This seems to be kinnikinnick, and it’s growing in the Gabriola woods. I’ve never seen it growing wild on the island before – have you? I see it in people’s gardens now and again, but never elsewhere. Maybe I’m just unobservant.
Now that nettles are everywhere on Gabriola, perhaps you’d like to convert them into booze. The Guardian offers Andy Hamilton’s delicious nettle wine recipe – doesn’t that look like fun? Over at Gardenspace there’s a nettle wine recipe, too. And Blagger.com has a very detailed page: how to make nettle wine. I wish you’d go [...]
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I’m often reminded that I’m a bad and negligent blogger. One such reminder: I have been intending to show you a photo of this tree for at least half a year! Well, here it is, at last. You’d think that a tree as damaged as this one would have given up the ghost, but no. [...]
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In the summer, the leaves are green and this tree blends into the woods. But in fall and winter, it’s easy to spot, at least until the leaves finally fall off. It’s Cascara: Rhamnus purshiana. The Wikipedia page about it notes: The dried, aged bark of this tree has been used continually for at least [...]
For those who enjoyed the green curtain, what about a green wall? We spent a mini-vacation in Vancouver on the August long weekend, and visited the Vancouver Aquarium for the first time in far too long. The green wall outside the Aquarium entrance is not new, so perhaps some of you have already seen it, [...]
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Have you seen this plant on Gabriola? It’s Highbush Cranberry, and is apparently native to our area. Yet I’ve never noticed it in the woods here, and I am a noticer of plants, usually. The flowers are are followed by red edible berries. Wikipedia says: The name comes from the red fruits which look superficially [...]
Here’s a bit of autumn-coloured beauty in the Gabriola woods: a layered polypore in fall colours. I saw this and immediately changed my mind about cakes with teeth. I’m still not going to decorate cakes (sugar, bleck!), but if I were a cake decorator, I’d now make cakes that would look like fungi. A layer [...]
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Oh look: honeysuckle berries! This honeysuckle (growing on a holly tree in the Gabriola woods) seems to be Lonicera ciliosa, which is also called Orange Honeysuckle or Western Trumpet Honeysuckle. Rainyside.com has some interesting notes about this plant.
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I think autumn is my favourite season on Gabriola. With gems like this on every trail, what’s not to like?
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Right now the island is so dry that much of the salal in the Gabriola woods is wilting. Really seriously wilting! I’ve never seen this much salal in distress before.
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Now here’s a soothing thing to look at this afternoon, kids. It’s fireweed, and it’s all over the place on Gabriola. Does it grow in your garden? Wikipedia’s page on this plant notes that: This herb is often abundant in wet calcareous to slightly acidic soils in open fields, pastures, and particularly burned-over lands; the [...]
I’ve shown you photos of Gabriola’s swamp lanterns (skunk cabbages) before (here and there) so you’ve got an idea of their size. But wow, when these things grow in places where the moisture lingers on into summer, their leaves get huge. The flowers have faded by now, but the leaves… oh, they are striking. Quite [...]
Ocean Spray is one of Gabriola’s native plants, and see? It’s quite stunning, especially if you take a close look at the blossoms.
A month ago I showed you this Gabriola plant as it was just starting to poke through the earth. It’s far more interesting now, but still quite small.
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When we first moved to Gabriola, a friend pointed out some of the plants that just appear in one’s garden. One of the plants was vetch, which our friend said would only grow a foot tall or so. But this vetch is four or five feet tall – it grows in a protected enclosure (can [...]
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People who do things in the Gabriola woods often leave signs of their activity. What activity do you think this indicates? It’s a bunch of salal, tied up and affixed to some standing branches. Remembering the time when salal hanging in a tree led me to the salal thieves’ cache, I’m guessing that salal pickers [...]
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Tonight while many of you were watching the hockey game, I was watching zillions of these little bugs on Gabriola’s native roses. You wouldn’t happen to know what these particular bugs are, would you? Is there an entomologist in the house?
Filed in Gabriola Island,insects,native plants One Response so far
