Eastern Columbia River Gorge Wildflower Bloom: February 4, 2009

The photo above shows the view towards Mt. Adams (left), Mt. Rainier (center) and the Goat Rocks (right) from the crest of the Columbia Hills. Despite patches of snow, south-facing slopes even at this elevation had some desert parsleys and phlox trying to bloom. Photographed..................February 4, 2009.

Today the weather was in the low 60s in Portland and high 40s in The Dalles. There was quite a bit of petrochemical smog in the Columbia River Gorge from Hood River east, obscuring everything below 2000'. On south-facing slopes above 2000', the smog was absent, there was a lot of sun, an abscence of wind, and nice hiking in shirt-sleeves. I should point out that mornings in the east end of the gorge are still quite frosty which still limits plant growth and flowering.

I came across one flowering species in bloom in Oregon. This was the pungent desert parsley (Lomatium grayi) which were blooming on steep rocky slopes along the old highway between the Chenoweth Exit and the Gorge Discovery Center. On the Washington side of the river, the following species could be found in bloom:

Grass Widows: Olsynium douglasii - As of the moment, there is no sign that our other grass widow (Olsynium inflatum) is in bloom yet.

Salt and Pepper: Lomatium piperi - (the other salt and pepper: Lomatium gormanii may also have been in bloom at higher elevations but I wasn't checking each plant seen to confirm this.)

Hood's Phlox: Phlox hoodii - I believe this is about one month earlier than I have previously seen this species in bloom in the Columbia River Gorge.

In addition, there are many plants with fresh leaves coming out of the ground including prairie stars (Lithophragma sp.), lupines (Lupinus arbustus or Lupinus bingensis?), the small annual mustards that are typically early bloomers, western saxifrage (Saxifraga occidentalis) and northwestern saxifrage (Saxifraga allenii), and Lomatium macrocarpum.

Hopefully, we will see a return to cooler and wetter weather soon to prolong the winter weather so some of the more sensitive plants won't be knocked out by hard freezes in March and early April as they were several years ago.

These 3 photos show 3 of the species seen in flower on February 4, 2009. From left to right are Hood's phlox (Phlox hoodii), obscure buttercup (Ranunculus trisectus) and grass widow (Olsynium douglasii). Click each photo to see an enlarged view (2-3x).