Where the Wild Things are 2018 edition

"I am quite sure now that often, very often, in matters concerning religion and politics a man's reasoning powers are not above the monkey's."   Mark Twain

.....................I think Mr. Twain may gave greatly insulted the monkey in this case. 

So I ran this by some very knowledgeable folks and according to some university folks in research with the Oregon Flora project, this may very well be the northern most known wild population of Trillium kurabayashii ever recorded. I thought that was pretty cool, and it comes from a gem of a natural area park that is somewhat of a local secret. There is some debate I suppose whether this could have washed in from a cultivated source, as this is in the flood plain of the Willamette River, which is of course our main water arterial that flows north through the Willamette Valley. It's entirely possible that someone in the Eugene, Corvallis, Albany, Harrisburg or other riverside town could have been growing it and seed could have ridden a spring time flood to find it's way here. Or again, maybe it's just a disjunct Northern Population that has been hiding here for millenia. Either way, it's a plant and it seems to be expanding it's range, finding it's way north as the climate changes, maybe it's running from the baking heat that it senses coming as the polar ice caps melt and the sea levels rise, the hole in the ozone increases the mean temperature over the globe and plants find ways to move.

Trillium ovatum
Our much more common species of wake robin is in bloom now and indeed the robins are out and about now.

It was frosty this morning and the thermometer read 31 as I scrapped the ice off the windsheild. Par for the course as I'm usually never frost free until after tax day.

Cheers,
Mark