Western Washington Wildflowers

Last week (March 4) we were on the west side of the Cascades and went looking for early spring wildflowers at Pass Island. We found three things in bloom and this Tall Oregongrape was one of them; just beginning to bloom. Pass Island is a small Island in the passage between Fidalgo and Whidbey Islands and also between the two parts of the Deception Pass bridge. We often go there early in the spring looking for wildflowers. This is a shrubby plant, but the other two wildflowers we found were smaller and are shown in the insets. They were Grass Widows (Olsynium douglasii) and Spring Gold (Lomatium utriculatum), both just beginning to bloom.

Camassia quamash was second only to salmon as a food source among the native Indian tribes of the northwest. In many cases families had their own areas which were handed down from generation to generation, and the bulbs, the edible part of the plant, were very carefully harvested with only the largest bulbs being taken. These flower buds were photographed in Washington Park near Anacortes, Washington.

This is a coastal species of Indian Paintbrush that is now on the endangered species list. Castilleja levisecta, the Golden Paintbrush is endangered through loss of habitat especially. The population where this photo was taken is now monitored and protected from the mowings that were destroying it there.

There were not many wildflowers still blooming when we did the Railroad Grade trail on September 2, but we did find these Great Purple Monkeyflowers or Lewis' Monkeyflowers, Erythranthe lewisii, in a damp area.

Known elsewhere as Rosebay Willowherb, this was one of the few wildflowers I found still blooming along the Chain Lakes trail and this was the only one of the many Fireweed plants that still had flowers.

When I hiked the Chain Lakes trail I found only a few of these asters and a few fireweed still blooming. I've identified it as the Leafybract Aster but it could be one of several different species.

Fritillaria affinis, the checker Lily, is native to the Pacific Northwest and a highly variable species. It is also sometimes referred to at Mission Bells. These were just opening in Washington Park on Fidalgo Island when we saw them a few weeks ago.

Photographed in Deception Pass State Park near West Beach.

I had this identified as the Spur Lupine, Lupinus arbustus. The only other possibility I could come up with was a hybrid of the Yellow Bush Lupine, a nonnative in Washington. Fizzie, however, has identified it as a color variety of Bush Lupine. These were photographed near the beach below Fort Worden near Port Townsend, Washington.