Yachats

Rocky Shore in Yachats

Imagine you are a school kid smart enough to make it to the finals of the big spelling bee. Then on the last round to win it all you get the word "Yachats," (pronounced Yaw-Hots). If you were from the Oregon coast you might actually be able to spell Yachats and win it; if not, that would probably be the end of the line. Well, it's an odd word for sure, derived from coastal native peoples phonetic sounds, meaning "dark water at the foot of the mountain;" or "little river with big mouth;" or "dark water between timbered hills."

Regardless of the wide range of native meanings, there is a Yachats river and the tiny town of Yachats on the Oregon coast is a favorite spot for the Wildflower Blog Central staff to retreat, walk about, and come up with new topics for this blog. The location is ideal for nature exploration at nearby Cape Perpetua Scenic Area and on several trails located within the town as well.

On a recent short stay in Yachats in May, we were able to explore several trails and parks, as well as tidepools. The weather was very favorable on this visit, so the cameras were clicking away. Here's a sampling of our finds. Be sure to take note of the fascinating bonus paragraph at the end!

Sea Pink at Yachats. Native. Armeria maritima. Also
called Sea Thrift.

Coast Manroot at Cape Perpetua. Native. Marah oreganus.
Also called Wild Cucumber, but you don't want to eat the
fruit from this plant!

Beach Fleabane at Yachats. Native. Erigeron glaucus.

Pacific Silverweed at Yachats. Native. Potentilla
anserina; or Argentina egedii ssp. egedii.

Toughleaf Iris at Cape Perpetua. Native. Iris tenax.
Named by the noted explorer David Douglas. Not to be
confused with the Douglas' Iris, which grows in Southern
Oregon and Northern California.

Sand Strawberry at Cape Perpetua. A native evergreen
strawberry. Many hybridized strawberry plants are based
on this one. Fragaria chilonesis.

Springbank Clover at Cape Perpetua. Native.
Trifolium wormskioldii.

   

Western Corydalis on the Giant Spruce trail (left). Human dwarfed by the 550-year-old

giant Sitka spruce (right). Click the photo below to climb this tree!

  

And last but not least of course, we try to learn at least one new thing on each of our outings. This time we learned the stuff you see in the tide pool photo below is not seaweed, but the more terrestrial Surfgrass! It actually is a grass that has flowers and seeds. Remarkably, it thrives in tidal rocks, but only where the ocean's high tide is not more than about 1 - 2 ft. deep.

Surfgrass at Cape Perpetua Tidal Pools. Phyllospadix torreyi.

Seaweed, on the other hand, is basically a large algae, and refers to many similar species. Seaweeds do not have flowers, seeds, roots, or leaves. But, like Surfgrass, they live in salt water and need sunlight to survive.