Plants of the Park

Trees.

Most of the park is older conifer forest, with canopy trees from 80 to more than 300 years old. Some habitat diversity is provided by a few forested wetlands and disturbed areas along the powerline corridor that bisects the park. As with much of western Washington, the forest is dominated by Douglas fir, western hemlock, and western red cedar. Mixed in with conifers are a number of deciduous hardwood trees and one evergreen species (Pacific madrone). Common hardwoods that can make the canopy include bigleaf maple, red alder, and black cottonwood., which produces seed fluff like a snowstorm in May. A few shrub-like trees are also common in the understory, including vine maple and beaked hazelnut.

Forest understory.

The understory includes a variety of shrubs, both deciduous and evergreen, and herbaceous species, as well as ferns. Common native shrubs include salal, salmonberry, red huckleberry and evergreen huckleberry, ocean spray, low Oregon grape, red elderberry, and hardhack. The native trailing blackberry is found throughout the park. The dominant fern is sword fern. Also common are lady fern, bracken fern, and spreading wood fern, and licorice ferns and moss often cover the trunks of bigleaf maples.

Common native herbaceous species along trails are western Trillium, bleeding heart, Siberian miner’s lettuce, fringecup, large-leaved avens, broad-leaved starflower, pathfinder, and vanilla leaf. Common non-native herbs include herb Robert (stinky Bob), creeping buttercup, and wall lettuce. The park even has some rare and unusual native plants, such as Vancouver ground cone.

Open areas.

Disturbed areas are a good place to see many introduced herbaceous species, such as ox-eye daisy, Klamath weed, and thistles, as well as introduced blackberries. Lovely native species include fireweed and Canada goldenrod. Common native shrubs include salmonberry, thimbleberry, hardhack, ocean spray, and salal.

Invasive species.

Non-native, invasive trees and shrubs include English laurel, English holly, mazzard cherry, European mountain ash, and two species of blackberries. Herb Robert and creeping buttercup are also found throughout the park.

Learn about native and invasive plants in the park

Learn about epiphytes on trees

Learn about rare and unusual plants in the park

List of plant species in the park

Learn some fun facts about plants in the park

Photo credits: Jim Erckmann, Flickr (Rolando Tanglao, Leonora (Ellie) Enking, Steve Sullivan), Wikimedia Commons (Kristian Peters), pxhere.com.