April 17th

Today I spent an hour and a half at the Washington Park Arboretum, walking around, taking pictures, and observing the beautiful diversity around me.

Beginning at approximately 1:30 pm with slight precipitation and wind, and temperatures around low 50s, Kate and her roommate Jessie and I began taking pictures and walking around the arboretum.

Some of the first species that we saw were oak trees, a variety of them, many had few to no leaves left on them. One that I observed specifically was a water oak, stripped of its leaves, and of a great height.

Next we observed some shrubs, such as dull Oregon Grap and carex morrowii. The Oregon Grape was growing freely around some other trees, while the carex was placed next to several other exotic looking plants.

We passed several other trees including a Japanese maple, prunus subhirtella, a sekiyama, Oregon Crab Apple, and Western Red Cedar. In addition we saw some dogwoods, wild daffodils, daisies, western skunk cabbages, stinking hellebore and another species of hellebore, borage, and a tree called crategus columbiana. We also saw a lot of common dandelions.

The arboretum is a very interesting and beautiful place, and I plan on going back there to see more plants and trees in the future.

Species List

1. Oregon Crab Apple (Malus fusca)
2. Sekiyama
3. Crategus columbiana
4. Prunus subhirtella
5. Oaks (genus quercus)
6. Wester Redcedar (Thuja plicata)
7. Japanese Maple (Acer palmatum)
8. Dogwoods (Genus Cornus)
9. Dull Oregon Grape (Mahonia nervosa)
10. Wild Daffodil (Narcissus pseudonarcissus)
11. Carex morrowii
12. Great Horsetail (Equisetum fluviatile)
13. Daisy (Chrysanthemum majus)
14. Borage (Family Boraginaceae)
15. Genus Photinia
16. Genus Hamamelis
17. Western Skunk Cabbage (Lysichiton americanus)
18. Common Dandelion (Taraxacum officinale)
19. Stinking Hellebore (Helleborus foetidus)
20. Helleborus argutifolius

Posted on May 1, 2012 05:54 PM by ashersh