Plant Stories

An outlier from many of our Sierra Nevadan Pines, P. monophylla is often more at home among the vast desert skies than the towering mountain ridges. Despite being a common occurrence throughout the eastern and southern range, they tend to prefer hanging along the edges where vegetation is slightly more sparse, rarely drawing attention to themselves. However, venture out into the adjacent Great Basin Desert and you can find entire forests of these pines, often mixed with vario

We’ve been neck-deep inf berry season for the last few months and we still can’t get enough! Seems like every outing this time of year is governed by where we might be able to find the largest bounty. While generally we’ve focused on the tastiest of the mountains, today’s medals in quite a different category. Also known as the “Buttcrack Berry” (full disclosure…I might have made that name up), Actaea rubra is, in spite of it’s showy berries, a relatively uncommon sight in the

Second place is the first loser…right? While we absolutely love our Hyssop tea, each year, we notice this herb is always coming in slightly behind it’s shorter, slightly tastier, easier-to-harvest cousin Monardella / Coyote Mint. Our first encounter with this plant many years ago was also marked by minor disappointment. Walking along a stream around 2500m, my wife noticed some young Stinging Nettle further on down the path. However, as we approached, we realized that although

What can I say, we got love for the outcasts! Much like our namesake the Trashpanda, these little guys are often seen as a nuisance (despite their native status). Given their preference for disturbed areas, they tend to be human-followers; often found along highway shoulders and frequently traversed trails.   Their showy yellow inflorescences shine brightly upon their resinous, curly cups (recurved bracts, called phyllaries, on their involucres) which enclose the flower heads

Not sure if there is a fruit that more exemplifies the end of summer for us than these beautiful berries. Although typically growing below 6 m, have plants pushing 10 m and others that seem completely content living their life at human eye-level within a few minutes walk of our homestead.   Often enjoying a riparian habitat, these plants are often growing in thickets close to, but not on, the water’s edge. While they are sometimes seen as high as 3,000m and all the way down t

Throughout the summer, these brightly colored wildflowers are always a treat when traversing our open woodlands and forests. A moment of respite amongst the often-dense canopy.  One of the easiest ways to to distinguish these native Sierra Nevadan Thistles from the numerous invasive counterparts is their relatively slender stature. Their singular or several stems rising only 1-3’ from a taproot. Lower leaves are typically 4-8”, green adaxially (above) and gray-hairy abaxially

While these grow plentifully in our home garden and farm, there is nothing quite like seeing these in the wild. An ethereal perennial, they rise 5-80cm along a glabrous stem. Their inconspicuous linear to lanceolate leaves give them an unassuming, if not unkept initial appearance. However, once their gorgeous flowers appear, it’s an entirely different presentation.   Their delicate and beautiful pale-blue hue stands out from adjacent wildflowers and is easily recognizable fro

If you’ve spent any amount of time wandering the summertime Sierra Nevada, it’s almost a certainty you’ve seen these beautiful, alien-like floral masterpieces. This perennial can be seen as tall as 150cm, though typically only half that or less, along glabrous and glaucous stems. They elegantly rise above both basal and cauline leaves. The lower cauline generally 2-ternate with the upper leaves generally simple to deeply 3-lobed. The nodding flowers are made up of 5 red sepa

Whew, look at those anthers! While blue tends to be the most common color round these parts, they can also be found in a more muted white, to cream to yellow. Topping out at just under a meter tall (though usually much shorter), these often dainty flowers hold the common name of “Prettyface” which, I must say, is absolutely appropriate. The color-scheme is on point! A common sight along our Sierra Nevadan forests, one first takes note of the stunning golden flowers with a bol

Any plant with the common name “Locoweed” is either one you want to stay far away from…or use to attain transcendence into some ethereal higher realm. Astragalus are a genus of dichotomy, while perhaps most well-known for their toxicity, especially to livestock; they have a long history of ethnobotanical use and certain species remain both culturally and commercially important to humans. The genus name was used by Dioscorides and is derived from the classical Greek word  astr

There is an Alaskan saying that, “When the weed turns to cotton, summer is forgotten”. In our early romps in the woods, we were always similarly taught that the blooming of the first Fireweed marks the beginning of Summer and that once the final flowers began to wither, fall was then upon us. This showy plant grows from 1-6’ and is often very strongly colonial. We frequently encounter locations with hundreds if not thousands of plants growing closely together. The leaves are

Ahhhhh, its almost Serviceberry season! While I used to simply regard them as a placeholder for blueberries, finding more-tasty individual bushes in the wild (they can be hit or miss) and growing our own has been a game-changer. The easiest way to distinguish a Sierran Serviceberry between the plethora of other forest shrubbery are their unique leaves. Simple and mostly entire, abruptly switching it up at roughly the halfway mark to serrated edges. They take the form of mult

The other day, while wandering around before a walk led by the magnificent @mountainsongmedicine, I found myself straddling the margins between a beautiful meadow and the comforting forest. As I meandered along the flora, I began to notice the most intense scent surrounding me. I’m embarrassed to admit it took me far too long before I actually realized it was the plants below which were the source.  Coyote Mint may very well hold the title of most fragrant in the Sierra Nevad

If there has been one thing I’ve taken from @Bluewindschool (although lets be real, I’ve learned a lot); it’s the absolute importance of learning one’s local toxic and deadly plants. Especially when those toxic plants might have edible or medicinal look-similars. So with that said, lets meet Apocynum / Dogbane. Here in the Sierra Nevada, we have two species, the Spreading Apocynum androsaemifolium and the Hemp Apocynum cannabinum. Between the two, the main difference is growi

One of my new favorite onions. On a recent hike to search for Morels, we were met with our first true failure of the year…encountering only 3 dried and crispy specimens despite pulling nearly 10# out from the same location a week before. Water truly is life. However, in addition to a couple other wildflowers, these new-to-me onions came about as close to redemption as one might hope. What separates these from the plethora of other Allium spp. in our neck of the woods is their

One of the Sierra Nevada’s most stunning genera of flowers, Calochortus spp. are a common sight throughout the entire mountain range (and beyond). They are a true North American classic, with their nearly 80 species having a broad range from central Canada in the north to the very southern tips of Mexico and then traveling east from California until it fizzles out around the Great Plains. Their stems are generally erect and branched, with bulblets in the axils of the lower le

Another addition to the brethren of berries, the Sierra Gooseberry is easily a top 5 berry in the Sierra Nevada. While you’ve got to be a bit masochistic (or prepared) to enjoy them, the taste is perhaps only rivaled by our Rubus parviflorus / Thimble Berries. The latter of which we almost never beat the bears to. The first thing you notice about this plant are the spines; often immediately after being stabbed by them. These spines are also what differentiate it from the othe

If there is one thing that our spring wildflowers here in the Sierra Nevada have in common, it’s their unbelievable aesthetics. Sometimes I feel like we are picking a new favorite flower weekly! A common inhabitant of our spring meadows, Camassia are beautiful in photos and absolutely stunning in person. Someone really knew what they were doing when they developed this color scheme! Inflorescence (flower clusters) are a long raceme of a dozen or more flowers which range up to

While the plants themselves are often overshadowed by their service to the Monarch Butterfly, these Milkweeds are quite noteworthy in their own right, hosting a plethora of edible and medicinal qualities while being some of the most ‘showy’ flowers out there. Perennial herbs spreading through rhizomes, they hold opposite, typically ovate-shaped leaves which clasp the erect, non-branching stems. Their flowers are nothing short of gorgeous. Positioned within an inflorescence of

Being the first plant I learned in the Sierra Nevada, Ceanothus prostratus has always held a special place in my heart. Recently arrived from Hawai’i, I mistakenly took it to reference the Hawaiian word for umbrella with the same English spelling. It would be many years before I found out it’s supposedly based upon the Northern California Yokut word for woman (although I have heard that to be inaccurate as well!). Whatever it’s origins, at least the mat portion is correct c