The forest floor layers from malachite and emerald to lacy shades of jade. Flowers float in and on this precious sea. A slight breeze is enough to flip delicate plants over as it moves like a wave up the trail.
Every tangled batch of salmonberry sports a frantic chirping hummingbird – almost comically darting from flower to flower so fast I cannot imagine much nectar making it into the bird. Pileated woodpeckers haunt the canyon with screams while black-throated gray warblers buzz closer to the ground.
An amazing discovery hides under the canopy of the herbs – thick and furrowed strap leaves of a species that we located last March in just one small population. Now that the mature leaves are visible I realize we were walking by the fetid adder’s tongue (Scoliopus hallii) throughout the extent of the trail system. Several floras remark it is seldom seen and I can verify it is almost magically invisible until you recognize the post-flowering plant (photos 10 and 11).
Other photos:
1) Golden-gilled Gerronema
2) Wood Sorrel under bleeding heart
3) Salmonberry
4) Twisted stalk
5) Half-white carpet moth
6) Fringe cup
7) Trillium with inside-out flower
8) Trillium on the cliffs of Royal Falls
9) Saucer Mitella
10) Adder’s tongue on March 1
11) Adder’s tongue on April 15
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