Here's a very cool native plant in the Pacific Northwest. Anyone want to guess?
Replies
Bear grass!
mar 14, 2025, 5:10 am • 3 0 • view
Bingo! Good job. A close up view of Xerophyllum tenax.
mar 14, 2025, 1:46 pm • 1 0 • view
We live on a mountain at about 750' in western Oregon, and planted some young X. tenax last year at our place. Their small leaves are very narrow, but they are starting to put on some new growth in the past month. I hope to see them become more robust as time goes on. I enjoy watching them grow!
mar 15, 2025, 12:29 am • 1 0 • view
Put this title in Google Scholar for this paper that studied Xerophyllum tenax and Chimaphila umbellata (prince's pine). Belowground morphology and population dynamics of two forest understory herbs of contrasting growth forms. utoronto.scholaris.ca/server/api/c...
mar 15, 2025, 8:43 am • 1 0 • view
I'll check this out. One of the authors was a professor in my dept. (botany) at OSU.
mar 15, 2025, 3:26 pm • 1 0 • view
Bear grass plants can be very old. One has been estimated at 90 years old!
mar 15, 2025, 8:48 am • 1 0 • view
Wow, that's great to know! I have seen many well established stands of them in the Oregon Cascades and they are often in fairly undisturbed areas, so I've wondered about their longevity. They are so beautiful in flower!
mar 15, 2025, 3:21 pm • 1 0 • view
Bear grass.
mar 14, 2025, 12:52 pm • 1 0 • view
ahaha! You did good too. Of course! It's a close up view of Xerophyllum tenax.
mar 14, 2025, 1:47 pm • 1 0 • view
🙋🏻♀️
mar 14, 2025, 5:07 am • 2 0 • view
Death Camas?
mar 14, 2025, 3:51 pm • 0 0 • view
You are in the right area of the alphabet AND in the correct family (Lily...er, Melanthiaceae). Below is Zygadenus venosus, or one of the death camas species. 😀
mar 14, 2025, 7:55 pm • 1 0 • view