The Potent Teller

Newsletter of the Salal Chapter of the Washington Native Plant Society serving Northern Snohomish, Skagit and Island Counties

September 2020 www.wnps.org/salal/ Issue 3 -20

MESSAGE FROM THE CHAIR Viva Worthington

Hello Salal Chapter, Salal Chapter Fall Events We are well into summer in western Fri. & Sat., October 2 & 3 – Native Plant Sale. Washington and the 6th month of COVID-19. I Following state guidelines for COVID-19 the sale hope you and your families and friends are well. will be on-line orders and scheduled curbside pick- I’m trying to be vigilant and stay at home as much ups. Plant list and directions will be coming soon. as possible. Working on one project, I see three others I need to tackle. There are likely enough projects here to keep me busy for another 2 years. I have to admit my driveway is not weed free. I wore out two weeding tools and it was getting a bit tiresome on my wrists as the soil moisture declined. I’ll pick it up again in the fall with a brand-new weeding tool when the rain returns. The flowers I planted as seeds and tubers now take your eye away from the weeds. As I garden, I wonder if my soil contains Mycobacterium vaccae, a non-pathogenic species that shows promise for anti-inflammatory effects on the brain according to scientists at the University of Colorado. Either way, my mood is lifted by being outdoors and observing the natural world. I keep track of time by watering and repotting at the nursery on Mondays. We have some nice looking plants for our fall sale: October 2 and 3. The salal and deer fern are especially handsome. There are a few small Garry oak if you were inspired by our zoom presentation in June with Laura Renninger. A few species of Penstemon grown from seed are available. When I water them, I’m reminded of surveying for rare plants on the Mt. Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest one day with Laura Potash. As we were walking along a trail, she stopped and turned in front of me and Christine Farrow asked “Do you know why Nothecolone was kicked Rosa gymnocarpa out of the Penstemon genus?” “No, I don’t” I said, eager to learn all I could from my mentor, the Forest Botanist. She said with an exaggerated, sad Welcome New Members face, “It had the wrong anther.” Jodi Brown Our in-person meetings continue to be on hold. Dylan Rodvik Diana Hoffman Please be safe, take care, and enjoy your world. Karen Lorence-Flanagan JaneAnne Wilder Viva Gerrianne Nicholls Casey Bedford

SALAL NATIVE PLANT GARDEN UPDATE available. If you suspect that you are not yet on the PLANT SALE October 2 & 3 list for plant sale notices, please feel free to send Brenda Cunningham me an email. [email protected]. Native Plant Garden Coordinator

The public display gardens at the WSU Research and Extension Center west of Mount Vernon continue to be closed to the public due to concerns surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic. This is hard on those of us who enjoy the display garden and promoting native plants in home landscapes. But it is for the safety of all. Despite the closure, a few of us have been working in the garden to perform basic maintenance, like pruning and weeding. In July, three of us pruned the excessive spring growth in the garden and hauled away 4 trailer loads of cuttings. Suddenly, we could make our way through the garden again! We are working in small groups or on our own, and always following the guidelines for working safely – social distancing and wearing masks. We also keep a record of who is in the garden in case of the need for contact tracing if there is a COVID case among the volunteers. If you would like to work in the garden, please let me know in advance and I will send you instructions for the contact tracing forms and a list of what tasks would be helpful. We are planning to host a fall plant sale, similar to the spring sale, accepting orders via email and scheduling curbside pickups. See the details for the sale below. Throughout the summer we have had a team of 1. Sitka willow, Salix sitchensis. James Duemmel volunteers watering the plants in the nursery 3 days a week. And during the occasional hot spell Willows we add a fourth day of watering. Despite the James Duemmel wonderful spring sale we once again have a full nursery. This is in large part because of Identifying willow species is tough – there are a propagation work we started in the spring. Many of lot of similarities among the 47 species described the plants we started from seed did very well and in the revised Hitchcock & Cronquist. Sometimes we now have many interesting species of plants for species hybridize. All are dioecious, with separate the fall sale. male and female plants; you can encounter two I hope you are all staying home as much as willows side-by-side, clearly of different genders, possible and enjoying your local parks and natural but not obviously of the same species. There’s a lot areas. We are truly fortunate to live in such a to figure out. lovely place. Fortunately some species are reasonably common and (fairly) easy to identify. Here are four Fall plant sale: I will send out an email with the such local species. plant list for the sale in early September. On Sitka Willow (Salix sitchensis). Look at Figure 1 September 21st at noon I will begin accepting and note the bright reflection coming from the orders for the plants, using an order form I will bottom of the leaf in the center, from one half of post and update daily on the Salal Chapter page of the leaf and not the other. This reveals a trick for the WNPS website. We will accept orders from 150 identifying Sitka Willow. Look at the underside of a customers and then close the sale. We will leaf and rotate it back and forth around its midrib. schedule pickup appointments for the dates of Your will see a flash of light bounce back and forth October 2 and 3. from one side of the midvein to the other side, A lot of thought has gone into improving the especially obvious on fresh leaves. Another clue: if sale, especially making the systems behind the you looking at a male plant in bloom, check an scenes more efficient. Watch for an email from me individual flower among the many in a catkin. If it with the plant list and some photos of the plants has only one stamen, then you looking at a Sitka Willow. One stamen? That’s strange. The Potent Teller September 2020, Page 2

Pacific Willow (S. lasiandra). This species can be quite a tall tree. The leaves are long and narrow (Figure 2) with a long slender point. A large native willow with such leaves is very likely a Pacific Willow. But beware of similar nonnative species in parks, backyards, street sides and other locations with human disturbance. Scouler’s Willow (S. scouleriana). Look at the leaves in Figure 3. They seem the least distinctive of these four species; generally they are widest beyond the middle, which helps. More helpful, this species is rather unique among our willows – you can find it in rather dry forests far from a ready water source. By “dry” I mean even places like Sares Head in Sharpe Park: very thin soil among 3. Scouler’s willow, Salix scouleriana James Duemmel protruding bedrock. Not typical willow habitat! Habitat is an important clue for this species. Be sure you are looking at a willow: simple, alternate unlobed leaves, flowers in catkins, bud scale one. Hooker’s Willow (S. hookeriana). The underside of the leaves is densely covered by short hairs that produce a dull gray-green color. By midsummer the top side of the leaves is a dark green (Figure 4). The twigs, during their first year, are covered by very short hairs that are harder to see than those on the leaves. A hand lens helps. This species is a west side of the Cascades specialist. Many willows have stipules, bracts at the base of the leaf petiole, that can aid identification. Frequently these drop off as the season progresses. Only the Sitka Willow in Figure 1 shows stipules. That photo was taken in late May, the others were taken in early August. Many helpful photos are 4. Hooker’s willow, Salix Hookeriana. James Duemmel available at: http://biology.burke.washington.edu/herbarium/i magecollection.php.

Please direct address changes to Washington Native Plant Society, 6310 NE 74th St, Suite 215E, Seattle, WA 98115, 206-527-3210 or call toll free 1-888-288-8022 or email [email protected]. The Washington Native Plant Society (WNPS) is dedicated to the preservation, conservation, and study of the native plants of Washington and to the education of the public on the values of native flora and its habitat. Salal Chapter Officers Chair: Viva Worthington Vice- Chair: Vacant Treasurer: Jean Birdsall Garden Manager, Program Chair: Brenda Cunningham Secretary: Margaret Toth Chapter Botanist: Vacant 2. Pacific willow, Salix lasiandra James Duemmel Visit our website at www.wnps.org/salal The Potent Teller is issued four times yearly on the first of March, June, September and November. Direct submissions to: Tara McGown PO Box 26 Rockport, WA 98283 (360-853-8375), email [email protected].

The Potent Teller September 2020, Page 3

Cornus nuttallii Christine Farrow

WNPS-SALAL Chapter c/o Tara McGown PO Box 26 Rockport, WA 98283

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