One of the most challenging things about our hiking trips is attempting to identify the numerous different wildflowers that we see (and knowing if it’s an invasive like foxglove or if it’s native). We love seeing the flowers and spend much of our hikes looking for them but we’re just a couple of amateurs when it comes to knowing much about them. We rely heavily on the Wildflower Search website and more knowledgeable folks in wildflower groups for ids. Asters and fleabanes as well as many yellow wildflowers tend to give us the most trouble. On our own we probably get as many wrong as right. Even when we have a good idea we tend to use a general common name such as “penstemon” or “lupine” instead of attempting to identify the specific variety.
We saw somewhere in the vicinity of 200 different varieties of flowers. We have labeled them on Flickr with our best guesses, but in most cases the id is uncertain so any corrections/suggestions are greatly appreciated.
With that here is a fairly comprehensive gallery of the different flowers that we saw during our 2019 hikes. I’m posting these in the date order in which the photos were taken (with the exception of the first and last) but this is not necessarily the order in which we first saw them during the year.
In February we encountered our first flowers of the year.
Snow queen
Red flowering currant
Toothwort
Fairy slipper
Glacier lilies
Chickweed monkeyflower
Giant white wakerobin
Giant fawn lilies
Camas and plectritis
Fringecup
Bleeding heart
Bluebells?
Dogwood
Large solomonseal
Vine maple
Chocolate lilies
Coltsfoot
Wild rose
Ball-head waterleaf
Arnica
Manzanita
A currant
Showy jacob’s ladder
Oregon anemone
Lupine
Vanilla leaf
Larkspur
Woodland stars
Popcorn flower
Salsify
Deadly nightshade
Rock clematis
Twinberry?
Bluebells
Cinquefoil
Meadowrue
A violet
Shooting star
Old man’s whiskers
Western stoneseed
Blue dicks
Balsamroot
Slender phlox
Cutleaf daisy
Large head clover
Kittentails
Hairy clematis
Yellow bell
Brown’s peony (blossoms hadn’t opened yet)
Small flower miterwort
Vetch
Yarrow
Houndstongue
A catchfly
Branched hareleaf
Watercress
Fiddleneck
Rough eyelashweed
Penstemon
Phlox
Spreading dogbane
Buckwheat
Scab penstemon
Oregon sunshine?
False sunflower?
Sticky purple geranium
Threadleaf phacelia
Skullcap
Stream globe mallow
Blue mustard?
Ragged robin
Blanket flower
Cusick’s paintbrush
Wild onion
Monument plant
Rockcress
Hoary balsamroot
Camas
White-stem frasera
Milk vetch
A clover
Dwarf yellow fleabane
Iris
Iris
Paintbrush
Blue-eyed mary
Cat’s ear lilies
Candy flower
Thimbleberry
Stonecrop
Youth-on-age
False lily of the valley
Coralroot
Fairybells
Scouler’s cordyalis
Coralroot
Ookow
Anemone
Bunchberry
Rhododendron
Wild bugbane
Avalanche lilies
Paintbrush
Western pasque flower
Valerian
Mountain heather
Penstemon
Manzanita
Dwarf lupine
Pussypaws
White dwarf lupine
Sagebrush false dandelion?
Daisies
Foxglove
Self-heal
Tailed kittentails
Goldenbanner?
Vetch?
Larkspur
Phlox
Paintbrush
Lupine
Violets
Lousewort
Marsh marigold
Salal
Thistle
Monkeyflower
Cultivated radish?
A clover
Beach morning glory
Groundcone
Some sort of rose
Striped coralroot
Penstemon
Arrowleaf buckwheat
Star-flower solomonseal
Raceme pussytoes
Beargrass
Coralroot
Blue-head gilia
Penstemon
Groundsel?
Inside-out flower
Starflower
Candysticks
Wild strawberry
Columbine
Showy phlox
Trillium
Bladder campion?
Catchfly
Aster or fleabane
A currant
Wood violet
Pussytoes
Lousewort
Jacob’s ladder?
Wallflower
Wild ginger
Giant blue-eyed mary
Coneflower
Cow parsnip
Tall mountain bluebells
Scarlet gilia
Orange agoseris
Owls clover
Some sort of phacelia?
Honeysuckler
Wild onion
Twin flower
Penstemon
Two types of paintbrush
Stream orchid?
Tiger lily
Penstemon
Field chickweed
Lupine
Spotted coralroot
Lupine
Avens?
Farewell to spring
Penstemon
Washington lily
Wintergreen
Pinesap
Pinedrop
Paintbrush
Mock orange
Prince’s pine
Bachelor button
Pyrola
Queen’s cup
Aster (or a fleabane)?
Bog orchid
Elephant’s head
Rainiera
Ghost pipe
Scouler’s bluebells
Monkshood
Pink monkeyflower
Creeping wire lettuce
Fireweed
Penstemon
Aster (or a fleabane)
Spirea
Hedgenettle
Scouler’s St. Johns wort
Gentian
Pennyroal
Chicory
A pea?
Thistle
The last wildflowers for us this year (we aren’t counting the invasive herb robert seen at Forest Park in December) was some fading pearly everlasting in mid-October.
This pearly is in better shape from an August hike.
Hopefully we aren’t too far off on these. Names aside they are all a delight to see out on our hikes. Happy Trails!
wanderingyuncks 