We locals like to call it Wenatchee Rock Rose, and others call it Tweedy’s lewisia. In all the world, it only grows in our neck-in-the-woods, something botanists call an endemic species. It turns out, our Wenatchee Mountains have the highest concentration of endemic plants in all of Washington. Continue Reading →
In 2020-topsy-turvy style, I guess I shouldn’t have been surprised to find ice encrusted still-green leaves, on what I’d thought would be a fall leaf-peeping walk. We were hiking near Easton, just east of Snoqualmie Pass, on a snow-covered trail when sunlight suddenly lit up every ice coated surface. Continue Reading →
Plants are closely attuned to the places they live, their habitat. Plant species differ in their ecological amplitude to respond to changes to their habitat. They grow successfully in places within their tolerance levels for environmental factors such as cold, shade, or drought combined with abiotic factors such as soil type and geographic locale. In addition to usual fluctuations in the growing conditions habitat can be altered, at times dramatically, by disturbances such as fire or flood. Continue Reading →
Botanists call our region “The Wenatchee Mountains,” that has the highest concentration of endemic plants in Washington. 35 are state-classified as rare plants and 30 more are “just” endemics. Many rare plants are endemic, but not all endemics are rare! Continue Reading →
Snow Douglasii is a Wenatchee Mountain endemic native perennial wildflower that blooms as snow is melting. Continue Reading →
The Wenatchee Area Field Guide is light-weight, waterproof, and fits into your pocket. Use to help identify common native plants and animals Continue Reading →
Forgotten seed caches sometimes sprout in the shrub-steppe. Rodents like deer mice, voles, and pocket gophers cache seeds from antelope bitterbrush and lupine that if un-eaten, sprout and grow in to the next generation of plants. Continue Reading →