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A Guide to Wild Flowers Between the Capes
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Yellowish Flowers
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Abronia latifolia
Yellow sand verbena
British Columbia to California
Family Nyctaginaceae
Native
Yellow sand verbena is a coastal perennial living in dunes or along the high beach. It has bright, rounded clusters of yellow tubular flowers, each on the end of a single stem. The leaves are fleshy, kidney-shaped to circular, and along with the petiole, somewhat sticky, allowing them to coat themselves with sand. Roots go deep into the sand. There is also a pink sand verbena, A. umbellata, that is fairly rare, and I have not seen it in our area. Neither species is a true verbena. True verbenas are in the family Verbenaceae.
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Cuscuta salina var. major
Salt-marsh dodder
British Columbia to California
Family Cuscutaceae
Native
Locally, salt-marsh dodder is parasitic on Salicornia virginica, though it may infect Jaumea. You can see its web of thin, orange stems winding and encircling pickleweed during the summer months. The entwining stems will produce structures called haustoria that penetrate the host extract nourishment. Recent research has determined that salt-marsh dodder can reduce the abundance of pickleweed and other hosts. The parasite can be so thick that it will turn patches of a salt marsh orange. Flowers are creamy white with a five-part calyx. Its fruits are round capsules.
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Cytisus scoparius
Scotch broom
Alaska to California and other Western States; Eastern States
Family Fabaceae
Non-native
Scotch broom is considered Oregon’s number one invasive species. Native to the British Isles and Europe, it was introduced to North America during the 1800s as an ornamental and a soil stabilizer. After being planted on the west coast in California and Vancouver Island, it spread aggressively along the Pacific coast. It is a showy shrub during spring when its bright yellow flowers, often accented with oranges and reds, cover the plant, and where the scotch broom is dominant, may turn an entire hillside or pasture a golden yellow. It is a legume, therefore in the pea family, with angular ridged stems bearing alternate leaves arranged palmately with three leaflets. The flowers are bilaterally symmetrical, stemming from the leaf axils. The fruits are pea-like pods, initially green and hairy but turning black before they split and release their seeds. The seeds can remain viable for 50 years. The shrub itself can grow up to 10 feet high and may live 15 years. The plant, including the seeds, contains a toxic alkaloid and can be poisonous to livestock and humans.
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Erechtites minima
Australian fireweed, coastal burnweed, little erechtites
Washington to California
Family Asteraceae
Non-native
Native to Australasia and introduced to the west coast, Australian fireweed is a common plant in our coastal area, especially on disturbed terrain, and it is considered invasive. It is also present but less prevalent on the lower elevations of the western slopes of the Cascades. It is an erect annual (sometimes perennial) with a panicle of small yellow flower heads. Each head has a cylindrical involucre subtending a minute composite of outer pistilate flowers and inner staminate, staminate-pistilate (perfect), or sterile flowers. Its leaves are alternate, lanceolate, with irregularly toothed edges. You can see this plant in the Cape Lookout State Park Campground.
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Grindelia integrifolia
Entire-leaved gumweed, Puget Sound gumweed, gumplant, gumweed
Southern Alaska to Northern California
Family Asteraceae
Native
Another coastal perennial composite you will find along the coast, one that is hard to mistake for any other flower once you feel its sticky texture, is the entire-leaved gumweed, Grindelia integrifolia. At the base of each of its showy yellow heads, which has both ray and disk flowers, is an involucre, a whorl of green bracts, which exudes a gummy and sticky latex resin that has a strong pungent odor. The plant stands up to two feet tall. Its leaves are oblanceolate, lance-shaped but connected to the stem by the narrow end. There are many species Grindelia, twenty eight listed by the USDA that are native to the US, and many of them hybridize. G. integrifolia here on the coast is geographically isolated, so it may be a pure species, but in some areas like the Willamette Valley, it will hybridize with G. nana, the Columbia gumweed. G. intergifolia can be found in bloom during August many places around Netars Bay and between the Capes.
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Hypochaeris radicata
Hairy cat’s ear
Alaska to California, many other states and provinces
Family Asteraceae
Non-native
Hairy cat’s ear is an aggressive European import weed you will find in lawns, along roadsides, in fields, in yards and gardens, and along our coastal dunes, almost anywhere in Oregon west of the Cascades. It goes by a variety of other common names – rough cat’s ear, false dandelion, and gosmore. Its flowers are much like those of the true dandelion, yellow and composed entirely of ray flowers, but, unlike the dandelion, there are often several heads at the ends of branched stems. Its leaves are basal, spreading into a rosette. They are pinnately lobed and hispid, that is, covered on both sides with stiff, bristle-like hairs, giving the common names hairy or rough cat’s ear. The leafless stems are long and usually branched, and both stems and leaves exude a milky juice when broken. The generic name, Greek for ‘under (hypo) and (choiros) pig’, refers to pigs being fond of its roots.
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Iris pseudacorus
Yellow water flag
British Columba to California and many other parts of North America
Family Iridaceae
Non-native
When blooming, you cannot miss this plant. Yellow water flag is tall, up to five feet, and its bright, yellow flowers contrast with its deep bluish-green, long, sword-like leaves. The flowers are a typical irregular iris shape, usually growing in clusters. Spreading from short rhizomes, it forms dense assemblages, usually in moist or watery areas. It is a European import, planted as an ornamental, which has escaped, become established, and is now often considered a noxious weed. It is in full bloom during May and June. You can find patches of yellow water flag at the base of the bluff just south of Oceanside, near some freshwater seeps and at the side of the walkway leading from the beach to the Oceanside wayside.
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Jaumea carnosa
Jaumea, salty susan
British Columbia to Baja California
Family Asteraceae
Native
Jaumea is a fleshy plant which thrives in coastal sandy and saline habitats that are periodically flooded at the highest tides. This prostrate plant can be found along the inside of Netarts Bay where it mixes with salt grass (Distichlis) and pickleweed (Salicornia). It is a halophytic, suculent-leaved perennial that spreads by rhizomes. Inflorescences are comprised mostly of yellow disk flowers and short, inconspicuous ray flowers, all subtended by fleshy bracts.
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Lilium columbianum
Tiger lily, Oregon lily, Columbia lily
British Columbia to California
Family Liliaceae
Native
This very striking perennial flower is native to the west coast. Its beautiful, nodding blooms, though not common between the Capes, can be found during June and July in semi-shaded areas in sandy, well drained soils. The tepals, bright orange with dark red spots near their centers, are curled backward. Stems may bear a few to many flowers and successive whorls of lanceolate leaves. Its bulbs were eaten by coastal Native Americans. Hybridization with similar species is common in some areas.
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Lonicera involucrata
Twinberry
Throughout the Western States, Lake States, and much of Canada
Family Caprifoliaceae
Native
Twinberry, also called bearberry honeysuckle, is in the honeysuckle family. Twinberries are very common in the Cape Lookout State Park at the base of Netarts Spit. Unlike their cousins, the climbing and pink honeysuckles which are twining vines and can occur in our area, the twinberry is an erect shrub that may grow to more than twelve feet high. Its paired yellow flowers each have a five-lobed, tubular corolla. The flowers are subtended by a pair of large, green bracts that turn red as the fruits mature into pairs of shiny black berries. These berries are bitter and considered inedible, but their juice has been used as a dye. Its leaves are opposite, they have petioles, and they are rather shiny on top. They drop off in the winter. There are two varieties of twinberries, the coastal var. ledebourii, occurring in coastal Oregon and California, and the mountain var. involucrata, found in all western and the lake states.
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Lotus ulignosus
Large bird’s-foot trefoil, big trefoil
British Columbia to California
Family Fabaceae
Non-native
Also known as L. pedunculatus, this rhizome-spreading perennial is very common along some of our roadsides during June and July. It is a European import that grows west of the Cascade Mountains in Oregon, often in moist areas. Its eight to fifteen bright yellow flowers are arranged in an umbel. Its leaves are compound with five leaflets, the lower two smaller than and pointed somewhat backward from the other three. The stems are hollow. You can find big trefoil in the campground of Cape Lookout State Park and along Netarts Bay Drive.
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Lysichiton americanus
Skunk Cabbage
Alaska to California, other northwest states
Family Araceae
Native
You can tell by the smell! The inflorescence has a pungent odor, as do many members of the Arum family, which attracts insects for pollination. As the common name implies, the odor of skunk cabbage resembles that of skunk. It is a perennial that begins to bloom in March, the flowers often appearing before the leaves. The spadix and spathe are bright yellow. Its leaves are fleshy, hairless and large, the largest of any native plant in the Pacific Northwest. It is common in low elevation, fresh-water wet areas such as bogs, stream banks, the edges of ponds, and saturated fields.
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Matricaria discoidea
Pineapple weed, disk mayweed
Alaska to California, most of North America
Family Asteraceae
Native
Pineapple weed, a common annual that grows along roadsides and disturbed areas, got its name because it smells like pineapple. I found it growing at the wayside parking lot in Oceanside. It has yellow-green, rounded, conical flower heads, up to a half inch across, which consist only of disk flowers, no ray flowers. At the base of each head is a spreading, cup-like involucre. Leaves have deep pinnate divisions, giving them a lacy look. It is native to both North America and Europe. It is also known as Matricaria matricaioides and Chamomilla suaveolens.
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Mimulus guttatus
Common or seep monkey-flower
Alaska to California, most Western States and Canadian Provinces
Family Scrophulariaceae
Native
Walking along the beach just north of Fall Creek between Netarts and Oceanside, you will encounter a vertical cliff of conglomerates - cobbles and boulders embedded in sand-silt matrix. There is a freshwater seep near the top of the cliff that dribbles water year-long down the side of the bluff, and growing in this seep are common monkey-flowers, Mimulus guttatus, also called seep flowers indicating that they prefer seeps, springs, and weeping rock faces. There are many such cliff-face seeps between the Capes where you will find M. guttatus. They have bright yellow irregular flowers - flowers that are bilaterally symmetrical - with red-brown spots in the throat of the larger petal. The paired leaves are oval and notched. The lower leaves have petioles; the upper ones are sessile and clasp the stem. The upper tooth of the calyx is larger than the other teeth as shown in the lower right picture. These plants spread by stolons and rhizomes.
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Oenothera biennis
Common evening primrose
British Columbia to California, many other states and provinces
Family Onagraceae
Non-native
The common evening primrose is a biennial native to the eastern and mid-western United States and Canada, but was introduced into the west, making it non-native to our area. Yellow flowers are arranged in a spike at the end of an erect stem that can be three to four feet high. Each has four petals, a four-lobed stigma that extends beyond the anthers, and four sepals that fold backward when the flower blooms. Flowers are fertilized by moths and butterflies. Leaves are lanceolate and spiral along the stem during the second year. The stem is often reddish. The common evening primrose may hybridize with European cultivars imported to North America. It is often considered invasive.
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Parentucellia viscosa
Yellow parentucellia, yellow glandweed, yellow bartsia, sticky parentucellia
British Columbia to California
Family Scrophulariaceae
Non-native
An annual, introduced from Europe, possibly Mediterranean Europe, Parentucellia viscosa is not a common flower in our area, but where you find it, it is often in patches. It is known to grow in dunes and grassy sites, and I have found it on Netarts Spit. Flowers are yellow, irregular, and arranged in a raceme or spike at the end of an erect, unbranched, stem, up to two feet high. The upper lip of the petals is hooded and the lower lip has three lobes. Sepals are fused, about as long as the floral tube, hairy and sticky. Leaves are opposite, lanceolate with serrated (toothed) margins, and like the sepals are hairy and sticky. They may appear reddish toward the bottom of the stem. Parentucellia viscosa is a semi-parasitic plant, infecting the roots of other plants to gain nutrients. It is considered invasive in many areas.
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Potentilla anserina subsp. pacifica
Silverweed
Alaska to Mexico, other Western and Northern States, Canada
Family Rosaceae
Native
Found in wet areas, especially near the fresh water seeps along the beach between Netarts and Oceanside, Silverweed is another plant that withstands salt spray. Common near beaches and dunes, this low lying perennial spreads laterally by red-colored stolons that reach out and take root. Its bright yellow, five petal flowers and its deeply toothed and pinnately arranged leaflets make this plant hard to miss. Each flower has its own individual peduncle or stalk (a peduncle can be the stalk of an individual flower or an inflorescence; a pedicel is the stalk of an individual flower in an inflorescence). The leaves are silvery-green on their underside, hence the common name. The plant is also known as Argentina anserina.
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Ranunculus repens
Creeping buttercup
Alaska to California, most of North America
Family Ranunculaceae
Non-native
Creeping buttercup, a perennial, is a European import and is considered a noxious weed in most states and provinces. It is poisonous when fresh, though the toxins are destroyed when the plant is dried or cooked. It can grow in a variety of soils from sand to clay, but it prefers sunny areas. It is common in lawns, gardens, along roadsides, and in fields. It spreads by creeping stolons. Flowers are bright yellow with five (sometimes more) shiny petals and many stamens. Leaves are dark green, hairy and divided into three lobed and toothed leaflets. Crushed fresh plants have an acrid juice that can blister skin.
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Senecio jacobaea
Tansy ragwort
British Columbia to California, other northeastern states and provinces
Family Asteraceae
Non-native
Tansy ragwort, a pest weed from Europe, has become firmly established in the Pacific Northwest and in some great lake and northeastern states where it was first introduced. It is a poisonous invader that has killed livestock and is classified as a noxious weed in Oregon, Washington and Idaho. It thrives west of the Cascades, and is now entering eastern Oregon. It is a biennial or short-lived perennial that appears in our area in June and only blooms after its second year in late July and August. It is an erect plant two to six feet tall with reddish stems and deeply cut leaves. Clumps of bright yellow composite inflorescences with both ray and disk flowers make this a visually attractive plant. It is aggressive and readily invades disturbed areas, road sides, grazed fields, sand dunes, and clear-cut forest land. There are attempts at biological control by the introduction of natural enemies.
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Senecio sylvaticus
Woodland groundsel, woodland ragwort
British Columbia to California, some eastern states and provinces
Family Asteraceae
Non-native
Another European import, woodland groundsel has flower heads the resemble those of Australian fireweed, Erechtites minima in that ray flowers are highly reduced, and the heads are subtended by a tube of bracts. Unlike E. minima, its leaves are deeply pinnately lobed, toothed, and pubescent, giving them a gray cast. It has a long taproot. It grows well in the Pacific Northwest’s cool climate, especially along the coast. It inhabits disturbed areas, such as logged sites and roadsides.
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Solidago canadensis and Solidago simplex
Canada Goldenrod and Dune Goldenrod (respectively)
British Columbia to California
Family Asteraceae
Native
You can find at least two goldenrods between the Capes, the Canada golden rod (Solidago canadensis) and the dune goldenrod (Solidago simplex subsp. spathulata). The easiest way to distinguish between them is their leaves. The leaves of S. canadensis are long, lanceolate, with saw-toothed edges, and they appear on the mid or upper stem, not the base. Those of S. simplex are spatulate, rounded on the end like an old fashioned spatula. Not only are the ends rounded but they are serrate, notched, and the largest leaves are on the basal part of the stem.
The flower heads of both plants are composites, with both ray and disk flowers colored yellow, arranged in a panicle, a branched inflorescence with younger flowers at the apex or center.
The Canada goldenrod (there are at least five varieties) grows throughout Canada and most of the U.S. except a few southern states and Hawaii. It is an opportunistic species, favoring disturbed areas such as roadsides, and burned areas. It likes sun and moist soil. The leaves and seeds are considered edible by some, and tea can be made from the leaves. It is also medicinal. It is reputed to be used as a styptic, an antiseptic, and for kidney and urinary disorders. It is also a source of nectar for honey bees.
According to the USDA, S. simplex subsp. spathulata is found only in Oregon and California, but other references place it in Washington and British Columbia as well. Also called Mt. Albert goldenrod and the sticky goldenrod, this variety thrives on coastal dunes. It leaves and the bracts on the flower heads are often sticky, and its leaves may have a varnished appearance.
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Sonchus asper
Prickly sow thistle, spiny sow thistle
Alaska to California, most of North America
Family Asteraceae
Non-native
Native to Europe, this spiny-leafed, annual plant inhabits roadsides, fields, clear cuts, and other disturbed sites in our area. Its yellow flower heads, with long peduncles, are arranged in a terminal cluster and consist entirely of ray flowers. Each flower head is subtended by an involucre. Leaves are alternate, lanceolate with shallow lobes, very spiny margins, and clasping ear-shaped lobes that fold around the stem. Plants may grow to over three feet high. They bloom in the spring and summer. The fruit, an achene, has a pappus that allows it to be spread by the wind.
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Streptopus amplexifolius
Clasping twisted stalk, large twisted stalk
Alaska to Northern California, much of North America
Family Liliaceae
Native
Clasping twisted stalk is easy to recognize by its kinked stems and its clasping leaves. It grows in moist wooded areas and can be found along the Cape Lookout trails. Its pendent, bell-shaped flowers, each with four greenish yellow to greenish white tepals and six stamens, are suspended from the leaf nodes by a thin, bent peduncle. Leaves are broadly lanceolate, alternate, and they clasp the stem. Veins are parallel, radiating from the base of the leaf toward its tip.. Stems are angled at each leaf node, giving a twisted appearance. Berries are bright red, edible, with a sweet cucumber-like flavor, but they can act as a laxative.
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Tanacetum camphoratum
Dune tansy
Southern British Columbia to California
Family Asteraceae
Native
A perennial member of the aster family that hugs the coastline is the dune tansy, Tanacetum camphoratum. It is listed in Pojar and MacKinnion as T. bipinnatum. But T. bipinnnatum, by most sources is the Lake Huron tansy, native to some of the Great Lake states, southeastern Canada, and Maine, but not Oregon. Tanacetum camphoratum gets its specific name because its leaves have a distinct camphor smell. It grows mostly in sand dunes near the shore. Its yellow inflorescence is arranged in clusters, sometimes rather flat-topped, each individual composite about three-fourths of an inch across. Its ray flowers are both short and stubby or absent. Most of the composite is made up of disk flowers. Its leaves are bipinnately divided, giving them a lacy look. It can be found in sandy areas on Netarts Spit and just south of Oceanside, where the plant blankets the lower hillside, turning it a dull yellow.
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Taraxacum officinale subsp. officinale
Common dandelion
Almost all of North America
Family Asteraceae
Non-native
The common dandelion (the name is derived from the French dent de lion meaning “lion’s tooth” which refers to the toothed leaf) was introduced from Europe and has spread throughout the temperate world. It grows in fields, lawns, driveways, roadsides, and other disturbed sites from low to middle elevations elevations. Its inflorescence is solitary, consisting of bright yellow ray flowers, and is similar in appearance to many other dandelion-like species. Seeds are distributed by the wind. Stems are hollow, exuding a milky juice when broken. Leaves, arranged in a basal rosette, are hairless and usually deeply toothed, but are variable in shape. It has a long taproot.
Dandelions, including flowers, leaves, and roots, are edible and nutritious. There are many websites for dandelion recipes, such as these two:
http://www.mountain-breeze.com/kitchen/dandelions/
http://www.prodigalgardens.info/dandelion%20recipes.htm
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Trifolium dubium
Small hop clover, suckling clover, least hop trefoil, yellow shamrock
Alaska to California, most of North America
Family Fabaceae
Non-native
Small hop clover is an annual, mat-forming invasive, native to Africa, Asia, and Europe. It lives in well-lighted, disturbed areas, such as road sides, lawns, gardens, vacant lots, fields, logged sites, and in wetlands. It grows little more than six inches high, and it blooms during spring and early summer. Flower heads are yellow and small, less than one-fourth inch in diameter. Leaves are trifoliate (with three leaflets), pinnately veined, with serrated edges, and short petioles. Like most legumes, it has nitrogen-fixing root nodules that bind nitrogen to soils.
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Verbascum blattaria
Moth mullein
British Columbia to California, much of North America
Family Scrophulariaceae
Non-native
Moth mullein in another European native that has become naturalize in North America. It typically inhabits fields and roadsides and other disturbed areas, but I have found it on the inside shore of Netarts Spit above the high tide line. Flowers begin as button-like buds arranged in a loose terminal spike. When open, they are yellow, sometimes white, with purple centers and stamens, and have the appearance of moths. Leaves are alternate, shaped like arrowheads, notched on the edges, and sessile without a petiole. Basal leaves may be lobed. Sepals and the upper stems are hairy.
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Viola sempervirens
Evergreen violet, redwood violet
Alaska to California
Family Violaceae
Native
The evergreen violet is indeed evergreen; the leaves persisting through winter. It is native to the Pacific coast, growing best in partly shaded coniferous forest. It can be found here along the trails at Cape Meares and Cape Lookout. Its yellow, irregular, five-petaled blooms appear in March. The lower petal is broader than the other four, and each is adorned with narrow red lines. The peduncle is reddish. Leaves are broadly heart-shaped with notched edges. The plants are rhizomatous and can spread by stolons to form loose mats. Also called the redwood violet, it is very common in California’s redwood forest.
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