Category Archives: Flora

Pacific Aster (Symphyotrichum chilense)

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What’s that pretty little herb with yellow and violet disk flowers?

Pacific Asters (or common California aster) are a native perennial found along the Pacific coast. It inhabits coastal mountains, salt marshes, coastal dunes and bluffs, coastal scrub, and open or disturbed areas.

Courtesy NRCS, Annie Young-Mathews, 2010

This particular aster is very versatile and can be used in bird, butterfly, and bee gardens!

There are nearly 50 different kinds of native asters here in the Pacific Northwest. Asters are part of a very large and diverse plant family call Asteraceae. Despite its Latin name (chilense), it does not occur in Chile.

Fall Food Source

Pacific Aster grows 1- to 3-feet tall and hold cheery disk-shaped blooms on a stalk (inflorescence) in late summer through fall. It provides a late-season food source for all kinds of pollinators including moths, bees, butterflies, and hummingbirds.

This structure attracts many beneficial flying butterflies and insects such as:

  • Northern Checkerspot, Field Crescent and Pearl Crescent butterflies
  • Wavy-lined emerald, Salt-and-pepper-Geometer, Dingy Cutworm, and Olive-shaded bird-dropping moths. 

Flower heads have yellow disk center florets and fringes of many narrow light purple ray florets. Its hairy leaves are narrowly oval-shaped, pointed, and with finely serrated edges.

Propagation and Spread

Pacific Asters spread by rhizomes. The fibrous root system digs deep in to the soil making this plant good at stabilizing slopes and drought tolerant once established. Pacific Asters do not like soggy roots in the winter.

An early spring prune (one-third to one-half) will make the plants more bushy and wind tolerant more wind. Deadheading during the season produces more flowers. At season end, the plants can be cut or mowed to the ground in winter. Likes full sun to partial shade.

Propagate your own from seed: No treatment needed. Seeds may have little fluffy bits attached which help them carry in the wind. This fluff does not need to be detached. Just sprinkle a handful of collected seed fluff in the desired area in the spring and watch for sprouts with a week. Caution when weeding! It will look like a common weed so be aware when pulling.

A wide variety of asters are now available through several nurseries. They are great companion plants that work well with other shrubs and perennials along the coast.

Even better? This aster will tolerate high salinity, there are no known pests or problems, and they are deer resistant!

REFERENCES:
–USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service, Plant Fact Sheet for Pacific Asters (http://plants.usda.gov)
–HGTV (https://www.hgtv.com/outdoors/flowers-and-plants/aster-flowers)
–Wikipedia, symphyotrichum chilense (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Symphyotrichum_chilense)
–Watershed Nursery, plant finder (https://www.watershednursery.com/nursery/plant-finder/symphyotrichum-chilensis/)
–Portland Nursery (https://www.portlandnursery.com/perennials/aster/)

Bracken Fern (Pteridium aquilinum)

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Just like in classic murder mysteries… a pretty face pressed behind glass and poising as art is really a deceptive killer.

Bracken fern (royalty free from Unsplash)

Perhaps being a deceptive killer is really just a clever survival strategy. Fossil records over 55 million years old show Bracken ferns is one of the oldest plants around.  

Bracken ferns grows throughout all temperate and tropical regions. In Oregon we see the subspecies P. aquilinum pubescens or Western Bracken which grows from Alaska to Mexico and east to Wyoming, Colorado, and Texas.

The plant prefers well-drained soils and will often grow on hillsides. It will also grow in burned-over areas near woodlands or other shady places and in open pastures and ranges with sandy, gravelly soils.

Colonization

It colonizes areas two different ways. Triangular fronds may reach 16 feet or taller in a season. Fronds provide some shade and protection but discourage native species through large volumes of plant litter and chemical emissions.

Tiny, lightweight spores are on the underside of the frond. Spores easily spread in the wind or fall from fronds to the ground.  

Spores sprout into plants and lead to the development of deep-set, black roots called rhizomes. Bracken rhizomes creep underground up to 1,300 feet sending up fronds as they grow. The lowly Bracken is surprisingly one of the largest plants in the world.

Dried Bracken fern (royalty free Unsplash)

Silent Killer

Every part of the Bracken contains poisonous, carcinogenic compounds—even the spores are toxic. The plant emits poison into the surrounding soil through spores and leaf litter. These toxic chemicals remain in the soil even after the fern is removed.

Bracken fern is toxic to dogs, cattle, sheep, horses, and pigs. This fern is linked to cancer in humans. Even milk from cows grazing Bracken fern may be hazardous to humans.

Grazing animals may consume Bracken when normal foods are unavailable (such as during adverse weather). Ptaquiloside has a cumulative effect. Cattle consuming large amounts of Bracken in short periods of time can become poisoned. The disease has a delayed onset and poisoned animals rarely recover. The disease is often chronic in horses.

Some cultures consume young fronds called fiddleheads and rhizomes. Ptaquiloside will damage DNA and potentially lead to digestive tract cancers. There are ways to reduce the level of this chemical through cooking and other detoxifying techniques.

Hydrogen cyanide is released when mammals or insects eat this fern. This chemical causes repeated insect molting leading to death. Bracken is under investigation as a possible new insecticide.

Eradication

Bracken invasions threaten biodiversity and habitat loss. Once established, this deciduous plant and its chemical foot print are very difficult to eradicate.

Removal and long-term management can encourage the re-establishment of native habitats. Bracken ferns are listed as an invasive species in several areas and considered to be among the world’s worst weeds.

REFERENCES:
–Encyclopedia Britannica (https://www.britannica.com/plant/bracken)
–USDA Agricultural Research Service (https://www.ars.usda.gov/pacific-west-area/logan-ut/poisonous-plant-research/docs/western-bracken-fern-pteridium-aquilinum/)
–Wikipedia, Bracken (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bracken)

Madrone Tree (Arbutus menziesii)

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Pacific Madrone – (Arbutus menziesii)

While traveling in coastal Oregon watch for a tree with red bark and broad evergreen leaves. This tree is a Pacific Madrone.

Various conifer trees dominate the Coastal range but if you look you will notice the Pacific Madrone. Madrone is a broadleaved evergreen tree and a member of the heath family (Ericaceae).

It is distinguished by its smooth trunk, orange-red bar that peels when the tree is mature. The peeling bark reveals a green satiny, smooth stem.

Seed & Blossoms

Pacific madrone will grow to a height of 125 feet tall and may grow up to 4 feet in diameter. At three to five years old, it will begin to produce seed.

Trees begin flowering in early spring, from mid-March to May, depending on the elevation. The bell-shaped blossoms are dense, drooping clusters (terminal panicles) of small, white flowers.

The fruit is a berry (0.3 to 0.5 inches), that ripens in the fall, turning from yellow-green to bright red or reddish-orange. The berries were used by wildlife and humans for food, decoration, fish bait, and medicine.

The wood is used for furniture, flooring, turnings, paneling, veneer for hardwood plywood faces and core stock, pulpwood, and firewood.

Links & References

To get a PDF fact sheet about the Pacific Madrone from Oregon Department of Forestry see: https://www.oregon.gov/ODF/Documents/ForestBenefits/PacificMadrone.pdf

Sacred Trees

For some more cultural/spiritual thoughts about the Madrone see http://www.arbutusarts.com/sacred-trees.html

“On the British Columbia West Coast, the Salish Nation also honors the Arbutus Tree as their ‘Tree of Knowledge’ because it knows how to find the sun. It twists and turns and somehow knows to drop one branch when there is not enough sunlight and it is shaded and it will grow a new one where the sun can reach it.”