May Flower Friends
By Selena Eon, IATC Board Member
May is the start of Peak Flower Season in the Issaquah Alps. Wildflowers are particularly engaging and fun for beginners to identify. If you missed the April issue of the Alpiner, you might enjoy learning about three other common spring blooms we featured: trillium, violets, and Siberian miner’s lettuce. This month, we are focusing on three more favorites: Pacific Bleeding Heart, Twinflower, and Salmonberry.
All photos below are courtesy of Selena Eon.
Pacific Bleeding Heart (Dicentra formosa)
Also known as "Steer’s Head," this beautiful, showy flower thrives in forests throughout the Alps. Bleeding Heart can grow up to 18 inches tall and 24 inches wide. Its distinctive pouch-shaped flowers resemble either a heart or a steer’s head, with pink to purple blooms appearing in clusters of 5–15 at the tops of fleshy, leafless stems.
Peak bloom is happening right now! Its delicate, feathery leaves can resemble the naturalized—but non-native—Stinky Bob (Herb Robert). However, when in flower, the two are easy to tell apart. After blooming, you’ll notice seed pods forming beneath the flowers. Bleeding Heart readily self-seeds and goes dormant underground during the fall and winter, though in warmer autumns it may reemerge and bloom again. Several garden-adapted varieties of the Bleeding Heart exist, offering a range of colors but the same signature shape.
Bleeding heart flower
Bleeding heart leaves
Bleeding heart in deep pink
Twinflower (Linnaea borealis)
This plant is circumboreal, meaning it grows across northern latitudes around the globe. This plant was a favourite of Carl Linnaeus, founder of the modern system of binomial nomenclature, after whom the genus was named. Twinflower is also my personal favorite native flower. I have a few patches that I seek out every spring when I think they might be in bloom.
Twinflower grows in small, low mats with rich green 1 cm leaves. Due to its need for cross-pollination and its limited seed dispersal, Twinflower often grows in isolated spots rather than widespread colonies. These low mats appear in early spring and are often found near violets (featured in April’s Alpiner), though Twinflower blooms slightly later. Most years, our local Twinflower blooms in May, sending up tiny ¼-½ inch pink, bell-shaped flowers on upright 3-inch stems. Look for it in moist, shady forests with dappled sunlight.
Twinflower mat
Twinflower
Twinflower in habitat
Salmonberry (Rubus spectabilis)
Salmonberry blooms are a showy hot pinky-purple with five petals, about 1” across, growing on large shrubs that can be up to 13 feet tall and 30 feet wide. Salmonberry thrives in sun-dappled, moist, low-elevation forest environments and can form dense thickets in favored locations. The plant puts up canes, which may be all you see in the fall and winter. In the spring, leaves begin to form. If you hold the end of a leafy stem, you’ll see a single leaf (called a terminal leaflet) at the tip. Gently fold this terminal leaflet back, and you’ll notice the next two leaves resemble a butterfly! Salmonberries may or may not have thorns on their stems.
The berries themselves resemble raspberries with their hollow centers and are edible, though opinions vary on how tasty they are. I find that some shrubs produce more delicious berries than others. Salmonberries are ripe when soft, which may be when they are yellow, orange, salmon-colored, red, or even purple. Because they’re so soft and don’t travel well—quickly turning into mush in a container—they’re best enjoyed fresh during your hike.
Salmonberry blossom
Perfectly ripe salmonberries
Salmonberry leaves
Be sure to tag us on social media with your flower finds so we can share your Spring Joy!
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