Wandering in the Greenery

 Last weekend, during my wanderings around Oakland Camp, I went in search of the Mountain Lady Slipper.  They grow in a shady area a half mile before the camp entrance.  The spot is dominated by some very large Douglas-firs.  As I approached the little trail that leads to the lady slippers, I found patches of leaves of the Western Dog Violet (above).  I wouldn't have been able to identify the species when only the leaves were showing except for the fact that I see them in this spot every spring.  The photo below was taken nearly a year ago, at the end of April.  This is the only violet viuolet around these parts.  Most of the other species are yellow and one is white.  We'll wait until the others are blooming before saying much more about violets.  That is, except for the fact that pansies are violets.

 The leaves of Trail Plant are starting to emerge through the beds of pine and fir needles.  (above)

 Mugwort, which is a close relative of Sagebrush, and is called sage by some Native American groups, is also breaking ground.  The tallest I found so far are around 6" in height.  When they reach 2 - 3 feet they display lots of tiny blooms and play host to several interesting insects and spiders.

 In some earlier posts about this particular day, I mostly photographed and wrote about the plants growing in hot, dry areas, and I left out this Buckwheat which was growing on a dry road cut on the road out to Gilson Creek, north of the camp.

Finally, I found a few specimens of the plant I was looking for, the Mountain Lady Slipper.  The recent rain mught speed things up a bit.  I think they might bloom in early May.  That's a full month earlier than the bloom date in the year I first discovered them, 2008.