Wildflower Hike on Bohemia Mountain, Western Oregon Cascades
July 2, 2002, photos and text by Louise Parsons
Page Two

	Candelabras of pumpkin-orange Lilium columbianum greet visitors along roadsides and in clearings in early July. There are places where they grow so thick that you might think that they were planted. The road from Cottage Grove to Bohemia Mountain has some nice stands.
	Delphinium menziesii grow among Cystopteris fragilis. The fragile fern is quite tough when it comes to habitat. It is similar to lady fern in looks, if not size, but has much less hair on the stipes, or frond stems.
	Another rock-hugger, Lupinus albifrons, has silky foliage and dense flowers.
	Lupinus lepidus has more isolated flower heads, but also has an affinity for rocky areas.
	To the right you can see the snowy-white bloom of Allium amplectens growing on thin soil on the upper planar rock surface. The white flowers in the foreground are yarrow. Slim-leaf Onion is also shown above in detail
	Phlox diffusa, another rock plant, finds a cool, yet bright spot.
	Polypodium hesperium is a small licorice fern found in moist rock crevices. It is slow-growing, with fronds only a couple of inches long. Native peoples chewed the roots of licorice ferns as a throat medicine.
	Maianthemum recemosum (Smilacina racemosa) grows in lush proportions on Bohemia with more exposure than usual.
	As shoots of Veratrum viride emerge, the new leaves are beautifully-pleated.
	Here it is July and we find nice clusters of fresh Trillium ovatum. What a difference a few-thousand feet of elevation makes. We found one four-leaved trillium with no flower. I wonder if it will eventually produce a double flower.
	There is plenty of Gilia or Skyrocket, Ipomopsis aggregata, in bloom. The rich cluster of buds is as attractive as the full blooms. It is a biennial. However, it may (in some years) germinate in the fall and bloom the following spring. For best germination, rub the seeds briskly to remove the stringy, then powdery, coats.
	We only explored a tiny fraction of the natural rock gardens. Fred was adept with both his climbing and his camera. He is about to take a close-up of Penstemon rupicola. In this area P. rupicola and P. cardwellii were growing together. P. rupicola displays quite a variation in both bloom color and leaf forms. One can suspect natural hybridization in this situation.
	Sometimes confused with paintbrush, Orthocarpus imbricatus is an annual. I especially enjoyed seeing Owl clover amongst Artimisia ludoviciana.

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