Ravenna Park 5/23/12

Today I ventured back to Ravenna park to delve deeper into its many pathways. I began by following a trail down a few sets of stairs to an area dominated by large sword ferns and doulgas fir and western red cedars. I was particularly interested in some of the understory I could not yet identify. I began by looking at plants tucked beneath and around the sword ferns and identified rose campion, devil's club, piggyback plant, and a spinulose wood fern. These were easy to spot considering the mostly homogeneous understory of Ravenna park (i.e. salal, sword fern, oregon grape). After following this path, I went under the large bridge that goes over the park and noticed some artist's bracket growing on a large tree. I could tell by the distinctive white bottom and brown top. I then ventured off the path a little and went down to the creek where I found smaller shrubs such as false solomon's seal, marsh marigold, western skunk cabbage, and horse chestnut growing. When I began my hike the weather was pretty overcast and windy but by the end, it had cleared up and the sun was shining through the canopy of trees and onto the path I was traveling on. On my way back to my house, I came across a salmonberry that had a few ripe berries which I enjoyed snacking on.

Posted on May 31, 2012 04:09 AM by twitwer