The Native
Plant Press
The Newsletter of the Central Puget Sound Chapter of WNPS
Vol 16, No 8, November 2015
Chapter Meeting
Thursday, November 5 at 7:00 PM Center for Urban Horticulture*
November Program by Shelley Evans
Mountain Goats in Olympic National Park: Some Inconvenient Truths
By Richard Olson
Olympic National Park is currently preparing an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for the management of introduced mountain goats. A draft EIS, expected to be released soon, will identify a preferred management alternative; public comment will be accepted. WNPS Olympic Peninsula Chapter member, Rich Olson, will review the history of this contentious issue. He will summarize previous research including the potentially irreversible effects of goats on plants and soils, discuss the challenges and limitations of various population management techniques, and provide an opportunity for audience members to ask questions about the biology and public policy aspects of managing unwanted but charismatic non-native species.
Rich retired in 2006 after a 34-year career with the National Park Service, all at Olympic National Park. He held positions in aviation and fire management, forestry, and natural resources management. During the Elwha Dam removal project, he did extensive research and planning for the associated habitat restoration. He was intimately involved in field research on the Park's non-native mountain goats and was the leader of the high-risk aerial capture and translocation program.
Up and Coming Programs
November 5, 2015:
Mountain Goats in Olympic National Park: Some Inconvenient Truths by Rick Olson
December 3, 2015:
Castilleja, Orthocarpus, and Cordylanthus by Mark Egger
January 7, 2016:
The Unfortunate Introduction of Holly to the Seattle Area by Al Smith and
The Annual CPS Holiday Party
February 4, 2016:
The genus Erythronium in Western North America by Ed Alverson
March 3, 2016:
The Co-Evolution of Native Plants and Birds by Dennis Paulson
Seed Exchange November 5 Chapter Meeting
By George Macomber
We will host an informal seed exchange before the November 5 chapter meeting. Members can offer seeds they have collected this year but don't have to bring seeds to participate. Bring your own baggies/envelopes and something to label them to identify the seeds. If you are interested in propagating from seed this is a good chance to talk with others with experience. Collect some seeds to share this fall. We will
not be selling seeds at the fall plant sale. Contact George Macomber georgems@98115.net to share a list of seeds or to get the lists that others have shared.
By Nelson Salisbury, Chapter Botanist
A free plant identification workshop is offered before each Chapter meeting at 6:00 PM in CUH, Main Hall. While the workshop is oriented primarily toward beginners, anyone who wants to work on improving keying skills or their familiarity with the northwest flora is welcome. Feel free to bring samples of unknown plants in for identification. We will have plenty of material and tools if you come empty-handed.
* CUH Location
The Chapter meeting will be held on the University of Washington campus at the Center for Urban Horticulture, 3501 NE 41st Street, (Mary Gates Memorial Dr. NE) Seattle, 98195. We will meet in the Main Hall. To help you find the meeting location, you can find excellent maps at the UW website at www.universityofwashington.edu/maps. Look for the Northwest Horticultural Society Hall adjacent to Miller Library. Refreshments and socializing begin at 7 PM, followed by a short business meeting at 7:30 PM, and then the formal program.
Newsletter Contents
Chapter Meeting
Thursday, November 5 at 7:00 PM Center for Urban Horticulture* 1
November Program by Shelley Evans 1
Mountain Goats in Olympic National Park: Some Inconvenient Truths 1
Up and Coming Programs 1
Seed Exchange November 5 Chapter Meeting 2
Native Plant Identification Workshop 2
* CUH Location 2
Board Reports 3
Message from the Chair 3
Barbara Harrell Farewell and Denise Mahnke Hello 4
Growth Management Act Protects Plants 4
Donating Your Native Plants 5
Awards—Request for Nominations 5
Holiday Party at a New Time 6
Field Trip Schedule 7
Winter Twigs Trail Trip
Saturday Nov 14, 2015 at 10:30 am 7
News and Announcements 7
Sound Living One-Day University 7
Habitat Stewards Training from the National Wildlife Federation 7
Seattle Mountaineers Naturalist Program 8
Volunteer News 8
Fall 2015 Plant Sale Volunteer Recognition 8
Education Committee 10
Stewardship Grant Report 11
Friends of North Beach Park 11
Plant of the Month:
Blechnum spicant 15
Central Puget Sound Chapter WNPS
Officers & Committee Chairs
2015-2016 16
WNPS and CPS Contact Information 18
Membership, Dues and Questions 18
Email Lists 18
Electronic Newsletter Option 18
Newsletter Submission 18
Board Reports
Message from the Chair
By Chrys Bertolotto
Central Puget Sound Chapter board members and many volunteers have been quite busy on the behalf of the chapter.
The fall Plant and Bulb Sale Committee, with the leadership of Joy Johnsen, met the triple purposes of raising funds, educating community members about native plants and getting more native plants into residential landscapes.
Program Co-Chairs Sharon Baker and Shelley Evans are recruiting amazing speakers for our monthly lectures as well as spreading the word beyond this newsletter.
Nelson Salsbury and Stewart Wechsler offer monthly educational plant identification sessions before each meeting.
Rita Moore and Martin Chaney have begun planning the Holiday Party and Volunteer Recognition event, now combined and moved into January!
Cindy Spurgeon has is now planning the re-launch of the Stewardship Grants program.
Franja Bryant is currently expanding our education reach from previous years.
Ted Couillard continues to promote events through the WNPS Central Puget Sound Facebook page.
Susan Dawson is recruiting field trip leaders to cool sites for people of all abilities.
Becky Chaney continues to work on advocacy and policy issues related to native plants.
As your chair, I led the hiring process that selected Denise Mahnke to our shared state / chapter Office and Program Coordinator position. Denise is so exceptional that she was recently promoted to the Business Manager (formerly Administrator) position, which will be a benefit to all of us. Refilling the Office and Program Coordinator position is now underway. Now I can shift my attention back to the Stewardship Program relaunch and working with fellow board members to set our priorities and budget for 2016.
Volunteers Needed! As you can tell, there is an infinite number of ways to engage with the chapter! Right now, I’m currently looking for a Publicity Lead - someone who is excited by the idea of promoting all the good work we do and the great opportunities for people to engage with us. We already have multiple ways to reach you, our members, and could use more help in getting notices out to our partners and local newspapers. Whether it is the plant sales twice a year or our monthly meeting or field trips, we always have news to share.
I’m also looking for a Salvage Program Leader – someone who is willing to help us re-define what the Salvage Program is all about and create a program that meets the newly crafted goals. I think we all hate to see a good native plant get bulldozed under during development, but it still happens. I’m not sure if future Salvage Program plants would go home with salvagers to be planted in personal yards, select plants make the way to our nursery for future sales, they find themselves planted in any of the Stewardship Sites that our municipal partners and Native Plants Stewards manage or some other outcome. That would be up for the Salvage Lead to sleuth out and oversee. Please contact me if you would like to help out.
Chrys Bertolotto,
Chapter Chair
(206) 588-1247 or sitka.periwinkle@gmail.com.
Barbara Harrell Farewell and Denise Mahnke Hello
Barbara Harrell has decided to step down from the WNPS staff and pursue other life interests. She has served our Central Puget Sound chapter and the State organization during two major times of transition, first as the Program and Office Coordinator and most recently, interim Business Manager. We’ve all appreciated Barbara’s grace under pressure, her calm demeanor when we were not and her ability to turn chaos into order.
Denise Mahnke was hired in August 2015 to become the Program and Office Coordinator and was then promoted into the Business Manager position after a competitive search. Her transition to this position has left the chapter support position vacant and she and the Chapter Chair are working towards filling that spot with a well-qualified candidate.
We are equally delighted to welcome Denise as we are sad to see Barbara go. We appreciate all that they, as staff, have brought and will bring to our Chapter fundraising, education, stewardship and conservation efforts. The warmest wishes are sent to Barbara for the adventures she will experience ahead.
Growth Management Act Protects Plants
By Becky Chaney, Conservation Chair
As reported in the September Douglasia, WNPS participated as
amicus curiae (friend of the court) to the Whidbey Environmental Action Network (WEAN) appeal of Island County’s new fish and wildlife habitat conservation ordinance. On June 24 the Growth Management Hearing Board (GMHB) issued its final decision and order regarding the appeal. The decision supports WEAN’s argument that the county is not adequately protecting plants and their habitats as required by the Growth Management Act.
The GMHB stated that the GMA requires protection of the functions and values of habitat areas and ecosystems, based on Best Available Science. “Plants provide essential ecosystem services and functions. If plants are not protected then there will be a net loss of ecosystem functions and values.”
Island County subsequently requested a review of the GMHB decision. On September 23, Washington Superior Court ruled that Island County’s appeal did not meet the filing deadlines and the petition for review was dismissed. I am delighted to report that the ruling ensuring protection of sensitive, threatened, or endangered plant species and habitats stands.
The Conservation Committee believes this is a critical ruling that has statewide significance for native plant and habitat conservation.
Donating Your Native Plants
Do you need space for the plants you recently purchased at the Chapter’s fall sale? Did you see species listed for the sale that you need to thin in your garden? Consider donating them to WNPS. We will pot them and grow them on until the spring sale. You don't need to pot them, just put them in a flat or box with some moist soil or mulch. It is important to provide a label with species and contact info. It is often difficult or impossible for us to ID plants to species before the spring sale. We primarily need native forbs, ferns, and small shrubs. We do not sell many trees.
Bring small plant donations to the chapter meetings. Nothing taller the 2' or individual plants bigger than would fit in a 1 gal pot. Arrive by 7 pm to allow time to move plants. Leave your plants in your car and find George Macomber or Tom Johnson. We will shuffle the plants between cars. Or, you can still leave plants at the Magnuson nursery in the donation beds with ID and contact information.
Unsold plants are donated to stewardship projects. If you have questions or if you drop off plants at the nursery contact George Macomber at Georgems@98115.net or call 206-526-7983. If you wish to donate plants but digging them, bringing them to a monthly meeting or bringing them to the nursery is problematic, please contact Ann Stevens at annbstevens@earthlink.net or call 206-518-2246.
Awards—Request for Nominations
Every year our Chapter recognizes exceptional people who have gone beyond expectations to further the goals of Washington Native Plant Society and our Chapter in particular. So again this year we invite our members to nominate individuals for special recognition. We will be honoring the recipients at the Holiday Party in January. (Note the month change.)
The categories for nominations are as follows:
Professional of the Year: Professional person or organization who, through their profession or their personal effort, has made a significant contribution to supporting the mission of WNPS “to promote the appreciation and conservation of Washington’s native plants and their habitats through study, education, and advocacy.” They may or may not be a member.
Member of the Year: A Central Puget Sound Chapter member who has demonstrated passion and commitment to the mission of WNPS whether through leadership, service or assistance above and beyond expectations. Must be a member.
Steward of the Year: A person or organization whose stewardship activities to preserve and/or conserve native plants and their habitat has gone above and beyond what is expected and who has made a significant contribution to the communities they serve. The Steward of the Year may or may not be a member and does not necessarily need to be a Native Plant Steward to be nominated.
If you wish to nominate
a person or organization, please provide details to support your choice. It will be helpful to know what the person has done, the time they have contributed, the results of their efforts, and the benefit to the Chapter or the Society. A paragraph or two describing their contribution would be ideal. The CPS Board will review nominations and vote on the awards at the November 16 Board Meeting. Written nominations must be submitted a minimum of three days prior to the meeting. Please submit your nominations to Rita Moore, rmoore@eds.org.
Holiday Party at a New Time
We have decided to move our Holiday Party from our usual December meeting to the January meeting on Thursday, January 7, 2016.
Members' schedules seem to be filling up in December and, as a consequence, attendance has been falling off over the years. With this change, we hope to see you there.
As usual, it will be a potluck: appetizers through desserts.
For entertainment we can have a show and tell of what people did this year, 2015 (or even some earlier event). It doesn't have to be about plants but it must be mostly pictorial. Maybe bring a self running slide show or a PowerPoint. How much time each person gets will depend on how many people want to participate.
Contact me, Rita Moore, rmoore@eds.org or 206 679-3375 if you want to contribute to the entertainment with photos.
At the party we will also hand out the Chapter awards for 2015.
We need people make this party happen. The following tasks need volunteers:
Set up table and room decorations (3-4 people)
Set up a beverage area (coffee, hot water, cups, wine, beer, tea bags, half and half) (1 person)
Manage food getting into kitchen (ovens) and out to tables (2-3 people)
Get a liquor permit from UW (1 person who knows how to do this)
Kitchen cleanup (3-4 people)
Party table cleanup (3-4 people)
Be responsible for computer & projector (1 person)
Many hands will make the above work go very fast. (We were able to pack up and load out the whole plant sale in an hour this fall.) Note: We do not need to setup or takedown tables or chairs.
More details to come next month.
Send email or call me if you are willing to help with the party, Rita Moore, rmoore@eds.org or 206 679-3375.
Field Trip Schedule
Trail Trip Leaders Needed: If you would like to lead your fellow WNPS members on a Trail Trip please contact me (Susan Dawson) at lapianta@aol.com. I can bring you up to speed and help decide on a hike that you would like to lead.
Winter Twigs Trail Trip
Saturday Nov 14, 2015 at 10:30 am
Learn to identify winter twigs with Rita Moore in Pioneer Park on Mercer Island. The trail trip will take about 1 to 1 1/2 hours.
Here is a link to a short blog worth reading before going on the walk:
http://www.wnps.org/blog/identifying-trees-in-winter/
A worthy companion book to this trail trip is
Winter in the Woods: A Winter Guide to Deciduous Native Plants in Western Washington
It is available for $6.00 from
https://pubs.wsu.edu/ItemDetail.aspx?ProductID=14400
Contact Rita Moore at rmoore@eds.org if you have any questions.
News and Announcements
Sound Living One-Day University
Immerse yourself in Puget Sound for a day and attend the 5th Annual Sound Living One-Day University!
Exploring the Connections between Water, Land and People: October 31, 2015, 9AM – 3 PM
Mukilteo Presbyterian Church, 4514 84th St SW, Mukilteo
WSU Snohomish County Extension Beach Watchers are proud to offer Sound Living—a community day of learning about the connections between the water, land and people of the Salish Sea. It is a day of inspiration and education, offering everyone who is curious about Puget Sound a chance to learn more about the region and to find their own way to take part in its restoration and protection.
Registration is $15 per person. Register online at www.wsusoundliving.org/2015. Registration opens on September 9, 2015. Lunch is available for purchase upon registration, or you can bring your own.
For more information or to register, please contact the Sound Living Planning Team at soundliving@wsu.edu or (425)-357-6028, or www.wsusoundliving.org/2015.
Habitat Stewards Training from the National Wildlife Federation
Thursdays 6-9pm: Oct 29th, Nov 5th, 12th, 19th
Saturdays 9am-1pm: Nov 7 and 14
Robert J. Drewel Building 3000
Rockefeller Ave Everett WA, Public Meeting Room #2
Habitat Stewards Training empowers volunteers to become stewards to help the community create, preserve, enhance, and restore wildlife habitat. The training includes topics ranging from native plant identification to creating a personal backyard wildlife sanctuary at your own home. The training costs $25 for course expenses and includes a 30-hour volunteer commitment within a year after training. Habitat Stewards receive a certificate after completing this national recognized training, a t-shirt, 30% off NWF catalog, a complete localized training/resource binder, local expert speakers, connections with local volunteer projects, and local office staff support. We will provide coffee, tea, and snacks at each training session. The class will be capped at 35 people, please contact Sarah to RSVP as soon as possible.
To register for the Habitat Stewards Training, call Sarah Lane at 206-577-7809, or e-mail: waeducationcoordinator@nwf.org
Seattle Mountaineers Naturalist Program
Thor Hanson, “The Triumph of Seeds” | Nov. 11, 2015, 7-9 p.m. | Seattle Program Center, Magnuson Park
The conservation biologist and award-winning author will focus his presentation on his latest book about how seeds not only out-performed their plant rivals but shaped human history:
Seeds turned early man from nomad to gardener.
The search for nutmeg and peppercorns drove the Age of Discovery.
Cottonseed sparked the Industrial Revolution.
Volunteer News
Fall 2015 Plant Sale Volunteer Recognition
By Marissa Wright 2015 Volunteer Coordinator
Our chapter wants to recognize the 71 Volunteers who turned out to make our October Fall Plant Sale at the Bellevue Botanical Garden such a success! Our Volunteers did a fantastic job with set-up and assisting all of our customers on the day of the Plant Sale. We sold a few thousand native plants while hitting our target fundraising-goal. To top it off we had the fastest site exit on record!
Our WNPS chapter has only one major fundraiser: our biannual Native Plant Sales. Our net profit helps sustain our programs, our educational outreach, our stewardship, and our WNPS headquarter office. Our Native Plant Sales are 100% Volunteer-run events. WNPS relies upon Member-Volunteers continuing to support our Plant Sale fundraiser.
Below, we recognize our most recent Plant Sale Volunteers. Please consider volunteering for the upcoming Spring Plant Sale on April 30th, 2016.
Please send email to mwright2013@yahoo.com or call (425) 503-3858 if your name was missed from this listing.
Education Committee
The Education Committee is looking for volunteers who have experience working with students or with teachers of elementary and middle school age children on natural history projects. We would like help in:
Updating resource boxes WNPS has available to teachers for classroom use
Formulating native plant oriented activities for youngsters that can be used at our information booth, on school field trips, or during classroom visits.
Brainstorming outreach opportunities for all ages.
Putting together simple classroom presentations
If you have ideas, experience, are artistic and tech savvy or are just plain interested, please contact CPS Education Chair, Franja Bryant, at franjabryant@hotmail.com.
Stewardship Grant Report
Friends of North Beach Park
By Luke McGuff
Purpose of the Grant
The purpose of the grant was to increase density and diversity of native plants in two wetland areas of North Beach Park at NW 90th St. and 24th Ave. NW, Seattle. All work took place in the Headwaters Bowl and the Central Valley habitat management units (HMUs), here on Figure 1:
Figure 1 North Beach Park, Seattle
Green lines indicate park boundaries. Red lines indicate habitat management unit boundaries. The park is interrupted
by SDOT rights of way, but restoration work is done in those areas.
The Headwaters Bowl (“HWB”) and Central Valley (“CV”) are the lowest parts of North Beach Park, and are primarily wetlands. The soils are permanently saturated by broad, horizontal groundwater seeps leaking out from the base of the ravine walls. The seeps flow into a small, unnamed stream which leaves the park at the northwest end.
The canopy in this area is dominated by old
Acer macrophyllum and
Alnus rubra. There is less than 5% mature
Thuja plicata. Restoration plantings in these areas have focused primarily on trees and shrubs, with some emergents. When we have been able to plant emergents, they were in small numbers. The grant allowed us to increase the numbers of emergents we were able to plant compared to previous years, and introduced two species new to the park (Sawbeak sedge,
Carex stipata and Daggerleaf rush,
Juncus ensifolius). We also planted a number of small trees and shrubs, including one species (Pacific willow,
Salix lucida) new to the park.
We planted the emergents during the October workparty (Table 1). The emergent plants were split between obligate and facultative wetland plants, and were planted into seeps and saturated soils in the wetlands proper.
Table 1: October Planting
Scientific Name
|
Common Name
|
Wetland
|
Quantity
|
Carex amplifolia
|
Broad-leaved sedge
|
OBL
|
50
|
Carex stipata*
|
Sawbeak sedge
|
OBL
|
100
|
Deschampsia caespitosa
|
Tufted hair-grass
|
FACW
|
50
|
Glyceria elata
|
Tall mannagrass
|
FACW
|
100
|
Juncus ensifolius*
|
Daggerleaf rush
|
FACW
|
50
|
Scirpus microcarpus
|
Panicled bulrush
|
OBL
|
100
|
* = Plants introduced to North Beach Park with this grant.
We planted thirty of the fifty trees and shrubs during the February work party (Table 2). The remaining 20 were planted into Tad Anderson’s parking strip to grow longer (see Table 4 and below). All plants were receiving the same watering, light, and fertilizer regimes.
The trees and shrubs were facultative wetland plants, and were planted slightly upland of the wettest areas of the wetlands. We followed a wettest to driest planting gradient for these plants, as provided by Douglas Gresham, WA DNR wetland scientist (Table 3).
Table 2: February Planting
Scientific Name
|
Common Name
|
Wetland
|
Quantity
|
Fraxinus latifolia
|
Oregon ash
|
FACW
|
30
|
Malus fusca
|
Pacific crab apple
|
FACW
|
30
|
Physocarpus capitatus
|
Pacific ninebark
|
FACW
|
30
|
Salix lucida*
|
Pacific willow
|
FACW
|
30
|
Salix sitchensis
|
Sitka willow
|
FACW
|
30
|
* = Plants introduced to North Beach Park with this grant.
Table 3: Wettest to driest
Scientific Name
|
Common Name
|
Salix lucida
|
Pacific willow
|
Salix sitchensis
|
Sitka willow
|
Fraxinus latifolia
|
Oregon ash
|
Physocarpus capitatus
|
Pacific ninebark
|
Malus fusca
|
Pacific crab apple
|
Twenty of the trees and shrubs were planted into Tad Anderson’s parking strip on February 26, 2015. Ten will be planted in February 2016 and the remaining ten the following year. This will give us a qualitative comparison between the relative health states of plants installed into the park at the bare root stage versus plants given +1 and +2 nursery treatments. However, the low numbers will not provide enough data for a quantitative analysis.
On May 25, 2015 (three months after initial planting) we examined the health of the plants. Table 4 lists plant health using a four point scale.
Table 4: Health of plants in parking strip nursery.
Scientific Name
|
Common Name
|
0
|
1
|
2
|
3
|
Fraxinus latifolia
|
Oregon ash
|
0
|
0
|
3
|
17
|
Malus fusca
|
Pacific crab apple
|
0
|
15
|
2
|
3
|
Physocarpus capitatus
|
Pacific ninebark
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
20
|
Scientific Name
|
Common Name
|
0
|
1
|
2
|
3
|
Salix lucida
|
Pacific willow
|
1
|
3
|
3
|
13
|
Salix sitchensis
|
Sitka willow
|
1
|
0
|
0
|
19
|
0 = dead; 1 = dead leader and/or very unhealthy; 2 = weak but probably okay; 3 = thriving.
The
Malus fusca is by far the worst, with 75% in category one. It appears to be diseased, with the leaves very unhealthy and covered in rust and/or mildew. Second is the
Salix lucida, with 20% in categories zero or one. The
Physocarpus capitatus is doing the best, with all plants in category three.
Accomplishment of the Grant
The grant allowed us to purchase wetland plants in a quantity and of a type we were not previously able to. Only three species on this planting list (Carex amplifolia, Glyceria elata, and Fraxinus latifolia) were found growing in the park prior to restoration. Another three (C. stipata, Juncus ensifolius, and Salix lucida) were introduced to the park as a result of this grant. The remainder had been planted in small quantities during restoration. All plants were installed in areas where they had not previously been observed or planted.
Community Involvement
The two plantings were conducted during public work parties of Friends of North Beach Park, in October 2014 and February 2015.
During the October planting, we had the assistance of eleven volunteers from North Seattle College’s iCare program. Experienced forest stewards lead small groups of the volunteers in the planting. The plants were divided into five buckets, each receiving a portion of each plant.
The February planting included forest stewards and members of the general public. The plants were divided into five buckets, each bucket receiving one species. The buckets were labeled with species and wetness requirement.
Public Benefits
The new plants will add to the visual texture of the park from ground level up to mid-canopy. This will, hopefully, improve the appeal of the park for nearby residents.
The bird habitat will be improved with the greater structural complexity. There will also be greater habitat for pollinators and insects.
The emergent plants (if successful) will help slow movement of water through the park, whether the groundwater seeps or stormwater runoff. This will provide flood control for people downstream of the park.
We hope that the variety of root structures will help to stabilize soils and slow water movement through the park. The greater structural complexity from groundcover to mid-canopy will improve habitat for birds. The greater variety of blooms and bloom times will improve habitat for pollinators, while the leaves will provide food for the larvae of pollinators and other native insects. And last but not least, the greater plant diversity will improve the aesthetic experience of humans visiting the park.
Grant Acknowledgment
The WNPS grant was mentioned in outgoing work party announcements and all blog posts related to the work.
The grant was also acknowledged in the “Restoration Management Plan for North Beach Park,” written as part of my Master of Environmental Horticulture final project.
WNPS gratefully acknowledges the generous funding provided by the Martin T. and Rebecca A. Chaney Foundation that made this grant possible.
Plant of the Month:
Blechnum spicant
By Janka Hobbs
Deer fern, also called hard fern in some places, is a classic evergreen woodland fern of shady wet forests. First described by Linnaeus, it has a circumboreal distribution, though there may be some question about how closely related the various populations really are. In North America, it is limited to the West Coast, from southern Alaska to northern California, and east into the Idaho panhandle.
True to its name, deer fern is an important winter forage for ungulates, notably Columbia black-tailed deer. Cattle and sheep also find it palatable.
Deer fern roots can be used as an “emergency food,” but it is possible that they contain thiaminase, an enzyme that “robs the body of B-complex vitamins.” (PFAF database www.PFAF.org). Some Native American tribes used the leaves for medicinal purposes, or to wrap food. Fresh leaves can also be chewed to prevent thirst.
Everyone from the Royal Horticultural Society to NW Great Plant Picks gushes about deer fern as a horticultural gem. It is a tidy, dark green mounding plant about a foot in circumference whose strongly dimorphic, dark fertile fronds lend visual interest. In Vascular Plants of the PNW it is described as “a truly choice fern usable in many places in the garden, but so common as to have little appeal to most gardeners.” To which Art Krukeberg adds, “let not its commonness stand in the way of introducing it to the garden.” I agree with Professor K. If you have a damp shady spot, or some bare ground under the rhodies, consider a deer fern of three. You won’t be disappointed.
Next time you are hiking through a slide alder thicket, remember how useful it can be—and watch out for bears.
Central Puget Sound Chapter WNPS
Officers & Committee Chairs
2015-2016
