Willowherb

Epilobium or willowherb in the Redwood forest

 
Willowherb is a very common plants that can be observed everywhere: meadows, forests, disturbed places, commons, etc. This plant has long avoided identification but finally it is there. So let's look closer at this interesting plant.

Willowherb also known as epilobium belongs to the Evening primrose family (Onagraceae). The flowers of this family have 4 petals and 4 sepals. The stigma has 4 lobes at the end that look like a cross. The stigma is longer than stamens. There are many species of epilobium. The most common around here is Epilobium parviflorum. It is an erect plant about a foot tall with small pink flowers. Each flower has 4 petals that are dissected at the outer edge to the middle of the petal's length.

 Epilobium parviflorum flower

Epilobium parviflorum

This Epilobium parviflorum (small flowered willowherb) is the most common specie around but I have seen another one, Epilobium angustifolium (also known as chamerion, fireweed or rosebay willowherb). This species is much taller and has bigger flowers, also with 4 petals.

Epilobium angustifolium

Epilobium angustifolium bloom

 The epilobium is supposed to be edible and the plant is used in folk medicine.

Arugula

 Arugula

Arugula (Eruca sativa) or rocket is an edible plant of the Mustard family (Brassicaceae). It looks amazingly similar to wild radish. I planted this one myself and a few plants actually grew. This was the second planting, as for the first one, none of the species survived.

Notice the characteristic 4 petals.

Arugula flowers

Red Salvia

 Salvia splendens or tropical sage

Red salvia (Salvia splendens) does not look like a common sage at the first glance. Yet, look closer and you will see that it has all the characteristics of the Mint family (Lamiaceae): square stem, opposite leaves and sage type flowers, albeit quite big compared to wild sages. This beauty is originally from Brazil and can be found in garden sections of the big stores. It grows wild in the mountains where the climate is warm and humid all year round. I have never seen it wild and from the looks of it, it does seem to belong in flower beds rather than mountainous meadowes. But who knows? It might be tougher than it looks.

Red salvia

 Red salvia view from the top

 Red salvia flower

 Like other plants of the Mint family, the "flower" on the above picture is actually a cluster of flowers. Here's a picture where individual flowers making up a cluster can be seen better:

Scarlet sage in pots

In spite of the name, this salvia comes in variety of colours.

No doubt it would make a very nice garden plant, it not only looks splendid but also has a pleasant aroma that is peculiar to sages.

Pathfinder

 Pathfinder (Adenocaulon bicolor)

Pathfinder, trailplant or Adenocaulon bicolor is the plant that can be found in redwood forest and probably other forests as well. The plant is fairly easy to recognize: it has big triangular leaves that are green on the outside and whitish on the inside. If you walk on the leaves and intentionally turn them over while stepping on them, you'll see the marked trail of white underside, hence the name pathfinder.

Pathfinder underside of the leaf. Notice different color.

Pathfinder blooms but the flowers are very small and inconspicuous but at least they have tall stems.

Pathfinder bloom

Adenocaulon bicolor belongs to Aster (Asteraceae) family of plants.

Chicory

 Chicory near Avenue of the Giants

Chicory (Cichorium intybus) is the plant that everybody's heard about but as a matter of fact it is quite rare, at least in places where I've lived. It is a recognizable plant: it has tall stem, about 5 feet high and several flowers along the stalk. Their location is very unusual. The color of flowers is light blue. Notice the petals have serrated outer edge.

 Chicory flower

The stem did not have flowers all over. Some were were still buds, especially the upper part of the stem.   

Close-up of the stem with buds

Chicory gave its name to the whole tribe within Aster family. Like other plants of this family, the roots are edible. They can be made in a coffee substitute.

Smooth hawksbeard

 Smooth hawksbeard (Crepis capillaris)

Smooth hawksbeard (Crepis capillaris) belongs to Aster family (Asteraceae). This family is so large that it is subdivided into groups called tribes (just like American Indians). Crepis belongs to Chicory tribe. Other tribes include aster, anthemis, thistle, sunflower and senecio. The division is rather self-evident: members of the tribe look like their famous representatives: thistles, aster, etc. Chicory tribe is one of the popular ones, though they are all popular. Our beloved dandelion is member of the chicory tribe. The flowers of this tribe seem to have only ray flowers.

Smooth hawksbeard near Avenue of the Giants

Smooth hawksbeard looks like a small dandelion: it has bright soft yellow flowers that add color to the summer meadows. The leaves are also small and look like the leaves of the dandelion.

The purple salsify from the previous post also belongs to chicory tribe.

Purple Salsify

 Salsify at the marsh

Purple salsify is a plant that undoubtedly belongs to Sunflower or Aster family (Compositae or Asteraceae) . It looks like a big purple or blue daisy.

 Salsify flower

Like dandelion, its flowers eventually turn into puffs.

 Salsify flowers turned into seeds

Salsify roots are reputed to be edible and supposed to taste like oysters. Hence, another name for the plant: oyster plant.

There is also yellow salsify.

Bittercress

 Bittercress in a forest

Bittercress is a rare plant in the redwood forest. Part of the trouble is that it is extremely small, so unless you are looking for it, it's very easy to miss. Second, it is also inconspicuous. Some plants are small but quite showy. The plant actually perfectly blends with the surrounding vegetation and is hard to spot.

Bittercress (or just cress or cardamine)

The plant definitely belongs to mustard family: it has characteristic 4 petals miniscule flower and the leaves resemble that of watercress. It is most certainly some kind of a cress but I can't pin it down to the genus. I would say it is cardamine hirsuta (hairy bittercress) except it has no hair.

Forget-me-not

 Forget-me-not (Myosotis sylvatica)

Forget-me-not , also known as myosotis, which means mouse's ear in Greek is a rather short plant with small but showy little blue flowers. It is quite common in the redwood forest and other places as well. The species of the forest most probably are Myosotis sylvatica.

The stem is fuzzy.

Fuzzy stem of forget-me-not

The flowers are usually in clusters

Close-up of flowers

Interesting thing is that the name is similar in other languages as well. It is supposedly came from French ne m'oubliez pas. The plant belongs to borage family (Boraginaceae), same as already familiar to us borage, salt heliotrope, cryptantha, comfrey, fiddleneck and many others. 

Milkmaids

Cardamine californica

Cardamine californica also known as milkmaids or toothwort is another plant that can be found in redwood forest, though unlike other plants that we discussed it is very rare (at least in our region). The flowers are white, fairly small but not tiny and have four petals. Four petals is a sign of mustard family though to me it surely did not look like mustard family because flowers are not small enough for mustard. So I checked the internet and whad'ya know! It does belong to mustard family (Brassicaceae). It seems to love shade.

Cardamine californica flowers

Another example of milkmaids

One thing I noticed about milkmaids is that they seem to be solitary plants, they don't grow in companies like redwood sorrel. I don't know if it is due to propagation methods or they just don't like company, the fact is that it is a rare plant in our redwood forest.

Pacific Starflower

 Star flower

Star flower is a rather rare beauty in a redwood forest and it looks like another small flower that adorns the floors of the forest alongside with redwood sorrel and candy flower. This small flower can be seen on a short stem with whorled leaves.

 Star flower close-up

Be aware that as usual there are several plants called starflower. Therefore we'll give its botanical name: Trientalis borealis (also called Trientalis latifolia). It looks like there is a dispute about the family to which it belongs. According to some botanical nomenclatures the plant belongs to the family Myrsinaceae.