This small annual with succulent leaves flowers very early in the spring. It has white, self-pollinating flowers and grows rocky or vernally wet areas in areas free of competing vegetation. The black shiny seeds ripen quickly in early-May and dropping out from the still green flower bracts.
This native rocket is a biannual or perennial found in wetter meadow habitats and ditches in the Willamette Valley. It has small yellow flowers and clasping pinnately divided leaves.
Small, blue pea flowers in a dense spike, pretty flowers, blooms in spring, 1-2 ft tall. Most-often found on roadsides and thin-soil sites in Western Oregon. Does best without competing vegetation.
Willow dock is native to many moist habitats throughout the west. Its habitat value in our native western Oregon prairies is not as a pollinator plant (it is wind-pollinated) but as a larval host-plant for butterflies such as the rare Great Copper. Restoration efforts are underway in the Willamette Valley to restore populations by providing both the nectar source, Grindelia integrifolia (gumweed), and the host-plant willow dock.
Amsinckia menziesii var. intermedia (Common Fiddleneck)
Common fiddleneck is found in both wet and dry prairies and has bristly hairs on the foliage. The large, elongating flower stems are bright orange and curl at the ends (like the head of a fiddle). The seed is a favorite food on our native goldfinches. It does best in disturbed habitats and areas of low competition.
This small, decumbent native annual is found in the vernal wet areas. It has bright blue flowers and blooms early-summer most often with other annuals such as popcorn flower and monkey flower.
Although the flowers are not brightly colored, this plant in the waterleaf family attracts a wide-variety of native bees making this a must for both upland restorations and native gardens. The flowering stems elongate as they mature with new flowers opening in long succession in mid-summer. Found in dry, rocky habitat at low and high elevations.
Fragrant popcorn flower is found in wet meadows/bogs and vernally wet areas. In vernal pools it puts on quite a show with other annuals such as showy downingia and monkey flower and perennials such as common camas, few-flowered shooting star and meadow trefoil. Occasional nectar species for Fenders Blue Butterfly.
This small annual is native to moist or wet areas of prairies. It can be distinguished from non-native Veronica species by its white flowers and stems that have linear leaves and glandular hairs. The non-native has blue flowers, shallowly lobed leaves, and no glandular hairs.