RHH's photos with the keyword: lake padden

Taken in Lake Padden Park near Bellingham, this is a photo of Red Alders and Skunk Cabbage growing and blooming in a marshy area between the lake and Padden Ridge. The area is a nice place for day hiking and orchid hunting, though none of the native orchids were blooming yet when this picture was taken.

This photograph was taken in Lake Padden Park. It shows one of our more beautiful and unusual native orchids. This plant is without chlorophyll and without leaves and is mycotrophic, obtaining its nutrients through a relationship with a soil fungus. We have four species of Coralroots in the state but this has by far the largest and most beautiful flowers.

Another photo of the Western Trillium, Trillium ovatum, taken on Padden Ridge in Lake Padden Park.

This is the Western Spotted Coralroot, a mycotrophic plant without chlorophyll or leaves, photographed along Padden Ridge above Lake Padden. This variety of the Spotted Coralroot blooms earlier than the ordinary variety, is found only in the west, and is distinguished not only by its earlier bloom time but by the rounded lip. The ordinary variety has a lip that is straight-sided. This is one of the more common native orchids in our area.

Taken along one of the trails at along Padden Ridge in Lake Padden Park. The trees are mostly Western Red Cedar with an understory of Sea Grape, Huckleberry, Elderberry, Vine Maple, Sword Fern and other plants.

Another photo from Lake Padden Park, this of a small bird called a Brown Creeper, Certhia americana, very hard to spot unless flying from one tree truck to another, but not uncommon.

Another photo from Lake Padden Park, this shows the Pacific Bleeding Heart, Dicentra formosa, one of our common spring wildflowers.

This photograph was taken in Lake Padden Park. It shows one of our more beautiful and unusual native orchids. This plant is without chlorophyll and without leaves and is mycotrophic, obtaining its nutrients through a relationship with a soil fungus. We have four species of Coralroots in the state but this has by far the largest and most beautiful flowers.

Western Skunk Cabbage, Lysichiton americanus, is a plant of wet and boggy areas. It lives up to its name, emitting a foul odor when in bloom. It is a very common plant and blooms early in the spring, but the leaves continue to grow and persist throughout the summer. This example was photographed in the swampy areas around Lake Padden.

Devil's Club or Devil's Walking Stick, Oplopanax horridus, is a familiar plant in the Pacific Northwest where it grows in damp and cool forest glades. It is a very large plant, 3-6 feet tall, with large lobed leaves. It is covered, stems and leaves, with the spines from which it gets both its scientific and common names. This is new growth emerging at the end of a stem and it was photographed in Lake Padden Park. The plant, especially the cambium layer, is used medicinally as a tea or as a poultice for a number of different ailments including diabetes and rheumatoid arthritis.

Taken in Lake Padden Park on a spring hike, these are the emerging flowers of one of our distinctive native trees, the Big-leaf Maple, Acer macrophyllum.

The Western Trillium is common but always a welcome sign of spring. This example was photographed in Lake Padden Park near Bellingham, Washington, while on a spring hike there with my wife and youngest son.

Taken on an orchid hunting trip in the area. Lake Padden is south of Bellingham in the Chuckanut Mountains and is a popular recreation area. The day was not very nice, the trails were muddy, but I found plenty of native orchids and enjoyed the few rays of sunshine that did break through. ronaldhanko-orchidhunter.blogspot.com/2013/05/lake-padden-and-padden-ridge.html