Photo 20. A species of Astragalus at home on a rocky ridge in the North Wasatch Mtns. of Utah.
The quickest way by automobile to get from Vancouver (British Columbia, Canada), where we live, to Logan, Utah, (North Logan actually, but let’s not quibble) where our daughter lives, is to take advantage of the Interstate Highway system. We did this trip recently and, when possible, took advantage of the coming of spring to the Pacific Northwest to see, and photograph, some of the roadside plants. The highways involved are I-5, along which one does not stop, except for emergencies; I-90 from the Seattle area east, much of which is at higher elevations and was still under snow (Mount Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest); I-82, in essence a connector between I-90 and I-84; and I-84, which runs from south central Washington, through the northeastern corner of Oregon, across the state of Idaho, and into Utah, taking us very close to our destination. The two miles or so we spent on I-15 didn’t figure in the story.
Spring, late in coming to the Pacific Northwest this year, was clearly in evidence on the eastern side of the Cascades. A rest-stop on I-82 at Selah Cliffs, north of Yakima, Washington, gave us our first noteworthy flower sighting, the bitter root, Lewisia rediviva (Portulacaceae) (Photo 1). Common names include Oregon bitter root, Idaho bitter root, and Montana bitter root; it is the official state flower of Montana. This spectacularly beautiful flower appears before leaves emerge and stands in marked contrast to the dry, gravelly soil in which it occurs. This plant is remarkably drought resistant, as its name implies; it is capable of recovery after two or more years.
A usual stop along I-84 is at Dead Man’s Flat, which is located about half way between Pendleton and LaGrande, Oregon. Roadwork and/or the earliness of the season resulted in closure of the rest stop. Not put off by such arbitrary restrictions, and by the serious need to stretch our legs, we stopped anyway. The main attraction at this site was a species of Phacelia (Hydrophyllaceae), most likely P. lyallii (P. sericea subsp. lyallii in some floras) (Photo 2). This is a species of higher elevations and one of the earlier blooming plants at these elevations. Also making an appearance through the roadside gravel was a species of Lomatium, a large and complex western North American genus in the Apiaceae (Umbelliferae) (Photo 3). Growing nearby were a few tired-looking avalanche lilies, Erythroniumgrandiflorum, a more acceptable photograph of which will be encountered a little further on in this article. Small patches of snow nearby suggested that more botanizing would yield little, so we headed on down the eastern slopes of the Blue Mountains.
Our next botanical stop, a few miles west of the Idaho border, proved to be one of the more rewarding ones. This is dry country with significant stands of sagebrush, an Artemisia species, likely one of the varieties of the widespread A. tridentata (Photo 4). It was too early to see the sage in bloom, but several other plants were in full show, most prominent among which was the shrubby antelope bitterbrush, Purshia tridentata (Rosaceae) (Photo 5). The yellow-flowered plant visible in the picture of sage above is the very common and widespread balsam root, Balsamorhiza sagitatta (Asteraceae) (Photo 6). Another common name for this plant is mule’s ears, although this name has been attached to other members of this as well as members of the related genus Wyethia throughout their respective ranges in western North America. Scattered about on the hillside were patches of a Phlox species (Polemoniaceae), likely P. diffusa (Photo 7), and an occasional Brodiaea (Liliaceae) (Photo 8). Also present along the highway was a blue-flowered plant that looked like a lupine, at least at 120 km/h. A closer look, after stopping, revealed it to be a species of the large and widespread genus Penstemon (Scrophulariaceae). We identified this species as P. acuminatus (Photo 9). Details of the flower can be seen in the close-up in Photo 10.
A plant that is clearly not a member of the Spring floral display, but is nonetheless common in most of the drier areas through which we traveled, is the Russian thistle, or common tumbleweed, Salsola kali (Chenopodiaceae). In Photo 11 Lesley can be seen holding up the skeletal remains of a fairly small plant. The tumbleweed arrived in South Dakota in 1886 as a contaminant in flax seeds from Russia. By 1895 the thistle had been reported in 16 states and several Canadian provinces and had reached the Pacific Coast. Its rapid spread was facilitated by the availability of suitable disturbed habitats along railroad rights-of-way.
Spring was well advanced by the time we got to North Logan, although there were still snow patches on the north-facing slopes of the hills. Logan, North Logan, and neighboring communities lie at the base of the foothills of the North Wasatch Mountains. The many west pointing ridges of this range of low mountains provide moderately easy access to the spring flora that covers their flanks. Fields of Balsamorhiza sagitatta were in full bloom (Photo 12), and at slightly higher elevation the related B. macrophylla (Photo 13) was beginning to take its place in the floral display. These two species can be found growing together but B. macrophylla tends to occur at slightly higher elevations and is in full flower a bit later than B. sagitatta.
One of the most strikingly attractive spring blooms is the morning lily, a name given to Oenothera caespitosa (Photo 14). The common name is half misleading: whereas the flower is at its very best in the early morning, the plant is not a lily. The genus belongs to the Onagraceae, the primrose family, not to Liliaceae. Nestled within tufts of grass, usually in partially shaded sites, is the attractive Nuttall’s violet, Viola nutallii (Violaceae) (Photo 15). (Thomas Nuttall was an English botanist who worked extensively in North America in the early part of the 19th century.) A helpful feature in identifying this species is the slight brownish to purplish pigmentation on the back sides of the yellow petals. At the end of their season were the avalanche lilies (also called dog tooth violets), Erythronium grandiflorum (Liliaceae) (Photo 16). Just beginning to make their entrance into this year’s flowering business were a species of Mertensia, (Boraginaceae), one of the mountain bluebells (Photo 17); and Mahonia (Berberis) aquifolium (Berberidaceae), commonly called Oregon grape, whose flowering stem is just starting to emerge from the base of the plant (Photo 18). Bright flashes of red higher on the hillsides (ca. 7,000’ elev.) turned out to be the narrow-leaf paintbrush, Castilleja linariifolia (Scrophulariaceae) (Photo 19), here shown with a visitor. Open, gravelly patches on the ridges were home to a species of Astragalus (Photo 20) (Fabaceae, Leguminosae), the largest genus of flowering plants in Utah. Keying this plant to species proved impossible since I hadn’t noted important features in the field. I hope readers can appreciate this lovely little flower anyway.
Identities of plants described here come either from personal experience; from AUtahFlora, edited by S. L. Welch, N. D. Atwood, S. Goodrich, and L. C. Higgins, Brigham Young University Press, Provo, UT, 1987; or from VascularPlants of the Pacific Northwest, C. L. Hitchcock, A. Cronquist, M. Ownbey, and J. W. Thompson, University of Washington Press, Seattle, 1971. Comments about Russian thistle are from Plant Migration, The Dynamics of Geographic Patterning in Seed Plant Species, J. D. Sauer, University of California Press, Berkeley, CA, 1988.
