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.

Cow Parsnip

Cow parsnip is another plant of the Umbelliferae family featuring its signature umbrella shaped little flowers. Cow parsnip has huge leaves and can grow quite tall. The plant is very sturdy, has thick stems, somewhat hairy and hollow inside. Its Latin (botanical) name is Heracleum maximum, meaning "big" (like in Hercules).

Cow parsnip at Arcata marsh

Cow parsnip has really big leaves, easily recognizable.

Cow parsnip leaves

And here some good close-up of flowers

Cow parsnip umbrella, top view

And here a close-up umbrella in profile

Cow parsnip umbrella, side view

Interestingly, we found only one place where the cow parsnip grew and the patch was overgrown with all kinds of plants. But we saw it outside of marsh too, it's fairly common but not too common. Incidentally, I have read that cows don't like to eat it.

The juice of this plant contains phototoxin that reacts with the skin when exposed to ultraviolet rays. In other words, if you want to collect this plant, do it late in the evening (after sunset) or at night.

Angelica

 Angelica in the marsh

I have heard of angelica plant for quite a while. I know it is valued for its medicinal properties and I even bought dong quai (Chinese Angelica) root capsules and I found them very good. I have never seen it growing wild though. That is, until a few days ago when I took a walk in remote marsh in Humboldt Wildlife Refuge.

Angelica 

Here it was, growing at the far end of the loop trail. There were a few patches but all on the far end of the loop. It's like the plant did not want to be found. I felt like a detective who finally found a person he's been hunting for.

Angelica plant in profile

Notice reddish stem. They are not reddish all over though, just some parts of the stem, sometimes you'll see reddish tint on one side of the stem. In the above picture notice purple blotches on the lower part of the stem: it is a signature feature of poison hemlock but hemlock has purple blotches all over the stem. Actually I noticed that lots of the marsh plants have some purple blotches on the stem so don't use that as a single identifying feature.

Angelica

This is a more typical example. The plant has reddish stem but usually on one side and a few small reddish speckles. The stems of angelica are smooth and hollow.

Angelica leaves

The leaves of angelica are wide and not at all like hemlock's lacy leaves.  Finally, the bloom is quite different too: angelica has umbrella shape flowers typical for parsley family that later develop into a bunch of rounded florets (or whatever the botanical term is). Here is the picture:

Angelica bloom

Another identifying feature of angelica is that the plant has a nice aroma. Hemlock is supposed to smell like a mouse. I guess that means dusty.

So here you have it: a dossier for angelica compiled by yours truly. I hope to see more of this plant in the future.

Water Parsely

Let us leave redwoods for a little while and go walk in the marshes. Marshes usually have a very rich habitat with fertile soil so many plants really strive in this environment. One plant that is fairly common there is water parsley. Here is the picture of this plant growing among other plants:

Water parsley

In the above picture notice poison hemlock growing north of horsetail plants. Be careful to identify these plants correctly. Hemlock has lacy leaves, smooth stems and purple blotches on the stem. Parsley leaves are not so lacy.

Here is the picture of water parsley in bloom. Notice that parsley usually blooms when exposed to the sun. From my observations species in the shade seldom if ever have blooms.

 Water parsley bloom

Here is a nice branch of water parsley:

Water parsley composite leaf

Water parsley is reputed edible. I have tried it myself, it has kind of a mustard taste (that is mustard leaves, not the condiment). Again, be careful to identify it correctly though as parsley, hemlock, wild carrot and angelica have family resemblance (they all belong to Umbelliferae family, also known as Apiaceae or carrot family).

Here is another patch, mainly parsley than other plants:

 Water parsley at Butcher's Slough

Incidentally water parsley also grows in the redwood forest but it is more typical in the marshes. I happen to have a picture of parsley growing in the redwood forest:

More water parsley

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.