Polystichum munitum - Western sword fern Most animals leave ferns alone but not crazy humans! What’s eaten here? The fiddleheads – the wonderful spiral of uncurling fronds in early spring. If clipped before it uncoils too much, the tips (croziers) are tasty with a crunchy nutty type of flavor. Try one or two next spring [...]
Gaultheria shallon - Salal These are easy fruits to love – dark blue to purple, juicy, sweet, and easy to pick whether on a field trip/hike or planning for homemade jam or jelly. Both the common name and the species name are a takeoff of a native North American name further east. It too [...]
Oemleria cerasiformis - Oso Berry (formerly indian plum) The word plum typically conjures up an image of a 2-3” dark-colored sweet and juicy fruit. Well, this plum is purple but fleshy – no, just the barest coating of flesh that nine out of ten times isn’t even sweet. This shrubby tree up to 15’ [...]
Rosa gymnocarpa - baldhip rose The red fruits on this native rose are small but still full of Vitamin C if you were so inclined to harvest them. If you want to make your own rose jelly, then larger hips, as they are called, can be found on other roses such as Rosa rugosa [...]
Rubus spectabilis - Salmonberry Early hikers look for the small bright yellow to red-colored fruits to tickle the tastebuds. The darker the color, the sweeter the fruit which can be eaten raw, made into pies, or added to fish dishes. The red blossoms are attractive but sparse on a plant which is best used [...]
Phyllostachys nigra - Black bamboo With the glossy black stems, this is an easy bamboo to identify. It will stay clumped for a long time but eventually will begin to spread further afield if not restrained by various means such as ‘bamboo cloth’. One way to help keep it in bounds is to harvest [...]
Arctostaphylos columbiana and A. uva-ursi - Hairy Manzanita and Bearberry Next to each other are these two members of the heather family. Hairy Manzanita can get up to 10’ and more, displaying the wonderful polished red-brown bark whereas Bearberry stays low and is much used as an evergreen groundcover. Both bear edible small orange to [...]
Vaccinium ovatum and V. parvifolium - Evergreen Huckleberry and Red Huckleberry Side by side are two of our most common huckleberries. The evergreen one has purplish berries while the red is – well, red! Both appreciate damp, organically rich soil but the evergreen flowers and fruits best in sunlight. On mountain slopes where it can [...]
Corylus cornuta var. californica -Western hazelnut It’s hard to beat the squirrels to these tasty nuts. You know they’ve been around seeing the opened shells on the ground but being squirrels, they also ‘squirrel’ away some in the ground for later. Trouble is they can’t remember where they planted all of them so expect seedlings [...]
Sambucus racemosa - Red Elderberry You really need some elbow room to grow our native elderberries as they want to spread out to 20’ due to their rather weak wood. Red Elderberry fruits are not tasty raw but best cooked/boiled to use in jellies, pies, and the like. Some will add elderberry flowers to pancake batter. Better tasting [...]