This is not the case. I typically find a couple of things per year. Some years, of course, are better than others. It mostly depends on how much time I am able to spend out in the woods.
Oddly enough, last year was pretty productive, despite me not having a functional car. I estimate that I only spent a total of 4 days out searching- yet I found a handful of conifers worth propagating. Of those... it remains to be seen how many will be worth growing. Only time will tell.
None of this is to say that a fruitless plant foray is devoid of rewards. Being out in the forests in the Northwest is reward enough in itself. Even in their most boring and non-mutated forms, our native plants are worth appreciating. I have a fondness for unusual habitats such as wetlands and subalpine forests and meadows. The plants that inhabit these places can be significantly more exotic-seeming than the typical, lowland forests of Douglas fir and swordferns.
Several years ago in North Idaho, I bushwacked a couple of miles into older secondary growth forest to find a tiny lake. I knew that it was a peat bog, so carnivorous plants would be likely denizens.
I have one picture that I know came from that trip. This tiny plant is Moneses uniflora. It used to be included in the family Ericaceae (blueberries, heathers, Rhododendrons, etc) but has since been moved to Pyrolaceae, along with other diminutive wintergreens.
This is a plant that I'd read about before encountering it. On this trip, my nephew and I set out in search of the tiny lake. We traversed a forest filled with rotting logs, downed trees, and general decay. Clearly, the area had not been logged or burned in decades. Moss grew thick on the forest floor and in the trees. As we approached the lake from downstream, we first encountered the beaver dam. Beyond that, mats of grass on floating peat islands were split by dark, menacing openings into the lake below. There was remarkably little open water. Most of the surface was covered in vegetation. On the far end of the lake, I stumbled upon these two Moneses flowers.
According to "Plants of Southern Interior British Columbia and the Inland Northwest" by Robert Parish, these plants are considered powerful medicine by the Haida. Even from my perspective as an atheist Westerner... these plants are something special. Though they are not that rare, I feel as though I've been blessed when I see them.
Anyhow... my point is that being out in the woods is magical enough without finding the rare mutation. My strange little hobby carries me into magical (if a bit muddy and sloppy) places that many people will never see.
I have one picture that I know came from that trip. This tiny plant is Moneses uniflora. It used to be included in the family Ericaceae (blueberries, heathers, Rhododendrons, etc) but has since been moved to Pyrolaceae, along with other diminutive wintergreens.
This is a plant that I'd read about before encountering it. On this trip, my nephew and I set out in search of the tiny lake. We traversed a forest filled with rotting logs, downed trees, and general decay. Clearly, the area had not been logged or burned in decades. Moss grew thick on the forest floor and in the trees. As we approached the lake from downstream, we first encountered the beaver dam. Beyond that, mats of grass on floating peat islands were split by dark, menacing openings into the lake below. There was remarkably little open water. Most of the surface was covered in vegetation. On the far end of the lake, I stumbled upon these two Moneses flowers.
According to "Plants of Southern Interior British Columbia and the Inland Northwest" by Robert Parish, these plants are considered powerful medicine by the Haida. Even from my perspective as an atheist Westerner... these plants are something special. Though they are not that rare, I feel as though I've been blessed when I see them.
Anyhow... my point is that being out in the woods is magical enough without finding the rare mutation. My strange little hobby carries me into magical (if a bit muddy and sloppy) places that many people will never see.
amen! Every time I go for a hike in the woods, it ends up being a profound experience. We spend too much time cooped up in our houses away from nature.
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