I give up!

It's beautiful, it's cheerful, but what is it?

Buttle Lake is a deep lake, one of Vancouver Island's 10 deepest, 125 metres deep, but at the northern tip, in a small bay, the lake floor rises; the change is noticeable even on Google maps as a mottled area, where the rest of the lake is a deep, deep blue. Here, beside the lake are a pair of campgrounds and a couple of trails. The one I took follows the shore along this shallow bay. And at the northern tip, it's pink.

Buttle Lake trailhead. The water is at its mid-height at this time of year.

I walked down to the edge of the water. The pink vegetation grows both underwater and on the sand.

Looks like red grass.

Zooming in. Still looks like red grass.

I've spent hours, looked at thousands of photos, read dozens of descriptions, and still can't identify this. GoogleImages first told me it was Saltwort, Salicornia virginica. No; Saltwort is a common succulent, and looks nothing like this. Another trial turned up red algae, but in salt water; Buttle Lake is freshwater. My photos are sitting on iNaturalist, with no hints available. Reports about the vegetation of Buttle Lake gave me lists of phytoplankton in the water, but nothing about anything visible to the naked eye.

I'm stumped. What is it?

This sign, just above the spot where I took these photos, refers, I think, to the plants on the shore, above the water level. 

BC Parks sign.

Text of the sign: SOMETHING EXITING IS HAPPENING HERE!

This is a restoration site designed to increase the habitat along Buttle Lake. This transitional area is an important connection between the lake and the upland forest. Cuttings of local species like willow, red-osier dogwood and cottonwood have been planted to create a healthy lakeshore. In addition, rock and large wood have been added to stabilize and complex the bank to provide additional natural habitat.

There are experimental sites like this one all around the lake. We are testing out various methods to see which type works the best. Please leave the site as you found it.

(Address and phone number  given for more info.)

Signed by BCParks, EcoFish Research, A-tlegay Fisheries Society, and BC Hydro.

The diagram on the sign shows (in green) the average water level; that's where is today, at 216 metres elevation above sea level.

Google maps view of this bay, lightened slightly.

I should have collected a sample. I'll have to go back soon.

UPDATE: I went back and brought home a handful. It's grass. Here it is, washed (it was very muddy!) "planted" at home in clean water:

In a small bowl, roots and all. Without roots, the tallest blade is 7 cm. tall.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

Muy bonito, muy alegre; pero ¿qué es?

El Lago Buttle es un lago hondo, uno de los 10 lagos más profundos de la isla, con 125 metros de profundidad. Pero cerca del extremo norteño, en una bahía pequeña, el fondo del lago se eleva; se ve el cambio hasta en GoogleMaps, donde el azul fuerte de la mayor parte del lago se vuelve más claro, y manchado. Aquí en la orilla del lago hay muchos sitios de acampar y dos senderos en el bosque. El sendero que yo tomé sigue la orilla al lado de esta bahía. Y en la parte más al norte, la bahía está pintada color de rosa.

1. Donde empieza el sendero.  El agua está a su nivel promedio.
2. Llegué al borde del agua. Las plantas rojas crecen tanto en la arena como bajo el agua. Se parecen a pastos rojos.
3. Visto más de cerca todavía parece pasto rojo.
   
   He gastado horas, he mirado miles de fotos, leído docenas de descripciones, y sigo sin poder identificar estas plantas. GoogleImages me informó al principio que era Salicornia virginica. No; Salicornia sp. son plantas suculentas, y no se parecen a pasto. Otra vez, GoogleImages me dió algas rojas, pero en agua salada: el lago es de agua dulce. Mis fotos en iNaturalist no han atraído ningún comentario. Estudios sobre la vida del lago tienen listas de los fitoplancton que viven en el agua, pero nada sobre plantas visible a simple vista.
   
   Me rindo. ¿Qué es esto?
4. Este letrero, donde saqué las primeras fotos, se refiere, creo, a las plantas en el bosque.
   
   

   Texto del letrero: ¡ALGO  FASCINANTE PASA AQUÍ!
   
   Este es un sitio donde se lleva a cabo una restauración planeado para aumentar el habitat al lado de Buttle Lake. Esta area de transición forma un enlace entre el lago y el bosque de los cerros. Se han sembrado esquejes de especies locales tales como los sauces, Cornus sericea y Populus balsamifera para crear una orilla de lago sana. Además, se han añadido rocas y piezas grandes de madera para proveer habitat natural adicional.
   
   Hay sitios experimentales como este alrededor del lago. Estamos probando varios métodos para ver cual funciona mejor. Favor de dejar el sitio tal como lo encontraste.
   
   (Se incluye una dirección y un número telefónico donde se puede pedir más información.)
   
   Firmado por BCParks, EcoFish Research, A-tlegay Fisheries Society, y BC Hydro.
   
   El esquema en el letrero muestra (verde) el nivel promedio del agua; allí está hoy, a 216 metros sobre el nivel del mar.

5. El area en GoogleMaps.

Debería haber recogido una muestra. Tendré que regresar pronto.

HAY MÁS: Regresé y me traje una muestra a casa. Es pasto. Aquí está, lavado y "sembrado" en agua limpia.

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.

Mystery solved!

Last year, in July and later in mid-August, I examined a woolly plant growing down near the moss level in the Oyster Bay meadow. I couldn't identify it.

Pale bluish-green plants, up to about 5 inches tall, covered with white hair. Today's photo.

I wrote about it twice last year, hoping for help with id. I looked for flowers, and found, on the third search, a couple of dead flower lumps, standing tall above the leaves. Still no help with id, although there were several interesting suggestions.

This morning, I joined a group from the Comox Valley Naturalists Society for a walk through the meadow. The group included a botanist, and she recognized the plant at once. It's a woolly sunflower, and has large, bright, yellow flowers, standing up to two feet tall. But not this year, either, although Wikipedia says it blooms from May to August. Maybe it has been too hot and dry the last couple of summers.

Woolly sunflower, Eriophyllum lanatum.

The page at E-Flora BC has 21 photos, mostly of the showy yellow flowers. In the several leaf photos, the plants are barely hairy.

Both stems and leaves may be covered with a woolly gray hair, but some plants lack this hair. The hairs conserve water by reflecting heat and reducing air movement across the leaf's surface. (Wikipedia)

Could the extreme hairiness be a response to the hot weather?

Woolly leaves, with insect.

More on this walk, later. I haven't even looked at my photos, yet.

Definitely not a dead shrew

Why is it that when I Google images, specifying, "upright round stem hairless pink flower," what I get is yellow broom, white mushrooms, a map of Australia, and organpipe cactus, but no pink flowers with upright round stems?

Maybe I was confusing Google with too many criteria? How about, "single stalk hairless pink"? Would that work? Well, if I had been looking for a dead shrew, maybe. Or a live shrew (on a different site). Google also thought that maybe a deer, or an armadillo would match. And, of course, it gave me more yellow broom.

On examining the photo I was trying to match, I decided that red was more accurate. Trying "red" instead of pink, got me green beans and celery, assorted bugs, dogs, a map of Eastern Canada, and the Colosseum in Rome. And after a few dozen yellow, white, blue, and pink flowers, a few red ones, on leafy or hairy stems.

I give up.

We saw this plant in the grass at the edge of Centennial Beach. Does anyone out there know what it is?

Blade-like basal leaves (yes, I Googled this, too), round hairless stems, about a foot tall.

And one red or deep pink flower per stalk.

Help!