Plants found in the vicinity of the Railroad Bridge Park and the Dungeness River Natural History Center

A Preliminary List provided by trip leader Diane Doss for an April 1998 Field Trip of the Washington Native Plant Society, Olympic Peninsula Chapter.

PART 1: NATIVE VASCULAR PLANTS

Coniferous Trees
Common Name	Scientific Name	Comments
Douglas fir	Pseudotsuga menziesii	Cigar-shaped buds
Grand fir	Abies Grandis	Shiny dark flat needles
Western hemlock	Tsuga heterophylla	Shade-tolerant, drooping tip
Western redcedar	Thuja plicata	Bark peels in strips
Pacific yew	Taxus brevifolia	Uncommon, slow-growing
Deciduous Trees
Common Name	Scientific Name	Comments
Red alder	Alnus rubra	Early-succession, N-fixing
Bitter cherry	Prunus emarginata	Occasional
Black cottonwood	Populus trichocarpa	Fragments sprout in riverbed
Bigleaf maple	Acer macrophyllum	Sun & shade
Shrubs
Common Name	Scientific Name	Comments
Pacific blackberry	Rubus ursinus	Small native blackberry
Blackcap	Rubus leucodermis	Black raspberry
Oregon boxwood	Pachistima myrsinites	Slow growing groundcover
Red-flowering currant	Ribes sanguineum	Long-blooming beauty
Red-osier dogwood	Cornus stolonifera	Red stems
Blue elderberry	Sambucus cerulea
Red elderberry	Sambucus racemosa
Coast black gooseberry	Ribes divaricatum
Hazelnut	Corulus cornuta
Orange honeysuckle	Lonicera ciliosa	Our native vine; hummingbirds
Douglas maple	Acer glabrum
Mockorange	Philadelphus lewisii	Uncommon; one in N parking lot
Ocean spray	Holodiscus discolor	Great little-bird food
Dull Oregongrape	Berberis nervosa	Common, short, 9-19 leaflets
Shining Oregongrape	Berberis aquifolium	Tall, 5-9 leaflets
Osoberry (Indian plum)	Oemleria cerasiformis	Earliest blooming shrub
Baldhip rose	Rosa gymnocarpa	Tiny roses, small spines
Nootka rose	Rosa nutkana	Thorny
	Gaultheria shallon	Outstanding groundcover
Salmonberry	Rubus spectabilis	First ripe berry
Snowberry	Symphoricarpos albus	White berries all winter
Thimbleberry	Rubus parviflorus	White papery rose-flowers
Scouler's willow	Salix scouleri
Sitka willow	Salix sitchensis	Underleaves are silky
Ferns & Horsetails
Common Name	Scientific Name	Comments
Bracken fern	Pteridium aquilinum	Open
Lady fern	Athyrium filix-femina	Wet areas
Spreading wood-fern	Dryopteris austriaca	Dry, shady
Sword fern	Polystichum munitum	Our most common fern
Common horsetail	Equisetum arvense	Open
Giant horsetail	Equisetum telmateia	Moist, shady; large
Herbs
Common Name	Scientific Name	Comments
Baneberry	Actaea rubra
Bedstraw	Galium sp.
Fragrant bedstraw	Galium triflorum
Bleeding-heart	Dicentra formosa
Large-flowered collomia	Collomia grandiflora	Riverbed
Coltsfoot	Petasites frigidus	Moist
Fireweed	Epilobium augustifolium
Goatsbeard	Aruncus sylvester
Goldenrod	Solidago canadensis
Cooley's hedgenettle	Stachys cooleyae	"stinky" mint
Miner's lettuce	Montia perfoliata
Mitrewort	Mitella sp.
Common monkeyflower	Mimulus guttatus	Moist
Musky monkeyflower (?)	Mimulus moschatus (?)	Moist
Pearly everlasting	Anaphalis margaritacea
Stinging nettle	Urtica dioica
Phacelia	Phacelia sp.	"washdown" from mountains
Piggy-back plant	Tolmiea menziesii	"Youth-on-age"; houseplant
Dewey's sedge	Carex deweyana	Forest
Self-heal	Prunella vulgaris
False solomon's-seal	Smilacina racemosa
Starry solomon's-seal	Smilacina stellata
Western springbeauty	Montia sibirica
Western starflower	Trientalis latifolia
Strawberry	Fragaria sp.
Wooly sunflower	Eriophyllum lanatum	Dry, open
Trail-plant	Adenocaulon bicolor	White leaf undersides
Trillium	Trillium ovatum	Picking leaves may kill plant
Nodding trisetum	Trisetum cernuum	A grass of the forest
Twinflower	Linnaea borealis	E'green groundcover; honeysuckle family
Vanilla leaf	Achlys triphylla
Slender-stem waterleaf	Hydrophyllum tenuipes	Moist
Willowherb	Epilobium sp.
Watson's willowherb	Epilobium watsonii
Small-flowered woodrlush	Luzula parviflora
Yarrow	Achillea millefolium

PART 2: NON-NATIVE SPECIES

Shrubs
Common Name	Scientific Name	Comments
Evergreen blackberry	Rubus laciniatus
Himalaya blackberry	Rubus discolor
Butterfly bush	Buddleja davidii
Scot's broom	Cytisus scoparius
Tree lupine	Lupinus arboreus
Herbs
Common Name	Scientific Name	Comments
Alfalfa	Medicago sativa
Catchfly	Silene alba or vulgaris
Comfrey	Symphytum sp.
Creeping buttercup	Ranunculus repens
Dandelion	Taraxacum officinale
Hairy cat's-ear	Hypochaeris radicata
Dutch clover	Trifolium repens
Least hop-clover	Trifolium dubium
Creeping charlie	Glecoma hederacea
Oxeye daisy	Chrysanthemum leucanthemum
Curly dock	Rumex crispus
Forget-me-not	Myosotis spp.
Foxglove	Digitalis purpurea
Herb Robert	Geranium robsertianum	Shade-tolerant; serious threat to forest communities
Giant knotweed	Polygonum sachalinense
Japanese knotweed	Polygonum cuspidatum
Wall lettuce	Lactuca muralis
Nipplewort	Lapsana communis
Orchardgrass	Dactylis glomerata
Common plantain	Plantago major
English plantain	Plantago lanceolata
Queen Anne's lace	Daucus carota
Sowthistle	Sonchus ar
White sweetclover	Meliotus alba
Bull thistle	Cirsium
Canada thistle	Cirsium arvense var. horridum
Velvet grass	Holcus lanatus

End-Notes:

1. Scientific Names are from Hitchcock & Cronquist, 1973 - see reference below.
2. Many of the plants on the native plants list above are delightful in the landscape - see Kruckeberg reference below.

Editors' Note: Notations of edible plants that were included on the WNPS field trip list have been omitted from this web-site list. Persons not expert at plant identification should be cautious regarding edible plant materials as some, for example some attractive red berries, are reportedly highly toxic.

References:

Hitchcock & Cronquist. 1973. Flora of the Pacific Northwest. University of Washington Press, Seattle.
Kruckeberg, A. R., 1982. Gardening with Native Plants of the Pacific Northwest. University of Washington Press, Seattle.
Mathews, Daniel, 1988. Cascade-Olympic Natural History. Raven Editions/Portland Audubon Society, Portland.
Pojar, J. & A. MacKinnon. 1994. Plants of the Pacific Northwest Coast. British Columbia Ministry of Forests & Lone Pine Publishing, Vancouver, B. C.

For additional plants exhibits see also Pat Holden's 1991 Plant Survey and Steve Koehler's "Trees of the Dungeness".