This salal is growing in a state park in Port Townsend. As such, it is protected from “collecting”. Unfortunately the salal that is one of the most common understory plants in the Pacific Northwest is also highly prized as an accent plant in floral arrangements. Illegal harvesting on public lands has severely reduced its extent.
I was walking in the park and saw this patch of salal. It caught my eye with its rich green color. It’s a very common ground cover and it usually doesn’t get noticed much. But when everything else is in its winter colors, it made a welcome splash of GREEN!
I take a lot of shots of the sky … cloud formations, etc. But I also like to take photos of what’s under my feet (or at least near my feet … wouldn’t want to give the impression that I walk all over flowers and other plants). These are a couple of forest floor photos that I like. Both are from the North Fork Skokomish river valley in the Olympic National Park.
I spotted this red splash of Oregon Grape in the middle of a patch of Salal. Two of the typical natural ground covers in the Pacific Northwest.
The Rhododendron is the state flower of Washington. Salal and Madrone are allow common … especially the salal. I have a lot of salal growing in my yard (growing wild) and it is a nice ground cover. This was taken along the Larry Scott Trail (a converted rail right-of-way). There is also a leaf or two from the low-growing native blackberry … which make the best pie, by far.