The Daily Bucket is a nature refuge.
We amicably discuss animals, weather, climate, soil, plants, waters and note life’s patterns.
We invite you to note what you are seeing around you in your own part of the world, and to share your observations in the comments below.
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May 2019
Pacific Northwest
There’s a sharp change in flowers and foliage when stepping into the shade. The lush plants there prefer the darker damper environment under forest canopy. Some flowers are already done blooming while others are still to come. These are a few in bloom right now I see on my regular walks in my neighborhood. All are native wildflowers.
I find it interesting that most of our woodland flowers are white or light pink. It could be that in low light conditions there’s an adaptive advantage having flowers that pollinators can see easily. Nothing contrasts more with dark foliage than white flowers.
Path winding through a bed of False Lily-of-the-Valley
LILIACEAE
Maianthemum dilatatum
False Lily Of The Valley
(Its cousin False Solomon Seal is also has white flower clusters)
Pacific Starflower ranges from light to bright pink (as in the title photo).
PRIMULACEAE
Trientalis borealis ssp. latifolia
Pacific Starflower
Spring Beauty has subtle patterns of white and pink.
PORTULACACEAE
Claytonia sibirica
Spring Beauty or Candyflower
Shades of pink and white in a patch
Sometimes found near its cousin Miner’s Lettuce
PORTULACACEAE
Claytonia perfoliata
Miner's Lettuce
Tiny flowers on a tall spike:
SAXIFRAGACEAE
Tellima grandiflora
Fragrant Fringecup
Closeup of flowers
(Fringecup’s cousin Foamflower has even tinier flowers)
The tiny green flowers of Stinging Nettle produce prodigious quantities of pollen, allergenic to some folks.
URTICACEAE
Urtica dioica
Stinging Nettle
While nettles have big leaves and small flowers, Fairyslipper has the reverse. Fairyslippers are much less common than the rest of these flowers and only 6” tall or so. You have to watch for the pink. There are patches of them here and there, always in the shade.
ORCHIDACEAE
Calypso bulbosa
Fairyslipper
One of the few shady flowers not pink or white is this buttercup:
RANUNCULACEAE
Ranunculus uncinatus
Small-Flowered Buttercup
In a class by itself, salal is shrubby, evergreen and abundant. Just coming into bloom now.
ERICACEAE
Gaultheria shallon
Salal
These woodland flowers that grace our Northwest forests may be disappearing soon. They need damp ground. With climate change, summer has been arriving sooner and hanging on later, and that means drought. Rainfall has been unusually low in the PNW this spring. Biologists in British Columbia are pointing to repeated droughts in recent years as the cause of Salal dieoffs ( www.cbc.ca/...). Western Redcedar, an iconic Northwest forest tree, is also dying off in vulnerable sites (www.cbc.ca/...). Climate change is already visibly changing our landscape.
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Cool showery weather in the Pacific Northwest yesterday, a nice change from the recent heat wave and dry weather. We didn’t pick up much rainfall but every little bit helps. Sun has come out this morning but it’s quite breezy. Still cool.
What’s the nature news in your neighborhood?
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