Tag: flowers

Pipsissewa:Chimaphila umbellata

On By Mike and Christy6 Comments

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Pipisissewa is a beautiful and distinct wildflower found on the forest floor not to mention a fun name to say. With its long stem and single umbrella shaped flower it is  hard to miss while hiking through the woods and native to much of cool temperate forest across the northern hemisphere. A member of the wintergreen family Pipsissewa has green leaves year-round, it receives a significant portion of its nutrition from fungi in the soil.

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Pipsissewa, as much fun to observe as it is to say and wonderful companion on any forested walk.

Forest Treasures

On By Mike and Christy7 Comments

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Finding wild Orchids growing in the forest always feels like finding a little treasure, a treasure offered by the forest itself. Sometimes the treasure is small and hidden deep in the undergrowth as was the fairy slipper above.

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Other times the treasure sits alone in the forest waiting for you to some along as this spring coral root did on recent day.

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And every once in awhile the treasure sings out to you saying look at me as the Striped Coralroot has a habit to do.Treasures_4Any time I find these orchids growing in the forest it does indeed feel like finding a small treasure that brightens the day.

The whole

On By Mike and Christy7 Comments

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“the whole is greater than the sum of the parts.”

Sometimes that feels so very true. On a day where flowers mix with trees and rock and all blend into one. A single memory, a single thought and a single feeling of a day and a place.

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All combine to make the whole.THe_whole_3

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Ok…the parts are pretty fantastic as well.THe_whole_6

Triteleia Grandiflora

On By Mike and Christy8 Comments

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One of the more unusual wildflowers we see each summer is Triteleia Grandiflora.

The tall slender stalk with only one or two basal leaves spring up out of grassy areas and are capped with a cluster of delicate yet hardy and unusual looking purple-blue flowers.

A native to the pacific northwest east of the cascade mountains from Oregon into Montana, Wyoming, Utah and Idaho. We have see it growing in open Prairies and up into mountain foothills. Usually it seems that each plant is widely spaced from it’s neighbors or many times we see a single plant spring up far from others of its own species.

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It’s always fun to photograph these each spring and this years we have noticed greater numbers of Triteleia Grandiflora blooming than in the previous years.

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