Natural History Wanderings

Mount Rainier National Park   has a new report

Currently Blooming – June 22, 2017
It’s hard to imagine the forests of Mount Rainier without vanilla leaf. Vanilla leaf (Achlys triphylia) carpets the forest floor with its light green leaves. “Achlys” means mist in Greek, perhaps referring to the way vanilla leaf flowers float above their leaves on spikes. Look for it blooming throughout the park.

Wildflower Reports

• Eastside Trail (6/21): vanilla leaf, bunchberry (lots!), foam flower, star-flowered false Solomon’s seal, wild strawberry, yellow violet, salmonberry, thimbleberry, coralroot, baneberry, Pacific blackberry, star flower
• Ohanapecosh/Silver Falls (6/18): queen’s cup, three-leaved anemone, bunchberry, oxalis, thimbleberry, foam flower, vanilla leaf, bear grass, false Solomon’s seal, star-flowered Solomon’s seal
• Stevens Canyon Road (6/14): West Side (towards Reflection Lakes) avalanche lilies, phlox, trillium; East Side (towards Grove of the Patriarchs) Menzie’s penstemon, cliff paintbrush, buttercup, bear grass, lupine, wild strawberry
• Grove of the Patriarchs (6/14): foam flower, siberian miner’s lettuce, star flower, fringecup, piggyback plant, bunchberry, false solomon’s seal, star-flowered false solomon’s seal, vanilla leaf, Cascade Oregon-grape
• Nisqually Entrance to Longmire Road (6/14) – vanilla leaf, cow parsnip (early), columbine, foam flower, lupine (near Kautz), buttercup, lots of bunchberry!
• Longmire (6/8) – roundleaf violet, stream violet, alaska violet, calypso orchid (late), twayblade, Cascade Oregon-grape, wild strawberry, kinnikinnick, serviceberry, siberian miner’s lettuce, bunchberry, smooth alumroot (early), big-leaved sandwort, star solomon’s seal (early), lupine

Wildflower photos are available on Mount Rainier’s Flickr page.