Nature’s Neighborhood Scavenger Hunt

Forest Park ConservancyUncategorized

As people around the world are on ‘Stay-at-Home’ orders the natural world is keeping to its own natural orders. It is spring in the Pacific Northwest. On your daily walks/runs/rides keep an eye out for these flowering native plants. Nature’s own scavenger hunt!

Have fun and tag us on Instagram or Facebook when you find a Forest Park favorite. Let’s share some plant ID knowledge with one other!

Common name: Bigleaf Maple

Scientific name: Acer macrophyllum

Description: large deciduous tree

Flower: Catkin

Leaves: typically, 15-30 cm across, with five deeply-incised palm-shaped

Common name: Osoberry

Scientific name: Oemleria cerasiformis

Description: Multi-stemmed large shrub to small tree, purplish-brown bark

Flower: White, drooping clumps in early spring

Fruit: Small hard stone fruit color ranging from yellow to peach maturing to black/blue. Technically edible, but bitter for people, however birds love them.

Common name: Salmonberry

Scientific name: Rubus spectabilis

Description: Prickly multi-stemmed shrub; golden-brown, shedding bark

Flower: Magenta, five petals in early spring to early summer

Fruit: Raspberry-like with a hollow core, ranging from yellow to orange-red. Mild in flavor.

Common name: Red Flowering Currant

Scientific name: Ribes sanguineum var. sanguineum

Description: Deciduous shrub; bark is dark brownish-grey with prominent paler brown lenticels

Flower: 10-20 pale pink to rose pink or deep red drooping flower clusters

Fruit: Dark purple to blue/black oval-shaped berries; edible but taste-less

Common name: Redwood sorrel /Oregon Oxalis/ Sourgrass

Scientific name: Oxalis oregana

Description: Perennial herbaceous ground cover

Flower: Small white to pink with five petals

Leaves:  Three leaflets are heart-shaped; edible in small amounts due to high oxalic acid

Glossary

Catkin– cylindrical petal-less flower cluster arranged closely along a central stem which is often drooping, usually for wind-pollinated tree reproduction.

Deciduous– trees and shrubs that seasonally shed their leaves.

Herbaceous– plants that have no persistent woody stems above ground

Perennial– plant that lives more than two years

Lenticels– one of many raised pores in the stem of a woody plant that allows gas exchange.

Shrub– a small- to medium-sized perennial woody plant.