Pink fairy skirts

"Shrubs are woody plants less than 10 m tall when mature ..." So says my guide, Plants of Coastal British Columbia, in the section, "Shrubs and Small Trees."

Here I find our common salal, huckle-, thimble-, and salmon-berries, honeysuckle, Oregon grape, elderberries (clocking in at 6 m. tall); most of our understory plants. And twinflowers.

Twinflower, Linnaea borealis

Quoting the guide again: "Trailing, slender, semi-woody, evergreen, short (less than 10 cm tall ...) These were less than half that; 2 inches tall at the most, with the leaves down in the moss. The flowers are 2-5 mm long; 1/8 to 1/4 inch.

But the runners are long, which makes them eligible, I guess, for inclusion alongside the rhododendrons and devil's club.

The flowers look like miniature dolls with pink skirts.

These ones are growing all along the upper trail at Elk Falls. I noticed them only because I was walking slowly, with gravel stuck in my sandals. At a normal pace, getting from here (the parking lot) to there, (the important stuff, the bridge and the Falls) I would have missed them entirely.