In a couple feet of snow, this pine was just a sapling observed on the path from Longmire at Mt. Rainier. It has a bark pattern with grey/silver blotches, with pines that do not go all the way around the branches, unlike a douglas fir. Observed in a primarily coniferous and some old growth forest area with nearby hotsprings, there were other pacific silver firs around as well as yews and douglas firs.
Standing between 6 and 10 feet tall, this ash displayed the opposite branching tell tale of an Oregon Ash. Found just off of the path in the more deciduous area of the Pack Forest, it was starting to bud, and had a green tinge to it.
A branch of a douglas fir lay on the ground in the coniferous pack Forest, blown over by the wind. The needles went around the branch entirely, giving it a sort of "pipe brush" look that identifies it, as well as finding a tell-tale Douglas Fir cone.
Not very many of these were located in the Pack Forest, and many of the ones that I saw had fallen from the wind. They are very distinctive with the peeling bark and the dark red color and the smooth, coffee colored tree under the peeling bark.
The needles on the tree were very flat, with rounded tips. On the tips of some of the needles were what looked like small red berries. It appeared to be alternate branching, with the two branches stemming out on either side not meeting in the same location on the main branch. This tree was observed on the campus of Pack Forest near the gazebo, so it was not observed in the forest.
Very thin branches with clumps of about four or five small, light green leaves with very small, white flowers attached to the bottom. We saw this plant a couple times, but it was not one of the more dominant species in the Pack Forest. This particular one stood a little more than 10 feet high.
Also very dominant on the ground in the deciduous Pack Forest. Bushes with dark green leaves and red stems connecting them. Most of the bushes were a couple feet off the ground.
This fern was very common in the deciduous forest in Pack Forest where we stayed for our field trip, being one of the dominant ground species. Growing many ferns out of a concentrated area on the ground, with the ferns being a couple feet in length. They had large spores on the bottom, and were relatively inflexible.
