Flower Hike

My dad and I, and a few others, went on a flower hike today. This means someone brings several copies of a list of the vascular plants expected on the hike, and everyone checks them off when they see them, or writes down new ones. We pool our knowledge to agree on what to call what we are looking at. It took 7 hours to go 6 miles with only 1,400 feet elevation gain and loss. It is slowest at the first, when the check lists are nearly empty. There was some pretty scenery, like this waterfall.

Wild ginger (Asarum caudatum) is not rare, but it likes to live in the shade, and getting a good photo of it is rare for me. Note the long tips on the three purple petals, reaching almost to the edge of the picture.

We have many types of saxifrage in our forests. The group thought this one is Saxigraga punctata.