (black twinberry) above and Lonicera ciliosa (orange honeysuckle) below.

Other w. WA native woody shrubs/trees genera/species with opposite arrangement besides the maples and the Caprifoliaceae members (there aren't that many): some Cassiope (moss-heather) species - Ericaceae, Ceanothus (snowbrush/ceanothus) - Rhamnaceae, Cornus (dogwood) - Cornaceae, Euonymous occidentalis (western burning bush) - Celastraceae, Fraxinus latifolia (Oregon ash) - Oleaceae, Paxistima myrsinites (Oregon boxleaf) - Celastraceae, Philadelphus lewisii (mock-orange) - Hydrangeaceae and Whipplea modesta (common whipplea/modesty) - Hydrangeaceae.

Besides the two pictured here there are four other w. WA native Lonicera species: L. caerulea (bluefly honeysuckle), L. utahensis (rocky mountain h.), L. conjugialis (purple-flower h.), and L. hispidula (hairy h.). L. caerulea exhibits yellow blooms, L. utahensis light yellow to creamy white blooms, L. conjugialis has purple blooms (hence the common name) and L. hispidula has pink flowers.

Patters of the Honeysuckle family according to Elpel: shrubs with opposite leaves, pithy stems, and the flowers and fruits often form in pairs; those that are in bunches are sometimes in pairs within the bunches. And here are some terms and generalities, according to Hitchcock: indehiscent, generally fleshy fruit with copious endosperm. Estipulate leaves. Flowers in various sorts of inflorescences of generally cymose origin.

Gamopetalous = with the petals united, at least partially. Cymose = with flowers in a cyme. Cyme = a flat-topped or round-topped determinate inflorescence, paniculate, in which the terminal flower blooms first.

Clarkia amoena (fairwell-to-spring)

Clarkia amoena (fairwell-to-spring) is a showy annual occuring at low elevations in open , dry habitats. There are several other Clarkia species with similarly shaped petals native to Oregon, but only this species and C. gracilis are native to Washington. C. gracilis generally do not exhibit the deep red spots on the petals that this species has. C. amoena has opposite, linear leaves and is 10-100 cm in height. Socalled fairwell-to-spring because the bloom date is so late, in bloom now in late July.

Family: Onagraceae (evening primrose). Elpel: "flower parts usually in fours, including a four-lobed stigma." Other genera/species in this family native to western WA. include Chamerion angustifolium (formerly Epilobium angustifolium), Circaea, Gayophytum

and myriad Epilobium.

Weeds in the Fabaceae family

Session on weeds Tuesday night - spent some time on Lotus corniculatus (birdsfoot-trefoil). We were especially enamored with the inflorescence. We removed the papilionaceous petals to expose the stamens exhibiting "free portion of filaments often dilated, sometimes broader than the anther" (Hitchcock), this characteristic distinguishing the genus.
Papilionaceous = butterfly-like, as the irregular corolla of a pea, with a banner petal, two wing petals and two fused keel petals.

We also keyed out Medicago lupulina (black medic), another Fabaceae. Pretty straightforward, those. Having the individual we were working with both in flower and fruit helped quite a bit. Picture of the pods:

Pods of this species are 1-seeded, unarmed (those spiky-looking hairs don't count), reniform, and curved to less than 1 full spiral. Other genus-wide characteristics include trifoliate leaves, pubescent pods and yellow blooms. Fabaceae-wide characteristics include "banner, wings and keel inflorescence. Pea-like pods and often pinnate leaves" (Elpel).

Fertile fronds and some fern terms

Most of the fern species native to western Washington have fertile and sterile fronds that look pretty much the same. Blechnum spicant (deer fern) and two others are the exception, exhibiting dimorphic fronds. In the photograph above notice the two fronds in the foreground with narrow pinnae versus the sterile fronds in the background with pinnae that meet at the base ("broadly sessile" in Hitchcock). Other species that exhibit dimorphic fronds include Crypotgramma acrostichoides (American rockbrake) and Cryptogramma cascadensis (Cascade rockbrake).

Pinna = (pl. pinnae) one of the primary divisions or leaflets of a pinnate leaf (Harris).

Click on the photo below to enlarge and see the sori in a continuous line following a pair of veins that run parallel to the costa. The sori are described as "coenosorus" and the indusium is described as "appearing almost like an inrolled pinna-margin" in Hitchcock. Coenosorus = condition where sporangia are in a continuous line and discrete sori are not formed (Advanced Learner's Dictionary of Botany). Sorus = (pl. sori) a cluster of sporangia (spore-bearing case or sac) on the surface of a fern leaf. Costa = a rib or prominent mid-vein. Indusium = a thin epidermal outgrowth from a fern leaf that covers the sorus.

Collomia grandiflora

Collomia grandiflora (great collomia) - Polemoniaceae.

There are four other Collomia spp. native to western WA. This one grows in dry, open areas at low to middle elevations. The best part about this one is probably the bright purple anthers in contrast with the peach colored petals. The Polemoniaceae, or Phlox, family characteristically has five united petals and five united sepals. The sepals are pretty difficult to see in the photo above but the united petals are clearly visible. Elpel describes the blooms of this family as "five united petals forming tubular flowers with a flat face". This species gets up to 1 meter in height, and the corolla are about 2-3 cm long (pretty big). This is the only native Collomia species with salmon-colored blooms, the others are either bluish or pinkish (Hitchcock).

Some other genera in the Polemoniaceae family: Polemonium, Phlox, Microsteris, Gilia, Linanthus, Navarretia.

Scatter Creek prairie walk

A walk at Scatter Creek yesterday and so much was in bloom. Prunella vulgaris (common self-heal) pictured to the left. In the Lamiaceae family so leaves are opposite and stems are square. P. vulgaris is the only species in this genus that is native to our area. Flowers bourne on a vertical spike. The inflorescences on the top of the spike pictured at left have yet to open. The native variety is lanceolata and exhibits leaves that are a third as wide as long and more tapering toward the base as shown here (Hitchcock). Non-native, Eurasian variety vulgaris has leaves half as wide as long with a rounded base.

Quick review: spike = an unbranched, elongated inflorescence with sessile or subsessile flowers or spikelets maturing from the bottom upwards (as opposed to raceme = an unbranched, elongated inflorescence with pedicellate flowers maturing from the bottom upwards) (Harris).

Delphinium nuttallii (Nutall's larkspur). The flowers with the psychedelic color scheme, can't really take your eyes of this plant. This one's an example of a raceme. General Delphinium facts: five sepals with the upper one prominently spurred. In the photo at left, look for the five bright blue sepals surrounding the small inner cluster of four blue-violet petals. Leaves are alternate and have 1-3 lobes. In the Ranunculaceae family.


Erigeron speciosus (showy fleabane) - Asteraceae. Seriously too much, this plant. Just a knock out. This plus Eriophyllum lanatum and Balsamorhiza deltoidea made a pretty sweet little vignette out there amongst the mima mounds. Enlarge the photo to see the composite inflorescence - composed of disk flowers (central portion) and ray flowers (on the periphery) exhibiting the showy purple fused corollas. Flowers are epigynous = with stamens, petals and sepals attached to the top of the ovary, the ovary inferior to the other floral parts.

Other species in bloom on the prairie:
Balsamorhiza deltoidea (Puget balsamroot) - Asteraceae.
Brodiaea coronaria (harvest brodiaea) - Liliaceae.
Campanula rotundifolia (common harebell) - Campanulaceae.
Eriophyllum lanatum (Oregon sunshine) - Asteraceae.
Lupinus bicolor (two-color lupine) - Fabaceae.
Potentilla gracilis (slender cinquefoil) - Rosaceae.
Zigadenus venenosus (meadow death camas) - Lilaceae.