Violet

Violets are rather rare plants but I saw a few specimen in a redwood forest, namely in Jedediah Smith National Park and also some species in the march in Crescent City. It was not really the marsh but more like a grove of some kind of trees, not just redwoods. In fact, all my attempts to find a marsh that was supposed to be there according to the map failed. But I did find two new plants.

Violets are rather difficult to distinguish among different species as they all look alike save for the colour. Our particular violet is yellow, most probably Viola sempervirens.

Violet in Jedediah Smith National Forest

Violets are easy to identify by their irregular zygomorphic (vertical symmetry) flowers and round leaves (not all species). The flowers are quite small. They bloom in late March and early April.

Here is a picture of western dog violet (Viola adunca).

Viola adunca in Patrick's Point State Park

False Solomon's Seal

Solomon's seal at the Avenue of the Giants

False Solomon's seal (or star-flowered Solomon's seal) is a very attractive plant with silky smooth leaves. When in bloom, it produces small white flowers that turn into berries as the plant matures. Sometimes this plant covers a large ground forming a meadow right there in the forest. The plant likes semi shade and grows well under the trees.

False Solomon's seal flower turning into berries

The Latin name is Maianthemum stellatum, not to be confused with Maianthemum racemosum. The latter has much smaller flowers forming "plumes". I have not seen the latter plant in our forest wheres the former grows in abundance at the Avenue of the Giants. They are closely related though, as can be seen from the similar genus name. The plant known as Solomon's seal (the true) is a different genus: Polygonatum  (not to be confused with Polygonum, a totally different and unrelated plant) commutatum: a beautiful plant with lots of white bell shaped flowers. Unfortunately it does not grow in our part of the world but mainly in the eastern part of the country.

False Solomon's seal leaves

All the aforementioned plants belong to asparagus family (Asparagaceae).

The juice from Maianthemum stellatum is effective against nettle sting. Just rub the fresh leaf against the damaged part to release the juices. 

Achlys

Achlys triphylla

 
Achlys, also known as vanilla leaf or deerfoot is a plant that can be found in the forest. So far I've only seen it twice, both times in a redwood forest. It is a rare plant and does not grow all over the place like, say, redwood sorrel.

Vanilla leaf (Achlys triphylla) is so called for its supposedly vanilla smell of the dried leaves. Well, I got one leaf, dried it and smelled it. It did not smell like vanilla! Why is it called vanilla leaf? Fresh leaves do not smell either. I am not going to call it that. I am going to call it achlys or deerfoot.

Deerfoot (Achlys triphylla)

Anyway, achlys is easy to recognize by the shape of its leaves: they are big, separated into 3 distinct parts that sometimes touch each other so it looks like one whole leaf. Achlys blooms too, but at the time when this picture was taken it was not blooming so I cannot show you the flowers.

Achlys belongs to the barberry family (Berberidaceae).  As a forest plant, it likes shade. Fresh leaves can be rubbed on skin to act as a mosquito repellent.

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.

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.

Thimbleberry

 Thimbleberry bush

Thimbleberry is a common sight in a redwood forest. It's a shrub with rounded deeply lobed leaves. Right now it's blooming.

Thimbleberry belongs to the Rose family, to which such plants as blackberry, raspberry and strawberry also belong. You can actually see some family resemblance. 

Thimbleberry flower

It means that very soon we'll see some thimbleberry berries. Perhaps, thimbleberry pie?

Laurel

 Rockefeller Forest near Avenue of the Giants

California Bay or laurel is a fairly rare plant but we found a few young sprouts (not big enough yet to be considered a tree) in a redwood forest. It's a tree with narrow dark green shiny leaves that have strong pleasant aroma, hence bay leaves are often used as condiment in cooking.

Laurel

Wild Ginger

Well, today I found it. But before we delve into exploring wild ginger, I checked the Wikipedia. It turns out there are several varieties of plants, referred to as wild ginger. We shall talk about Asarum caudatum, the one that belongs to Aristolochiaceae family.  The other one is Alpinia, it belong to proper Ginger family (Zingiberaceae).

Asarum can be easily confused with false lily-of-the-valley, their leaves have similar heart shape. There is a way to tell though: lily's leaves are smooth and shiny and the veins run parallel to each other in curves. Here is the picture:

False lily-of-the-valley

Wild ginger's leaves are more rounded, matte (not so shiny) and the veins pattern is more spread out. They also have fuzz around them. Here is the picture of wild ginger leaves:

Wild ginger (Asarum)

I even found a flower on one of them. It's not at its best but it does give an idea what it looks like:

Wild ginger flower

The plant is supposed to smell like ginger if you rub the leaves but I could not detect any ginger aroma. In fact it did not have any aroma at all.

Coltsfoot

Coltsfoot is another popular plant that grows in the redwood forest. It seems to like thimbleberries, as I saw lots of coltsfoot plants under thimbleberry bushes. The leaves even look a little similar but they are different enough to tell that they are two different plants.

 Coltsfoot

Coltsfoot has very big leaves, deeply lobed. The flowers are small and white and form a head with multiple flowers. It belongs to aster family (Asteraceae).

Figwort

I managed to identify another plant. It first attracted my attention in Escondido where it grew sporadically. Well, it turns out it is spread all over, including redwood forests. I found several plants in the nearest forest. The plant is called figwort.

Figwort is the plant that reminds me of epazote, especially the leaves (after all, my blog is called Leaves of Plants). See my first entry for this blog The Mystery of Epazote. Took me awhile to identify it but here it is. I give you... figwort.

Figwort (Scrophularia nodosa) in Escondido, CA

Apparently there are several varieties of figwort. The peculiar characteristic is symmetrical leaves alternating on stem. The leaves are serrated, though the degree of serration varies among the species. It produces tiny red flowers. Here is another picture:

 Figwort

Figwort is a medicinal plant. It belongs to figwort family (Scrophulariaceae). One feature that allows you to easily identify this plant is its rather unpleasant odor. That is why, one of the names it is known by is Stinking Christopher.

And here is the picture of figwort in the redwood forest:

Figwort plants among redwood sorrel

Another picture of figwort flowers

Figwort flowers

Notice that figwort is also looks similar to nettle.

Wood nettle

Nettle will sting you but figwort won't. Nettle has kind of a square stem. These plants have very different flowers.The flowers of nettle are tiny and hang in clusters or tassels. They are wind pollinated. Figwort is pollinated by bees.

False Lily-of-the-Valley

False lily-of-the-valley (Maianthemum dilatatum) is another plant that grows in abundance in the redwood forest and some other areas. It seems to like shade. Sometimes it covers the ground like a thick green carpet. It seems to grow in groups, like sorrel: I have not seen any isolated plant. This lily has beautiful shiny rounded leaves with a distinctive corner. In fact, the leaves look a lot like wild ginger. Unfortunately as for the moment of this writing I was not able to find any wild ginger and photograph it, but when I do, be assured that I will post a picture as soon as I find one, as I have read that wild ginger grows in the redwood forest. The leaves of ginger are not shiny though but matte.

So this is the carpet that false lily-of-the-valley forms on the forest floor:

False lily-of-the-valley

And here's a close-up of the plants. The plant just started to bloom so I don't have a picture of the flowers yet.

False lily-of-the-valley (close-up)

False lily-of-the-valley used to belong to lily family (Liliaceae). It does not look much like (real) lily-of-the-valley, though there is some similarities in leaves. The flowers are totally different. However phylogenetic research moved the plant to the Asparagus family (Asparagaceae).

Candy Flower

So now I am going to show you another resident plant that is often found in the redwood forest. The flower of that plant looks amazingly similar to redwood sorrel's and you have to look very close to tell the difference.

The plant is called candy flower. Like sorrel it has 5 petals, white in color but with deep purple veins. If you look close, you'll notice that candy flower's petals are more narrow and are cleft at the outside edge. The leaves of these two plants are also quite different, in fact, leaves are enough to tell them apart. Candy flower has lily-like round double leaves wrapped around the stem.

Candy flower among redwood sorrels

Yes, to add to the confusion, they also grow in the same patch, like in the picture above.

And here's the picture of redwood sorrel again, so you can see the difference:

Redwood sorrel

Notice the sorrel has more rounded leaves. In fact, they belong to different plant families. Redwood sorrel (oxalis oregana) belongs to sorrel family or Oxalidaceae. Candy flower (claytonia sibirica) belongs to  Portulacaceae or purslane family. In fact, one of the names for it is pink purslane.

Redwood Sorrel

Now I am going to show you some typical plants that grow in the redwood forest. We live fairly close to several of these forests, including the famous Avenue of the Giant - the oldest redwood grove on the planet. Lots of trees have been logged of a long time ago but fortunately what we have left is a National Park so it's protected from further logging.

 A path through the redwood forest

Redwood forest is a peculiar environment. They like cool (but not cold) damp climate with high moisture in the air. They like fog. They don't like any other trees: seldom you see some other tree species besides redwoods. As a result, there are not that many plant species that are found in the redwood forest. We shall make an attempt to identify as many as we can.

So we'll start with redwood sorrel (oxalis oregana), the most abundant plant on the forest floor. The leaves look very similar to oxalis or yellow wood sorrel that grows both in Southern California and in the north. Here is the picture of redwood sorrel meadow:

Redwood sorrel (oxalis oregana)

The leaves close when exposed to sunlight and open again when in the shade. The movement only takes a few minutes.

 Closed leaves of redwood sorrel. Notice the bright sunlight.

And here is the picture of redwood sorrel close-up with a flower:

Blooming redwood sorrel

And here is an extreme close-up for sorrel flower. I managed to get a pretty good shot .

Redwood sorrel flower close-up

It has small flower, white in colour but covered with purple veins so it looks pinkish. The leaves grow in triplets and fold down in the sun to preserve moisture. The plant really loves shade and moist areas as I don't remember seeing it in sunny patches though it can tolerate some sunshine.

Here is the picture of oxalis or yellow wood sorrel. As you can see, the leaves are quite similar.

 Oxalis stricta or yellow wood sorrel 

Update. I found another oxalis plant right in town on somebody's lawn. The leaves and flowers are definitely that of oxalis, only this time the flowers are pink. They seem to be oddly out of place.

 Pink sorrel (oxalis articulata)

There is another plant that grows in redwood forest with a flower that looks stunningly similar to redwood sorrel. Just the flower, the leaves look quite different. Stay tuned for the next post to find out what it is.