Bill's Botanical Forays

While driving around the Valley (Spokane Valley) with my son and grandson, I showed my son some places that I used to spend a lot of time botanizing when I was much younger (like 40 years ago). The two places we went to were a part of the Dishman Hills that borders along South Dishman Road and the Iller Creek trailhead entrance.

At the Dishman Hills location we saw some Inflated Grass Widows (Olsynium douglasii (A. Dietr.) E.P. Bicknell var. inflatum (Suksd.) Cholewa & Douglass M. Hend. in full bloom. For nature lovers around Spokane, the Sagebrush Buttercup and the Grass Widows are considered harbingers of spring. Their scientific name used to be Sisyrinchium inflatum.  Grandson William sure enjoyed looking at them….

At the Iller Creek Trailhead, we saw some Thinleaf or Gray Alder (Alnus incana (L.) Moench ssp. tenuifolia (Nutt.) Breitung) blooming. We also spotted some Scouring Horsetail (Equisetum hyemale L.) next to the road.

I wish I had more time to do some actual hiking around, because there is so much to see. But it was fun re-visiting these areas and looking for some spring wildflowers.