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.

Upper Table Rock

Upper Table Rock as seen from Lower Table Rock

Several million years ago, near the southern Oregon town of Medford, volcanic activity created two large blocks of hard rock. Over time, the softer terrain washed away, leaving the two massive u-shaped mesas we have today in the Rogue River valley. These mesas, standing about 750 feet above the 1,300 foot valley became a special habitat for many unique plants and animals; and they were used by native peoples and then by locals in recent history, until finally gaining protection by the Nature Conservancy and BLM in 1979. It's now an immensely popular natural area for local hikers and school children alike. As well as one of the premier wildflower locations in the state.

According to local experts, there are over 200 species of wildflowers growing on the Upper and Lower table rocks. We have visited these special natural areas about half a dozen times over the years and we posted a visit to Lower Table Rock in June of 2013. The blooming window is short in this area, from about April through the middle of June. At best, we have probably seen about 50 of the 200 flowers. Which makes for a good reason to return, hopefully at different times in the bloom cycle!

This year, we visited on May 11, which is about mid-way through a typical bloom cycle. However, it was unseasonably warm during our visit, drying out some of the vernal pools on the mesa top. In any event, we saw many blooming flowers, a few people, and a wild turkey.



The 1.25 mile trail to the top of Upper Table Rock goes up through scrub oak grassland with an abundance of madrone and manzanita along the way. Once at the very level top, several paths lead around the mostly treeless, u-shaped formation, adding as much as 3 miles to an outing. We spent about two hours on the top, poking around and having our bag lunch before leaving. By this time it was in the mid 80's on top.

On top of Upper Table Rock. Fence routes hikers around a vernal pool.

Here's a few of our favorites from this visit; you can see see the complete Upper Table Rock album on our photo website.

Slender Clarkia - Clarkia gracilis

Henderson's Stars - Triteleia hendersonii

Rosy Plectritis - Plectritis congesta

Tolmie's Mariposa Lily - Calochortus tolmiei

Links:

Complete Photo Album

The Natives are Restless June 2013 Post

Hiking Information

Wikipedia Page

Word Games

No matter how old you are today, you may remember some of the children's word games used by teachers in class and stressed out parents on long road trips to pass the time. Some of these games were in booklets where you had to fill in the missing word to make a funny story; or perhaps you were given a list of random words from which you had to concoct a story. Since we have plenty of time on our hands down here at Wildflower Blog Central, I decided to try the latter, using some of the current blooms in our area.

So here goes; feel free to respond with your own story, which will no doubt, have more depth than ours!

"My long lost cousin, Stinky Bob, wrote to me, letting me know he was coming for a visit. I had not seen him for many years, but all my relatives warned me that his name was quite accurate. You might want him to stay in your garage, they said. I was skeptical, but they explained that cousin Bob had grown up in Yarrow, B.C. After school, the local kids were put to work in the fields, pulling up the dreaded Spotted Knapweed, which was so invasive, crops were suffering."

     

"They pulled the weeds until dark all summer for just a few dollars a day. This constant labor made Bob a bit of an angry boy, so he refused to take a bath. This went on for weeks, until his mother, Bunny Henderson, decided enough was enough. She and Bob marched down to the city hall and demanded to speak with the Director of Vectors, who was also in charge of weed control in the city."

"The clerks at city hall had to plug their noses due to Bob's extreme body odor. But at least this got the Director of Vectors to show up pronto. Mr. Cal Columbine is the name ma'am, how can I help you? As his nose twitched and eyes watered, he listened to Mrs. Henderson's plea about Bob. After a long pause Mr. Columbine agreed to grant Bob a permanent excused absence from weed pulling. You'll be doing us all a favor Mrs. Henderson. Now you head on over to Hemlock street and my maintenance boys over there will hose Bob down and get him cleaned up before the big street fair tomorrow. Bob said, shucks Mr. Columbine, I got me some Self Heal leaves back home for Saturday bath, and Ma will let me go first in the tub, right Ma?"

     

"Bob and his family were overjoyed with the news and from that day on, cousin Bob rarely had a stink about him - sadly though, the name stuck, like flies on fly paper. So I really was not too worried about his upcoming visit. But just to be sure, I went to Mr. Scouler's variety store and bought some fragrant potpourri for the house..."

Scouler's Bluebell - Campanula scouleri