This is a direct followup to my previous nighttime flower photography post with proper natural lighting and more effort at positive ID for these flowers, plus a bonus plant I wasn't able to photograph the other night. These aren't all of the exact same specimens, but I hope they suffice anyway. I used the reference photos at http://www.pnwflowers.com to help.
The first plant I had previously identified as mock orange, a.k.a. syringa, a.k.a. philadelphus lewisii. Something about that never quite satisfied me, though. I didn't detect the characteristic scent, and neither the flowers nor their clusters seemed right. The leaves were wrong, too. It grows in the area, but this ain't it. @scribblingramma said she thought it might be serviceberry at first, but also correctly ruled that out.
Now I think it is pacific ninebark, physocarpus capitatus. Note the leaves and the ball-like clusters of white flowers with five petals and prominent stamens. I was intrigued by the contrast between this particular shrubbery (Ni!) and the dead branches it was growing through,
The next photo I had identified as a mariposa lily, but which variety? The only one that site lists in the Spokane area is calochortus macrocarpus, the green-banded mariposa lily, but this is very much white, not purple. Perhaps the site is wrong, or perhaps this is still misidentified. Whether the map agrees or not, the small purple spot at the base of the petal suggests calochortus subalpinus, the subalpine mariposa lily
Of less dispute is the wild rose, rosa piscocarpa. The map says it isn't here, but here it is. On the left is another photo from yesterday evening. On the right is from a few days ago when I saw one in a vacant lot in town just starting to bloom.
Yup. That's a honeysuckle. Lonicera ciliosa. At least this is hard to misidentify, and the map says it's in the area.
The above flowers are native to the northwest, but this last one is not. These purple flowers are some type of vetch, probably woolly vetch, vicia villosa I found it along the road right where the description said it tends to thrive. There was just enough of a breeze to make photography a bit of a challenge.
All photos taken with my less-than-spectacular smartphone and cropped or resized before posting here.
Hi Jacob
I love wild roses, they're really nice in their simplicity.
Your honeysuckle is so vastly different from ours here in South Africa. I'll take a photo later for you of our Cape Honeysuckle.
That vetch is definitely a Vicia species, it grows here as an invasive alien species and becomes really problematic in feeding pastures. Bees love it though and their little pollen sacks on their legs turn purple when they collect from Vicia.
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I very much prefer the vetch to the invasive Russian spotted knapweed. At least he vetch benefits pollinators as you noted, and helps fix nitrogen tobthe soil. Knapweed triggers allergic reactions for many people on contact, is toxic to livestock, and apparently literally poisons the soil to prevent other plans from competing with it. Thanks to the wet weather this year, I welcome this lesser of two evils choking back the nastier weed.
I don't know knapweed. I'm going to look it up, sounds awful. I don't like plants that poison the soil, it takes so long to recover and tends to kill all the good organisms as well, so I totally get your choice of Vetch over Knapweed.
I'm glad you further researched the "mock orange." I agree, something about the white clusters didn't seem quite right. There must be some syringa around the area somewhere, to compare. More exploration may be in order!
By the way, I have recently found trillium in profusion in my yard!
I love flower and roses in their natural place and I think you really appreciate that.
Maybe the wild roses will spread :) They make areas hard to walk in, but the rosehips are awesome 🙌
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