Ravenna Park, WA 4/24

I live just off campus so Ravenna Park is extremely close to my house. I embraced the sunny and rather warm weather to walk down 17th ave all the way to the intersection with Ravenna and continued down that road until reaching the park. Just on the walk down there were several trees usually found in urban areas in the median and on the sidewalks that were blooming with all the sunshine from the past few weeks. The two trees that were most common were the Pacific Dogwood, with white flowers, and the big leaf maple. Since it is a residential area many rhododendrons and flowering plants like the spanish bluebell were in the front of lawns next to the sidewalk. There was a variety of plant species planted that are natural to the area and included plants like ferns and oregon grape amount the flowering plants. Some interesting finds were mushrooms and two different phenotypes of spanish bluebell. The area around the U district is well planted with native plants and a high variation of plants so walking down 17th was perfect for documenting several native species to the Puget Sound area.
The first sight of the park is an open grassy field with a few cedars and a lot of pink or yellow flowers blooming. Birds that I saw a lot were robins and little sparrows around the park. After walking for a few minutes the scenery changes more into the tall trees and thick canopy of classic northwest forest with lots of ferns by the base of trees and dune grass near the stream running through the park. On the banks of the stream the skunk cabbage is easy to spot because of the distinct rotten egg smell it gives off. Because there were so many of the plants the smell was very pungent and recognizable right away. Also found just about everywhere in the park were the giant horsetail
One flower that I spotted right before I left Ravenna was a bright pink blossom that stood tall above its grassy base and the petals were shaped in a heart. I had never seen anything like it, especially the shapes.

Species Identified:
Bleeding Heart
Genus Euphorbia
Spanish Bluebell
Yellow archangel
Genus Amanita
Magnolia
Rhododendron
Cedar
Dunegrass
Sitka Mountain Ash
Pacific Dogwood
Dandelion
Red Huckleberry
Bracken Fern
Clover
European Holly
Western Buttercup
Skunk Cabbage
Giant Horsetail
Common Snowberry
Sticky Currant

Posted on May 1, 2012 06:13 PM by karavanslyck