Berries!

Along the edges of the forest; where unfiltered sunlight reaches all the way to the ground. There the bees and other pollinators keep busy all through the long summer days. I found ripe blackberries, the native trailing ones, tiny, black, and sweet. And wild raspberries, still half-ripe; they'll turn dark wine-red soon.

Wild raspberry, Rubus leucodermis.

Ocean spray, Holodiscus discolor. Far from the ocean, but the flowers hang in foamy clusters, taking the shape of the sea foam at the tip of large waves at the beach.

Weedy.

Hawkweeds, Hieracium sp., are invasive weeds, but the bees do love them. Here, I liked the tight flower buds with their black-tipped bracts. The other weed is, I think, Wall lettuce, Latuca sp. It has tiny, white flowers.

The bee is a Yellow-faced bumblebee, Bombus vosnesenski. This is a native species, and the most common bumblebee on our west coast.

I just came in from tidying up my garden. I found some of the extremely invasive Himalayan blackberry canes hiding in the forsythia bush. Some of the berries are ripe already, and delicious. I cut down the canes anyhow. A young deer came by, looked them over, and turned up her nose. Our local bear would like the berries, but that would just help to spread the plant. Sorry, Brother Bear, but the whole batch went into the trash. 

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En los márgenes del bosque, donde la luz del sol logra llegar hasta el suelo, se encuentran flores y frutas silvestres. Allí los abejorros y otros polinizadores se mantienen ocupados desde amanecer hasta la puesta del sol;  16 horas diarias en este mes de julio. Encontre moras maduras; las nativas, Rubus ursinus, pequeñitas pero negras y dulces. Y frambuesas silvestres, Rubus leucodermis, medio maduras; listas para comer, son de color rojo oscuro.

    1. Las frambuesas.

    2. Flores de Holodiscus discolor, rocío oceánico. Bien lejos del oceano, pero las ramas de flores colgantes se parecen a la espuma en la cresta de las olas en la playa.

    3. ¿Hierba mala? Estas flores amarillas son Hieracium sp.; una planta invasora, difícil de erradicar, pero muy apreciada por los abejorros y las avispas. En esta foto, me gustaron los botones con sus brácteas con puntos negros. Las otras flores (ya caducas) son, creo, "lechuga de muro", Latuca sp.

    4. El abejorro es un Bombus vosnesenski, el abejorro de cara amarilla. Es una especie nativa, y el Bombus más común en estas costas.

Acabo de entrar después de hacer limpieza en el jardín. Escondido entre el arbusto de forsythia, está creciendo un arbusto de la mora extremadamente invasora, Rubus discolor. Algunas de las bayas (y hay muchas) ya están maduras. Deliciosas, pero de todas maneras, corté todas las cañas y las deseché. Vino de pasada un venadito y se arrimó a mirar las ramas y hojas cortadas. Y ni siquiera las probó. Al oso que nos visita le gustarían las bayas, pero al comerlas ayudaría a esparcir las semillas. Mala idea.

September road

Summer goes out in a blaze of yellows.

This is the road coming down from the hills to the back side of the beaver pond.

The flowers are done; the pink hardhack flower heads are now dark brown, the yellow water lilies have disappeared and their bright green leaves have shrivelled and faded. Only the marsh horsetails, densely packed in the shady end, stay green. 

Hairy basal leaves of a hawkweed. Subtribe Hieraciinae, I think.

And its seeds on their tall stems. The flowers were bright yellow.

Sweet gale, Myrica gale, changing colour.

Lady fern, Athyrium filix-femina, on the hill above the pond, almost a spring-time yellow/green. The salal behind it will stay bright green all winter.

The trees casting their shadows where the road across the pond meets the forest are red alder and red cedar; on the far side of the pond are Douglas-firs.

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El verano llega a sus dias finales en un resplandor amarillo.

1. Este es el camino que baja de de los cerros para cruzar la laguna de los castores. Las flores se han marchitado; las inflorescencias color Rosa Mexicana de la Spiraea douglasii se han tornado café oscuro, las flores amarillas de los lirios acuáticos ya desaparecieron y las hojas, antes de un vivo tan brillante, ahora se han vuelto pálidas y encogidas, arrugadas. Solamente las "colas de caballo acuáticas", Equisetum fluviatile, llenando el extremo de la laguna que queda casi continuamente en sombra, retienen su color verde fuerte. 
2. Hojas basales peludas de Heracium sp.
3. Y sus semillas en sus tallos altos. Las flores eran amarillas.
4. Mirto de turbera, Myrica gale.
5. Helecho de dama, Athrium filix-femina, entre el bosque en la ladera. Tiene el verde de primavera todavía, verde/amarillo. Las hojas de Gaultheria shallon  en el fondo se mantienen verdes todo el año.

Los árboles que prestan su sombra donde el camino que cruza la laguna entra al bosque son alisos rojos y cedro rojo. Los del lado opuesto de la laguna son abetos de Douglas.

Nose to the ground

At the clearing near Nimpkish Lake, the soil is shallow, mostly made up of dust from the cliffs above and gravel from road-building activity. This far north, the growing season is short and dry, the winters long, dark, and sopping wet. It's good country for evergreen trees; not so nurturing for smaller, short-lived plants. The tallest plants in the clearing were the grasses near the edge, mostly less than a foot tall.

Towards the centre, away from the shelter of cliffs and trees, most of the vegetation hugs the ground, staying out of the wind, close to any dampness available. I got down on my knees and elbows to look at the lichen and found much more.

Cladonia lichen*, moss sporophytes, Alpine azalea**, and a miniature flower with interesting leaves***.

If you look closely, you can (barely) see the moss; dark, yellowish-brown clusters. I think the green shrub is the Alpine azalea, Loisleleuria procumbens, which has leaves from 3 to 8 mm long (about 1/8 to just over 1/4 inch).  I can't identify the tiny plant on the far left; I didn't even see it while I was there, so didn't aim the camera at it.

Update #2: In the comments, Matt Goff, of Sitka Nature, identified the lichen (*) as a Stereocaulon. I found one of these growing in this area, on E-Flora; the Stereocaulon alpinum, Alpine foam. (I like the name.)

** Matt says he doesn't think the green shrub is Alpine azalea, but has no suggestions.

*** And the tiniest flower, up in the top left corner is an Euphrasia, aka eyebright. E-Flora has two on Vancouver Island; E. nemorosa, common eyebright; one of those records is of a find beside the road near Port Hardy, a bit north of where I found this one. And the Arctic eyebright, E. subarctica, was found also beside the road; at Keta Lake, a bit to the south.

Moss sporophytes, standing tall (ish) on brown stalks, encased in pointed wrappings. A few have shed the covering.

On the right, the lichen has dark brown spots, reproductive structures. And on the left, an intriguing spotted, hairy plant. If the azalea leaves are 1/4 inch long, the leaves of the spotted plant would be about 1/2 inch.

I couldn't identify this plant. I think it may be the same as the one I found near Heckman Pass (on the Bella Coola road) a couple of years ago.

Not quite so spotty, but otherwise similar. Somewhat larger.

I couldn't identify it then, either. Any ideas?

Update: It's one of the hawkweeds, either Mouse-ear hawkweed, Hieracium pilosella, or White-flowered hawkweed, Hieracium albiflorum. Here are the white-flowered ones just across the water in Powell River, on Powell River Books Blog.

Update # 3: It's been definitely identified as the White-flowered hawkweed.

Nimkish Lake area and Heckman Pass, more or less.

Stubborn

Can you believe these are still blooming, near the end of November?

One of the many weedy yellow asters.

I brought it inside, to dry it off, of course; it's still raining most of the time.

Mini-selfie

Hawkweed and stripy fly. Beach Grove:

And the mini-selfie, with camera, on the fly's back.

Everything's packed and lined up at the door, ready for the truck, Except the computer, my breakfast, and my toothbrush. And the tank. Shutting down the computer in a few minutes. Tomorrow, the ferry and Campbell River!

Sublime to ridiculous

More White Rock beach photos from last week, in no particular order:

Mount Baker, behind the Semiahmoo hill

Disappearing seaweedy rocks, with gull.

Setting out nets for smelt.

Vicious sea monster?

Rock "garden"

Hawkweed by the railroad tracks.

More hawkweed.  With aphids.

Almost wordless

Hawkweed, Reifel Island: