Location: Mount Bisbee (by Trout Lake) Washington

Information: This is a tiny little plant but striking in many aspects. Though edible (usually the bulbs were collected in April or May before the flowering period which is late June and August) it’s not recommended to eat this lily. Usually wildflowers that will not grow in your own garden, like some of the paintbrushes and some lilies, it’s never recommended to eat them in the wild as it threatens future generations from enjoying them. Our version of the tiger lily and this mariposa lily is also among these kinds of flowers and is only recommended as a matter of survival. As a means of survival the plant can also be eaten. It’s rumored that the bulbs are very sweet and were roasted or eaten raw by both settlers in this area as well as Indian tribes. The distinct qualities of this little flower has made lily lovers attempt many times to grow it in their own gardens with no real success. Once again nature has offered us a unique beautiful flower that it seems “she” can only produce.

Identification: The primary means of id’ing this particular lily is seen easiest in the second shot. The Sagebrush Mariposa Lily is defined by the green stripes up the backside of the petals; this feature does not exist on any other lilies. The second means is the sepals (the long thin “petals” between the three primary petals) are much longer than the three petals.

USDA Plant Database
E-Flora on Sagebrush Mariposa Lily

Location: Mount Bisbee (close to Trout Lake) Washington

Information: This plant is sometimes known as western monkshood as well. There is a lot of interesting information regarding this plant – the one of primary importance is that it is lethal. The herb wolfsbane is a general name for a group of plants all related; other names of this general plant family are aconite, monkshood, wolfsbane, leopard’s bane, women’s bane, Devil’s helmet or blue rocket. The plant is actually so toxic that hospitals will administer an antidote to save a persons life. Our version the Columbian Monkshood is less toxic than other species in the family however all versions are poisonous. It is not even recommended that a person pick the flower without use of gloves. The name wolfbane came from the idea that if one was to show this flower to a werewolf – the werewolf would actually return to its natural human form and thus can be rid of properly. The term Wolfsbane probably sounds familiar because it is; Hollywood and writers have used the term for years when attempting to apply witchcraft to a scene. Many examples are on the Wikipedia page on Aconitum plants.

Wiki on Aconitum

Meanwhile, without question it is uniquely designed and created and one can see why it’s captured the attention of so many through our written history.

Identification: One of the most facinating aspect is the small green pods that branch off right below the uniqely designed blossoms. The ones I ran into were dark blue almost to the point of purple and occasionally one will find them pink or white.

USDA Plant Database
E-Flora on Columbian Monkshood

Here is a young bear with what I assume is the mother. I’m guessing the first bear walking on the screen is an older cub.

Black Bear in Colville National Forest

A nosy little black bear found our trail cam on this last video.

Location: Colville National Forest (Ferry County)

Information: The American Black Bear is one of our most adaptive creatures in the woods and do not seem to be unable to live and thrive in almost any environment. (Which includes suburbs which creep up on forested lands.) Right now all bears are mildly threatened from “suburban scrawl” as all of them need ample space to eat and having their young. Tracking of bears are actually very simple however the very shy creatures are not easily seen. They are famous for poor eyesight which is why hikers are encouraged to make noise, especially talking, as they will rarely attack humans. Any time I’ve ran into they they choose to flee by simply saying loudly, “go away bear!”

Identification: A Washington black bear is not easy to identify except to say when in doubt call it a black bear. There have been occasional “grizzly” sightings however my guess is they saw a “brown” black bear and it was not really a grizzly. {For example of a “brown” black bear view the mom & young bear video.} Even forest rangers say that grizzly’s exist in this forest range however few photographs have been taken to record that effect. Here is a very informative page created by the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife.

Living with Black Bears

Last thought; The video’s lost some of the quality by linking it here. If you’d like to see it at a higher resloution you can go to these links which will take you to the Youtube page and click on the link under the videos that says, “watch in high quality”

Mom & Young Bear
Black Bear
Curious Bear

Location: Nancy Creek Washington (Ferry County)

Information: Next to hemlock this is the most poisonous plant in the Pacific Northwest. It also creates confusion as the bulb of the Common Camas is strikingly similar to Death Camas. Common Camas was eaten often by Indians and was considered a delicacy. {A Canadian Indian recipe called for a mixture of salmon roe with dried crushed camas bulbs.} Since the bulbs were often dug up before flowered mistaking the two plants occurred. If ever deciding to partake in common camas it’s highly recommended that it’s only done during the flowering period. In this case it’s extremely important that you know your plant before eating it. Most survivalists simply avoid all versions of camas for this very reason. This plant has the agent zygadenine; which causes an irregular heartbeat, slows down respiration which eventually leads to convulsions and death. Other common names are Narrowleaved Death Camas, simply Death Camas and Grassy Death Camas.

Identification:
USDA Plants Database
E-Flora on Meadow Death Camas

Click here (to see Common Camas during flowering)

flower

fascinating shaped leaf

not quite ripe berries

ripened berries

Location: Nancy Creek Washington (Ferry County)

Information: All nightshade plants are related to potatoes, pepper and and common vegetables that we understand however the problem comes with the alkaloids. This is a fascinating plant in many ways. First, it’s the green berries (see above) that have been noted to cause harm to cattle, sheep and humans. When the berries become red they contain less of the alkaline that actually cause harm. The leaves are high in the alkaline. Thus the plant is utilized for herbal remedies but should only be done by a high end practitioner and in general should be avoided. To give you an example when the green berries or the leaves are fed to mice they die, however, the red berries do not kill mice. It is never recommended for children to eat at any stage. Which causes a problem as the bright red berries often are alluring. If a child (you know) ingest the berries or any of the plant it is recommended to take them to the hospital immediately with a piece of the plant they’ve eaten. The second reason it’s fascinating is it is part of soothsaying and witchcraft and is often utilized for various rituals. And lastly, a toxic dose causes severe digestive upset, nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain, trembling, weakness, difficulty in breathing, paralysis and may be fatal. In summary this is a plant and berry one should never eat. Other names this plant is commonly called besides climbing nightshade is European bittersweet, bitter nightshade, bittersweet, climbing bittersweet, and even more darkly deadly nightshade. Some gardeners have indicated that when you handle the plant (by attempting to get rid of it for example) it should only be done with gloves as many have reported erupting in an uncomfortable rash.

Identification:
USDA Plant Database
E-Flora on Climbing Nightshade

Location: Mount Bisbee Washington

Information: I think finding this little guy is based upon elevation as I’ve rarely seen it lower than at a 1000 ft. Few wildflowers actually inspire song but this tiny thing is one of them, the Scottish have a song about love, war and this little flower. (Lyrics are below) Because of the inspiration there are so many names for this little flower it’s amazing; harebell, bluebell bellflower and even common bluebell.
  
Identification:
USDA Plant Database
E-Flora BC

Lyrics to the Song:

BLUEBELL OF SCOTLAND

Oh where, tell me where, is your Highland laddie gone?
He’s gone wi’ streaming banners where noble deeds are done
And it’s oh, in my heart I wish him safe at home

Oh where, tell me where, did your Highland laddie dwell?
He dwelt in Bonnie Scotland, where blooms the sweet blue bell
And it’s oh, in my heart I lo’ed my laddie well

Oh what, tell me what, does your Highland laddie wear?
A bonnet with a lofty plume, and on his breast a plaid
And it’s oh, in my heart I lo’ed my Highland lad

Oh what, tell me what, if your Highland laddie is slain?
Oh no, true love will be his guard and bring him safe again
For it’s oh, my heart would break if my Highland lad were slain

Location: Mount Bisbee Washington
Information: The very fascinating name actually came from a England town with the same name many years ago. In some areas this little flower is actually considered an invasive weed but at best it’s considered an exotic or introduced flower to America. For the wildflower watcher this pretty little flower is a small gift from the England to America.
Identification:
USDA Plant Database
E-Flora on Deptford Pink

Location: Orient Washington

Information: Lewis and Clark actually wrote about this little rodent and how tasty they were. You can read about that account on this page:

Discovering Lewis and Clark

Identification: The primary means of identifying the Columbian Ground squirrel is by looking at it’s back and tail which has a black and white pattern. It is located primarily in and around the Columbia river. The other indicator is the distinct white eye line and the cinnamon coloring on the belly and face.

Federation of Alberta Naturalists

Location: So where do you find them? It would be silly of me to give you the GPS coordinates of the patch I pick from but I’ll toss up a few hints. First you want to go up, up and away. These huckleberries are rarely seen under 2000 ft. elevation so the first trick is being willing to drive up some rugged mountain roads. Second hint: look down. The bushes rarely grow any larger then about four feet tall and most run at about a foot and a half so the black berries on the trees are going to be at your feet. The areas that work well are ones logged off with trees still remaining so the bushes are usually in sunlight or partial sun and look for bear berries. The shiny bear berry plant is easy to identify and commonly grows right alongside of the thinleaf huckleberry plant. Last hint? If you do run into plants but the berries are too ripe go up higher where the temperature are cooler and you can pluck later into the relatively short picking season.

Information:
There are many names associated with this particular plant; it commonly accepted as the thin-leafed huckleberry however it’s has enough of a reputation to have many names. It is the most commonly plucked plant and most likely if you’ve had a real huckleberry shake this is the plant it came from. Examples of the various names are (scientific) Vaccinium Membranaceum, Mountain huckleberry, mountain bilberry, black huckleberry, tall huckleberry, big huckleberry, globe huckleberry, or Montana huckleberry. Side note; as of date in our area freshly picked huckleberries sell for 40 dollars a pound which makes your efforts worthwhile.

Huckleberry Muffins

Huckleberry Pancakes

Huckleberry Pie

Huckleberry Jam

For those of you completely new to the canning buisness this website actually takes out all the guess work while still teaching you to make Blueberry Jam.

How to Make Blueberry Jam – Easily!

Understand that any blueberry recipe works wonders with this little berry – just measure equal amounts and this works as a nice substitute with a slightly different flavor.

Identification:
Can easily be confused with the dwarf blueberry or dwarf bilberry. (Which also is rumored to exist in our area as well.) In this case the leaf is the key with the bilberry there is a line at the end of the leaf, which is very slight but unmistakable, a web search on the dwarf bilberry and looking at the leaves you’ll see that the center line in the leaf seems to go beyond the edges of the leaf. A secondary issue with this particular plant is as you can see by the first shot that the berries when ripe actually are various colors which is unlike most plants in the “blueberry” family. I also included the shot where you can see that when the berries ripen it’s not uncommon for the thin-leaves to start to turn fall colors sooner than all other plants. Seeing the first set of leaves turning color is really enough reason to investigate and look for berries as at this point in time (Late July) few have turned like this.

USDA Plant Database on the thinkleaf huckleberry

E-Flora on the thinleaf huckleberry

Top

Queen Anne’s lace & wheat

Sideview

In the Feild

Location: Nancy Creek right off Enquist Rd. Washington

Information: Queen Anne’s Lace is a member of the carrot family and thus when young it’s roots can be eaten however it bears a striking resemblance to water hemlock and so many suggest that you don’t eat the roots unless your absolutely certain that it is indeed Queen Anne’s lace. Meanwhile, it was named so because of it’s obvious resemblance to lace but also on occasion one will see a small red spot in the center. This spot is to represent a drop of blood that was so commonly found on lace because it was easy to prick oneself with a lace needle.

Identification: This is actually a very tall plant and often flowers over here at the end of the summer. (Late July and August.) An easy means of identification is the red center which if nothing else can lead you to the plant. (you can locate a view of the “drop” on the first photograph)

E-Flora BC
USDA Plant’s Database