Forest, Overcast

Here in the Pacific Northwest we enjoy many days with overcast skies. Cloudy, grey, and gorgeous, overcast days are my favorites second only to rainy days, or maybe snowy days.

I live just a hop across the Hood Canal, east of the Olympic Peninsula. Our local forests may not be quite as luscious as the Hoh Rainforest out near the Pacific Ocean, but we nonetheless enjoy the many benefits of hugging the Olympic foothills. We receive morning Hood Canal mist in summer, rogue snowstorms rolling off the mountains in winter, and righteous rainfalls throughout the seasons which transform all surfaces into a sort of omnitransversant riverscape.

Last week we had a lovely visit from a spring snowstorm which unloaded five inches of snow in five hours. If I hadn’t been so busy having fun and attending to the usual shoveling and wood prep, I would have grabbed some pictures to share.



Instead I offer these images from this evening’s overcast skies. Notice the Black cottonwood quietly leafing out in yellow-green (close-ups to follow). It’s been a bright day in western Washington – too bright for shade-lovers like me. I give thanks to the clouds that rolled in at sunset. Tonight’s clouds allow us to glimpse a cross-section of the local colors I cherish: silver-grey, chalk-white, black-evergreen, periwinkle, gold, dusty lavender and rose.


Our blushing flower guest today is Purple dead-nettle (Lamium purpureum), a member of the mint family which is introduced in this region. According to Plants of the Pacific Northwest Coast (one of the best books ever), the name "dead-nettle" refers to its quality of not stinging like other nettles. I encourage Purple dead-nettle and Self-Heal (Prunella vulgaris), both members of the Lamiaceae family, to grow along pathways, driveways, and places where nothing else wants to grow.

I’d say it’s among favorite flowers, but then I’d be leaving out hundreds of others, many whose names I do not yet know (and some whom I probably have not yet met). This evening I invite you to carefully inspect the ground: look at sidewalk cracks, park paths, and “weeds” in the lawn. Take notice of the tiny flowers, some smaller than the nail on your pinky finger. These flowers serve an important purpose (more than one, I might argue), and if you listen quietly, you might hear it.

* * * * *

Festival of the Trees updates:

The Festival of the Trees 46 is now online at Vanessa's Trees and Shrubs Blog on About.com. Enjoy her fruitful collection of trees both humorous and serious all month long.

Jasmine will host The Festival of the Trees 47 at the Nature’s Whispers blog in celebration of May Day.

• Deadline for submissions is April 28th.
• Participation is easy: blog about trees, send us the link, spread the word!
• Email submissions to: dream.lizard [at] googlemail [dot] com — or use The Festival of the Trees contact form at the coordinating blog.

Spring Greetings from Kitsap Forests

Spring Salutations and Fall Felicitations to all!

Trees in the Pacific Northwest are blooming, and in the cold forests of Kitsap County our deciduous trees are slowly awakening.

Wild willow hybrids (Salix) are early with fuzzy pussywillow flowers. Today you can smell hints of the balsam perfume of the Black cottonwood (Populus balsamifera spp. trichocarpa) drifting through on the breeze. Evergreen huckleberries (Vaccinium ovatum), an important year-round food source for birds and beasts of all kinds, have already begun to blossom.


Red alder (Alnus rubra) trees are among the first to wiggle open here in the spring warmth. The “red” of their appellation is best revealed in spring when the twigs, buds, and catkin flowers all blush with the rise of sap and the stir of March storms. Alders are a hearty pioneering species which help establish good growing conditions for other plant species in the forest.

We have a healthy stand of young alders (10+ years) which grew over the part of the property which was originally clear-cut. Today they are home to birds, frogs, mice, snakes, bunnies, bees, and plenty of other critters (and there’s an awesome blackberry thicket producing in the middle).

Spring days are patchworks of rain, cloud, wind, thunder, and sudden, bright sunbreaks. It’s the right time of year for rainbow watching, so if you see sun, rain, and black clouds in the early morning or late afternoon, I highly recommend that you step away from your desk, go outside, and search the sky for fleeting arcs of color.

Want more spring trees and flowers? Take a look at spring blossoms in eastern Pennsylvania from March 2006 and March 2007.

* * *

REMINDER: The Festival of the Trees issue 46 is hosted at Vanessa’s Trees and Shrubs Blog on About.com.

Vanessa invites submissions of all kinds, and is especially interested in humorous trees in honor of April Fool's Day.

• Deadline for submissions is March 29th.
• Participation is easy: blog about trees, send us the link, spread the word!
• Email submissions to: treesandshrubs.guide [at] about [dot] com — or use the contact form at The Festival of the Trees coordinating blog.

Black Cottonwood in Autumn Gold

It’s taken me a few years to identify the Black cottonwood tree (Populus balsamifera spp. trichocarpa), also known as the Balsam poplar or Tacamahacca.

Shown here in its autumn glory of brilliant yellow, the Black cottonwood bears dark, green, glossy leaves in summer. I first began to notice these trees as small saplings with large, sticky buds. They seemed to disappear among the alders and evergreens in the summer, but in the winter and spring they stick out as strange, naked twigs... with big buds.



It wasn’t until the emergent individuals in our yard grew tall (7-8 meters among our tallest) and strong (on the fruits of the septic tank drain field) when I realized they might be related to poplars. Why? Because the leaves have a wonderful back-and-forth flutter in the wind, much like an aspen. They're especially audible with a nice summer breeze.



Poplar, aspen, cottonwood, and willow trees are all classified in the willow family, Salicaceae. My real breakthrough in identifying this tree came not from The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Trees (whose many varieties daunted me) but from my newest book: Plants of the Pacific Northwest Coast.

Not only does this book cover hundreds of plants which I recognize by sight and smell, but it also includes detailed descriptions for each plant beyond physiology and identification. According to Plants of the Pacific Northwest Coast, the gum, leaves, inner bark, and other parts of the Black cottonwood tree have traditionally been used in food, medicine and craft by many Native American people from this region.


I purchased Plants of the Pacific Northwest Coast when I was buying the Washington and Oregon Recreational Pass including the America the Beautiful: National Parks and Federal Recreational Lands Annual Pass. I stocked up on these critical tools for my November West Coast road trip, for which I will be departing shortly. Stay tuned for tree blogging from Washington, Oregon, and California.