photo by Thomas Noland

Flowers are the reproductive parts of the group of plants called Angiosperms. These plants have evolved strategies to attract pollinators that ensure the formation of seeds. Flowers might display brightly colored petals (with colors tuned to the wavelengths of light most attractive to their pollinators), or offer high-energy nectar as a food source, or release scents that attract pollinators. In addition, some flowers do not attract pollinators at all, but use the wind to spread their pollen. The examples below highlight some of these fascinating flower-pollinator interactions.

Once the pollen reaches another flower of the same species, the plant will form seeds that carry the new generation. The main function of a fruit is to carry the seeds to a new place to grow. This may be facilitated by animals who eat the fruit and leave the seeds elsewhere, by the wind, or simply by heavy fruits falling from the parent plant and rolling on the ground.

Squirrel eating plum. photo by John F. Williams

Where better to start than with our Washington state flower, the Pacific Rhododendron or Rhododendron macrophyllum? Every spring, it is impossible to miss the Pacific Rhododendron shrubs bursting with beautiful pink flowers along roads and trails of the Olympic Peninsula. These flowers advertise their presence to pollinators with their bright color and extended stamens and styles. The stamens produce pink pollen that needs to be transferred by an insect to the curved style of another flower of the same species. Once the pollen (containing sperm) is rubbed onto the stigma at the tip of the curved (female) style, the sperm travels down through the style to the thicker ovary at the bottom where the eggs reside. The eggs are eventually fertilized by the sperm and form embryos. The ovary becomes a fruit that eventually dries and splits open to release seeds that will become the new Pacific Rhododendron generation.

In addition to Rhododendron, some common native members of the Heath family in our area include Pacific madrone, kinnikinnick, salal, and native huckleberries and cranberries.

Buttercup family (Ranunculaceae)

The red columbine, or Aquilegia formosa, is a favorite native wildflower in the Buttercup family.

Each flower consists of five tubular nectar spurs that boast their presence to hummingbirds, their favored pollinators. Hummingbirds are attracted to the red and yellow colors of the nectar spurs, and their long tongues easily reach to the bottom of the spur where they find sugary nectar. In the process of gathering the nectar, the flower’s pollen is brushed onto the birds’ feathers, and then deposited on the styles of the next flower visited.

Other well-known native plants in this family are anemones, clematis, and larkspur, as well as the western buttercup.

Rose family (Rosaceae)

The large Rose family includes herbaceous plants like strawberry as well as shrubs such as roses and trees like mountain ash. Many of our favorite sweet fruits come from the Rose family, including apple, pear, peach, cherry, strawberry, and blackberry. Despite different growth habits, most of these species have leaves with toothed margins and flowers with “many” (more than 10) stamens. The fruits vary from a simple drupe (such as a cherry) to pomes (e.g., apple) and even dry inedible follicles.

A quintessential Salish Sea region member of the genus Rubus (the blackberries and raspberries) is Salmonberry, Rubus spectabilis. This shrub can grow to be quite large and spreading. The bright pink flowers bloom in April at low elevations. Members of local Native tribes prize the “berry” (which is not actually a true berry but a cluster of tiny cherry-like fruits called drupelets) for making pies and jams.

Birch family (Betulaceae)

Another family of trees and shrubs includes red alder (Alnus rubra), whose seeds sprout and begin growing with very little difficulty once they have a little water. Red alder trees grow quickly to heights up to 80 feet. Both pollen and seeds of red alder are wind-dispersed. The flowers are clustered in catkins, which are hanging bunches of unisexual flowers that are reduced to either stamens only, or to ovaries and styles only. They have no sepals or petals, as they do not need to attract animal pollinators. The male catkins produce huge amounts of pollen in the spring, as every allergy-sufferer knows. The pollen blows in the wind and may or may not randomly land on female flowers of another red alder tree. Once the flowers of the female catkins are pollinated, seeds form in tiny winged fruits inside the familiar cone-like structures. The fruits then disperse with the wind as well, and new baby alder trees start growing.

Aster family (Asteraceae)

It’s difficult to pick a favorite plant from this very large family; here are just two examples. Walking along the beach, it is hard to miss the bright yellow “flowers” of Pacific gumweed, Grindelia integrifolia. These are actually not single flowers, but many tiny flowers clustered together to look like one large flower (called a pseudanthium, or false flower). If you look closely, you’ll see elongated ray flowers (petals) and inner disc flowers. When a bee comes to pollinate a gumweed pseudanthium, it gathers and deposits pollen on many of these tiny flowers at once, resulting in many seeds setting. This plant gets is name from the sticky latex exuded by its immature flower heads.

Lily family (Liliaceae)

Lilies generally have showy flowers to attract their pollinators. One of the showiest lilies in the region is the Columbia lily, Lilium columbianum. The large, bright orange flowers are covered in dark red “freckles.” The color contrast between orange and red and the large petals situated at the top of tall stems (two to three feet high) attract the flowers’ pollinators, rufous hummingbirds and butterflies.

Other wildflower members of the Lily family native to forests and alpine areas of our state are the queen’s cup, avalanche and glacier lilies, fairy bells, and twisted-stalk. (Close relatives of these lilies are also included in several other plant families; see the Washington Flora Checklist linked below under Resources for more information.)

Orchid family (Orchidaceae)

Most people associate orchids with tropical environments. You may be surprised to learn that the Salish Sea region is home to many species of orchids, most of which are so small that they are not easily noticed. Our showiest common orchid, the fairy slipper or Calypso bulbosa, blooms in the spring in shady forested areas. It has only one leaf that hugs the ground, but the flowering stalk is a couple of inches high and the flowers sport stunning pink-purple petals and sepals. The flower’s lower petal (called the lip or labellum) invites small bees to land and then venture into the flower’s center where they find nectar and in the process pick up or drop off pollen.

Arum family (Araceae)

One of the most unique and obvious flowering plants in western Washington is the early-blooming yellow skunk cabbage, Lysichiton americanus. These plants are easily recognized by their very large broad leaves, which can measure up to 36 inches long by 12-18 inches wide. Skunk cabbage grows in standing water, sometimes in roadside ditches and sometimes in springtime wetlands.

Its tiny flowers are clustered together on a flowering stalk called a spadix, which is surrounded by a large, bright yellow bract called a spathe. The spadix emits a pungent, “skunky” odor, which attracts the small rove beetles that pollinate the many tiny flowers. After pollination, the spathe withers and the ovaries of the flowers develop into reddish berries (containing seeds) that are plucked and dispersed by birds.

Grass family (Poaceae)

Did you know that grasses are also flowering plants? The flowers are small and lack petals and sepals, since these wind-pollinated plants do not need to attract pollinators. Grasses are found in every habitat known on our planet, and they provide us with the staple grains of most diets on earth: wheat, rice, barley, corn, rye, and millet are all grasses. An easily recognized grass here in the Salish Sea area is the American dunegrass, Leymus mollis. This tall, sturdy, salt-tolerant perennial grass grows on shifting coastal sand dunes and marshes of Washington. The foot-long inflorescences start developing in the spring and flowers open in the summer.

Identifying grass species (and their relatives, sedges and rushes) is challenging because of the very small green flowers, but there are a few common species that are relatively easy to learn based on their size, features of the leaves and inflorescences, as well as their habitats. A field guide with photos such as Plants of the Pacific Northwest Coast is a good place to start.

Fayla Schwartz earned her Masters’ degree in Biology from Eastern WA University and her PhD in Botany from the University of WA. She taught biology and botany at Everett Community College for 25 years, including a very popular class called Native Plants of Washington. Fayla lives in Port Townsend and is the Chair of the Olympic Peninsula Chapter of the Washington Native Plant Society.

Table of Contents, Issue #17, Autumn 2022