September newsletter

Native Plant Society : High Desert Chapter

September News

Fall is here and fruits are replacing flowers, even at the higher elevations. Twinberry honeysuckle (Lonicera involucrata) is a favorite of black bears who eat voraciously in the fall with the goal of adding layers of fat to sustain them through the winter.

With all of the restrictions of the pandemic, this has been a difficult summer for making new members feel included in our chapter. We hope that you have all had at least a few opportunities to get outside and learn more about our native flora. If you have friends or acquaintances who are interested in native plants, please invite them to join us in this journey of appreciation of our natural world. Feel free to share this newsletter. Here is the link to membership.

Message from the President

While you were out having fun in the wildflowers…

Jennifer Curtis, High Desert Chapter President

I’ve spent the last three years developing my backyard into a native plant oasis. Large globe mallows that bloom until the fall, various penstemons (Palmer’s being my favorite), lush Oregon sunshine, paintbrush, buckwheat, alumroot, milkweed, primrose, blue flax, and so many more. The best part of every year is sitting in my garden summer after summer. It fills me with so much joy...and then IT happened.

Have you ever gone out into your yard and found a plant lying on its side, wilting and crying out for help? I remember the exact morning. A firecracker penstemon along my fence line was cut down and pulled partially down a hole. My heart sank and I may have teared up a little and loudly exhaled ugly profanities. I pulled my plant out of the hole and found that the roots and stalk had been severed in half. Clear chew marks on the stem. The plant was gone, and so was a piece of my heart. In a rage, I grabbed the hose and shoved it down the hole, turning it on full blast hoping I could either run it out or drown the bastard. Nothing happened. Our soil is too porous and the water just seeped through the ground before I could send the little guy to rodent heaven (or hell). What was I supposed to do now?

click here for the rest of the story

Election Time!

Actually, it's nomination time.

Sometimes it looks like our High Desert Chapter is just hanging on for dear life. Without meetings and field trips, it is difficult to connect with each other. But we are determined to survive and like this Eriogonum, our roots are securely anchored into the solid bedrock. If you'd like to help in any way to help our chapter thrive, please consider volunteering. I will introduce our current officers:

Jennifer Curtis, President since 2017
Leslie Olson, Vice President since 2019
Christina Veverka, Secretary since 2017
Cindy Roché, Treasurer since 2019
Lisa Sanco, Board member since 2019
Uriel Mitchell, Board member since 2019
Susan Berger, Webmaster since 2013

When we can have meetings and field trips again, we can be more active with programs and outings. If you have an interest in any of the offices, or in conservation issues, public outreach, preparing the newsletter, organizing activities like a native plant garden, or have an idea of your own for promoting native plant education and conservation, please let us know. Volunteering is a good way to get to know fellow native plant enthusiasts and build a network of positive effects. To volunteer or nominate someone for an office, email us at highdesertnpso@gmail.com

Volunteer Opportunities

Wildflowers for Sage-grouse!

It looks like the High Desert Chapter may have a work party to benefit Sage-grouse! For decades our Greater Sage-grouse have been declining in numbers in Oregon and region-wide, and the situation is becoming dire. One of the major threats is loss of habitat, both complete loss in the form of conversion to agriculture or urban space and partial loss through degradation of remaining habitat. In central Oregon, one of the degrading factors is the loss of native wildflowers and grasses. The flowers themselves and the insects they attract are crucial for the survival of the sage-grouse chicks in the first six weeks of life. Bunchgrasses provide important hiding cover from predators who feast on chicks. The East Cascades Audubon Society of Bend and the Oregon Desert Land Trust are inviting the High Desert Chapter of NPSO to help restore sage-grouse habitat on land owned by the Land Trust near Brothers. The plan is to collect native-to-site seeds from Oregon sunshine and other sage-grouse-preferred perennial forbs, grow them to seedlings, and then plant them in the spring or fall. Our role will be to help collect seed and do the planting. We will notify members when firm dates are set. -- Stu Garrett

New Contest: Name our Newsletter

Other native plant societies and chapters have names for their newsletters. Some of them are really clever: Phlox Phlyer, Sage Notes, Calypso Companion, The Sego Lily, Castilleja, etc. Let's have a little contest to name our High Desert Chapter newsletter. Submit your idea(s) to highdesertnpso@gmail.com by October 15. Submissions will be judged on originality and aptness by the Chapter Board. The winner will receive a potted native plant raised from seed collected in central Oregon.

Native Plants at Local Nurseries

Cascade Stonecrop
Sedum divergens

Many people overlook this native sedum commonly found in high elevations along the Cascade crest, but it’s hard to miss if you catch it flowering in the late spring. This beautiful stonecrop is well adapted to rocky soils and is a perfect addition to any rock garden in central Oregon. It forms low-growing evergreen mats and shoots up bright yellow flowers on four inch stems in the late spring. Extremely drought tolerant, but can benefit from a bit of supplemental watering in created landscapes.

Rick Martinson, PhD
WinterCreek Nursery
63405 Deschutes Market Road
Bend, Oregon
541-948-0063
http://www.wintercreeknative.com/

Prairie lupine
Lupinus lepidus var. aridus

Priaire lupine or dry ground lupine is a low growing , short-lived perennial with silvery, silky-matted leaves and multi-colored purple/white flowers in spikes up to 12 inches long. Commonly found growing in roadside gravels or cinders and other coarse well drained soils, it is extremely drought tolerant. In the field setting, the plant ranges from 2 to 6 inches wide, reaching flowering heights of 4 to 8 inches. In the landscaping setting, with improved soils and infrequent supplemental water, it can reach its full potential and grow to 18 inches wide with flowers 14-16 inches tall. It typically blooms early to mid- summer, but is not particularly long lived or well behaved in a formal landscape. Although individual plants usually die within one to three years, they produce durable, long-lived seeds, resulting in offspring spreading around the landscape for many years to come. Pollinators such as mason, leaf cutter and bumble bees can often be found foraging among the flowers.

Michael Lattig
Clearwater Native Plant Nursery
Redmond, Oregon
541-350-5261
This nursery is wholesale only: call to schedule an appointment to visit the nursery. No drop-ins.
http://www.clearwaternatives.com/

Prairie Junegrass
Koeleria macrantha

Prairie Junegrass is a cool season bunchgrass that reaches roughly 6-24” tall (bunchgrasses grow in clumps, unlike turf grasses that spread by rhizome). It performs best in full sun. Although it is commonly found in dry, rocky or sandy soil, it tolerates a range of soil conditions. It is highly ornamental, especially in the spring and early summer when its characteristic silvery-green to purple seedheads blow in the wind. It reportedly tolerates mowing, so it could be used as a component of a low-water-use lawn alternative.

Andria Truax
Owner | Great Basin Nursery
greatbasinnursery.com
541.848.7703

Snow buckwheat
Erigogonum niveum

Snow buckwheat makes a lovely addition all season to a water-saving landscape. Its felt-like, gray-green leaves add contrast and its masses of white flowers turn a soft peach color as summer fades into fall. Deer might nibble it a bit, as in the photo above, but they mostly leave it alone.

Uriel Mitchell
Owner | Cascade Wild Landscapes
https://cascadewildlandscapes.com/

Wildflower Photo Gallery

We hope to make sharing of photo albums a feature of each newsletter. We invite you to send your own photos and descriptions so we can share a variety of your experiences. Please send your images as jpeg files with descriptions in a word document to highdesertnpso@gmail.com. You can send them any time and we'll include them here!

Out and Around in Central Oregon

First, from further exploration in the western Cascades in early August, a few more wildflowers from Pyramid Peaks.

Western columbine (Aquilegia formosa) in the cool north-facing habitat on the Middle Pyramid.

Interested in exploring the western Cascades? Go to Tanya Harvey's website for ideas and information.

This crab spider in the flower of Gentiana calycosa is a menace to bees.

Red elderberry (Sambucus racemosa var. arborescens) is in the Adoxaceae, the same family as Viburnum.

A male bumblebee on the flower of native thistle Cirsium remotifolium.

I took a backpacking trip to the Strawberry Wilderness in late August, so have a few native plant photos to share from there.

Pearly everlasting, featured earlier as a plant for landscaping, came back after a fire in the Strawberry Mountains with a stunning display.

Lanceleaf arnica (Arnica lanceolata) grows at the foot of talus slopes. Its name was previously Arnica amplexicaulis, streambank or clasping arnica.

Arrowleaf groundsel (Senecio triangularis) lines the streambanks. Its serrated leaves are distinctive.

At peak flowering, mountain coyote mint (Monardella odoratissima) attracts throngs of bees.

Rockfringe willowherb (Epilobium obcordatum) is appropriately named. It grows among the rocks along the trail as it dissected a steep slope above 7,000 ft. elevation.

For up-to-date info and photos, follow us on Facebook and our Website!
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