Gabriel Campbell and a team of assistants at Portland State University's Rae Selling Berry Seed Bank & Plant Conservation Program set out to expand the public inventory of coastal native seeds. Campbell was concerned that coastal dunes along the Oregon and Washington coast are threatened by sea level rise due to climate change and human activity. Campbell understands how coastal dunes are threatened throughout the Pacific Northwest by development, climate change, and invasive species. T ..read more

This year, the Washington State Noxious Weed Control Board has received multiple requests to reconsider listing English holly (Ilex aquifolium) as a noxious weed. With new information that supports listing, they may move forward with reconsideration in the next few months.   Readers of Botanical Rambles may recall reading about English holly in previous posts. In 2013, Kathy Murray gave us some of the history of English holly in Washington with The Holly and the Ivy and New Year's Resolutio ..read more

Botanical art opportunities are crossing my desk daily, it seems! Here are some events and resources that may interest you.   Symbiotica Art Exhibit and Urban Lichen Sketch Walk in Seattle Andrea K. Lawson's solo show Symbiotica includes textured prints that speak of the symbiotic nature of lichen and how lichen relate to our human community. It will be on view at Core Gallery in Seattle, Washington, September 4–28, 2024. On the afternoon of Sunday September 8, 2024, you can activate your s ..read more

I was excited to read an announcement from Mount Rainier National Park that they have published an online book: Plants, Tribal Traditions, and the Mountain: Practices and Effects of Nisqually Tribal Plant Gathering at Mount Rainier National Park by Greg Burtchard, David Hooper, and Arnie Peterson.   The authors write, "In this book, we have focused on the long-standing relationship between indigenous people and the landscapes, plants, and animals of Mount Rainier; and on efforts to re-estab ..read more

Plant names can be confusing, whether they are common names or scientific names, and blue-eyed grass may be one of the most confusing. First, blue-eyed grass is not a grass at all, but actually several very dainty and charming members of the Iris family (Iridaceae), in the genera Sisyrinchium and Olsynium. Then, it isn't always blue. Its grass-like leaves surround 6-parted star-shaped flowers, which can be blue, lavender, yellow or, in Olsynium, purplish-pink.  In the GardenAll of blue-eyed ..read more

For the 2024 Washington Native Plant Society (WNPS) Study Weekend, I had described the field trip as "a lovely forest with nice stands of Washington's state flower, the Pacific rhododendron; also, lots of madrone, cedars, and Sitka spruce. This is a good walk for beginners and those who want to forest bathe."     TrepidationsOn the Thursday before the Study Weekend, I previewed the hike at Miller Peninsula State Park: up the East Diamond Point Trail to Aerospace Road, then left along t ..read more

My mind is all abuzz with my recently completed month in England, where I spent two weeks hiking in Cornwall and two weeks going to gardens and enjoying other cultural pursuits in London and environs. If you took in my 2020 talk, "Chelsea and Beyond: Looking at Pacific Northwest Plants in Great Britain" you'll know that I've done this type of trip before—but it just doesn't get old for me!   The hiking portion was approximately 135 miles on the South West Coast Path in Cornwall. We started ..read more

Munro's globemallow (Sphaeralcea munroana) offers eye-catching salmon-red flowers that look like smaller versions of hollyhock, its cousin. This perennial blooms and blooms starting in May and continuing well into the hot part of the summer when other plants have hung it up for the season.   In the GardenAdaptable and cheerful, this pleasing plant tolerates drought and resists deer. Munro's globemallow has an open growth form, 1 to 2 feet tall, that makes it a natural for foundation plantin ..read more

When I first moved to Pullman, Washington in 2016 for college, I had never heard of Palouse Prairie. Instead, I marveled at the thousands of square miles of rolling wheat hills, periodically broken up by the bright yellow interruption of a canola field, especially during the spring and summer months when the setting sun casts a warm glow over the greens and golds. This is what the region is most known for: our agriculture, our unique terrain, and the stunning sunsets.  Located in the southe ..read more

In honor of the 50th anniversary of the Endangered Species Act (signed into law on December 28, 1973), I compiled the following list of what I think are the 50 rarest vascular plant species in Washington State. I prioritized these species by their range-wide abundance and distribution, degree and imminence of threats, and downward trends.  A number of worthy species just missed the cut, and the actual number of high priority plant taxa in Washington is probably closer to 75–100. As with any ..read more