Meet the Plants

Barestem Desert Parsley

Lomatium nudicaule

• Hul’qumi’num Name: q’uxmin
• Description: Herbaceous perennial with aromatic foliage and bright yellow flowers which attract pollinators. Carrot-like seeds appear in summer.
• Habitat: Dry, open sites.
• Harvest:  Young leaves, and seeds.
• Edibility:  The young leaves can be eaten raw and cooked. The seeds can be used as flavouring in cooking or chewed to soothe or sore throat.
• Fun Fact:  An important medicinal and ceremonial plant, q`uxmin is a great addition to a pollinator garden.

Blue-eyed Grass

Sisyrinchium idahoense

• Description: Showy tufted perennial from 10-40 cm tall.  Stems are usually flattened and look like miniature irises.  Flowers are blue to purple with yellow centers.
• Habitat: Moist to wet grassy meadows, marshes, fields, and roadside ditches.
• Pair with: Sedges, shooting stars, and camas.
• Fun Fact: This beautiful plant is an iris rather than a grass, but the flowers do look like blue eyes opening early in the morning.  The variety ‘Macounii’ is a rare local variant here in the Southern Gulf Islands.

Brittle Pricklypear

Opuntia fragilis

• Hul’qumi’num Name:  thuthuhw
• Description: Low, mat-forming succulent perennial up to 15m tall. Has large spines with smaller yellowish bristles. Tissue paper-like flowers are yellow, showy, and large.
• Habitat: Dry, open sites on sandy or gravelly soils and rock outcrops.
• Pair with: Stonecrop and Oregon sunshine

Broad-leaved Stonecrop

Sedum spathulifolium

• Description: Perennial, succulent herb to 20cm tall with spoon-shaped, sage-green to purple, chubby leaves. Flowers are bright yellow in pointed clusters atop leafy stems.
• Habitat: Rocky outcrops, cliffs, coastal bluffs, and forest openings.
• Pair with: Oregon sunshine, brittle pricklypear, sea Blush, and nodding onion.

Buckbean • Bogbean

Menyanthes trifolia

• Description: Perennial, semi-aquatic herb from a thick rhizome. Beautiful, detailed white infloresences and leaflets of three distinguish this unique wetland species.
• Habitat: Bogs, fens, marshes, ponds, swamps, and lakes.
• Pair with: Slough sedge, hardhack, Pacific water parsley, skunk cabbage
• Fun Fact: This beautiful plant attracts a variety of pollinators and requires year-round access to water to thrive. It can form large colonies in the right conditions.

Canada Goldenrod

Solidago lepida

• Description: Perennial herb up to 150 cm tall, spreading by underground rhizomes. Bright yellowflowers appear in mid to late summer, attracting many pollinators.
• Habitat: Open sites with full sun: roadsides, meadows, coastal bluffs, forest edges.
• Pair with: Yarrow, coastal gumweed, blue-eyed grass, native bunchgrasses.
• Fun Fact: Canada goldenrod is a late-flowering native species, providing valuable resources for pollinators during the driest months of the year. It is widespread across Canada and western North America, but uncommon on Galiano Island.

Chocolate Lily

Fritillaria affinis

• Hul’qumi’num Name: stl’eleqw’
• Description: Perennial herb up to 80 cm tall, with dark purple nodding flowers and yellow mottling.  The bulb is composed of small, rice-like grains.
• Habitat: Open meadows, open woods, and rocky bluffs overlooking the ocean.
• Pair with: Camas, seablush, monkeyflower, fawn lily, and snowberry.
• Fun Fact: They do not taste like chocolate.  However, the rice-like roots can be eaten.  Please don’t, because they are rare – just enjoy their beauty.

Coastal Gumweed

Grindelia integrifolia

• Description: Perennial herb with fuzzy stems. Toothed leaves are resin-dotted. Bright yellow flowers are subtended by bracts that are covered in a white, sticky latex or ‘gum’.
• Habitat: Beaches, rocky shores, salt marches, coastal bluffs, and roadsides.
• Harvest: Flowers bloom in late summer, and can be harvested at any time.
• Use: The flowers are anti-spasmodic and are an excellent expectorant.
• Fun Fact:  The resin has a delicious spicy-sweet smell, like incense. Pairs well with Yarrow for a colorful late-season display.

Coastal Sagewort

Artemisia suksdorfii

• Description: Fragrant perennial herb branching from the ground, with leaves that are white and woolly on the underside.
• Habitat: Moist, sandy sites with sunlight, usually near the ocean.
• Harvest: Mature leaves and seeds.
• Edibility: Leaves can be used in a delicious digestive tea, which has been known to induce powerful dreams.
• Fun Fact: This genus is considered medicinal sacred across the world, used as a smudge, and associated with women’s fertility cycles.

Cooley’s Hedge-nettle

Stachys chamissonis var. cooleyae

• Description: Aromatic perennial herb growing up to 150 cm from creeping rhizomes. Pink flowers appear in midsummer.
• Habitat: Swamps, marshes, wet meadows, and disturbed areas.
• Pair with: Western redcedar, willows, hardhack, slough sedge, salmonberry, red alder.
• Fun Fact: Unlike stinging nettles, hedge-nettles are soft and do not sting; instead, they produce attractive flowers and a musky odour. The flowers are pollinated by hummingbirds.

Cow parsnip

Heracleum lanatum

• Hul’qumi’num Name:  yaala’
• Description: Large, hairy perennial herb from a taproot. White umbel flowers appear in summer, followed by aromatic seeds.
• Habitat: Moist, open sites.
• Harvest: Harvest stalks in late spring. Harvest seeds in the fall.
• Edibility: Stems must be peeled before using raw, cooked, steamed, or fried. Seeds are ground up for seasoning.
• Fun Fact: Yaala’ is related to giant hogweed, which is a toxic invasive species. Yaala’ is safe to plant and harvest, but some people are sensitive to its oils – so wear gloves!

Crevice Alumroot

Heuchera micrantha

• Description: Perennial up to 60cm tall. Leaves are hairy on the leaf stalk. Flowers are small white, and numerous in open clusters.
• Habitat: Alumroot is found on stream-banks, rock crevices, and mossy slopes.
• Pair with: Fringe Cups, Stonecrop, Falsebox, and Baldhip Rose 
• Fun Fact: With their small white flowers, Alumroot is a beautiful addition to rock gardens.

Crown Brodiaea

Brodiaea coronaria

• Description: Perennial herb to 30cm tall, with grass-like leaves drying out before elegant purple flowers appear in late spring.
• Habitat: Open, gravelly sites, grassy meadows, and cliffs.
• Pairs with: blue-eyed grass, bunchgrasses, sea blush, fool’s onion, and camas
• Fun Fact:  This flowers makes a gorgeous rock garden plant and a great addition to a native pollinator garden.

Death Camas

Toxicoscordion venenosum

• Description: Perennial form oval bulbs covered with blackish scales. Stem up to 60cm tall, Leaves are grass-like. Flowers are spectacular white clusters in spring.
• Habitat: Open forests and forest edges, dry meadows, and rocky slopes.
• Pairs with: Farewell-to-spring, sea blush, chocolate lily, and spring gold.
• Fun Fact: The bulbs and leaves are deadly poisonous – so why plant this at all? It’s beautiful, and an important species for pollinators. Only plant death camas if you do not intend to harvest camas for food in the area.

Dense-spike Primrose

Epilobium densiflorum

• Description: Annual herb with an alternating leafy stem. Pale-pink to purple flowers bloom from spiky cups.
• Habitat: Moist meadows, open slopes, and disturbed areas.
• Pairs with: Fireweed,  monkeyflower, and camas
• Fun Fact: A Red-Listed species, there are only a dozen or so known occurrences in Canada. Nevertheless, this ruderal species is easy to grow, and may be present in local soils, waiting to germinate.

Douglas Aster

Symphyotrichum cf. douglasii

• Description: Perennial herb up to 140 cm tall, spreading by underground rhizomes. Violet flowers with bright yellow centres appear in late summer.
• Habitat: Moist to mesic meadows, roadsides, streambanks, and open forests.
• Pair with: Yarrow, coastal gumweed, blue-eyed grass, and Canada goldenrod.
• Fun Fact: American asters are late-flowering native species, providing valuable resources for pollinators during the driest months of the year. The taxonomy of this group is complex and under revision; this species is often identified as the “Douglas aster”.

False Lily-of-the-Valley

Maianthemum dilatatum

• Description: Perennial groundcover with broad, heart-shaped leaves on thin stalks. Flowers are borne in cylindrical clusters.
• Habitat: Moist to wet, usually shady forests, often along rivers.
• Pair with: Twinflower, fringecups, ferns, western redcedar, and salmonberry.
• Fun Fact: Evey bit as lovely as its namesake, this plant makes a beautiful, shade-tolerant groundcover.

Farewell-to-Spring

Clarkia amoena

• Description: Taprooted annual, spreading to upright, with pink to rose flowers in late spring.
• Habitat: Dry, open slopes, coastal bluffs, forest edges, and meadows.
• Pairs with: Camas, spring gold, sea blush, crown brodiaea, and fool’s onion.
• Fun Fact: Also called ‘summer’s darling’ and ‘herald-of-summer’, this lovely wildflower tend to bloom at the tail end of the spring bloom season.

Field Chickweed

Cerastium arvense subsp. strictum

• Description: Perennial herb to 25cm tall, with sticky blue-grey foliage and white flowers on slender stems.
• Habitat: Open woodlands, rocky outcrops, meadows, and coastal bluffs.
• Pairs with: Sea blush, spring gold, camas, stonecrop, alumroot, seep monkeyflower, and chocolate lily.
• Fun Fact: This stunning perennial wildflower thrives dry, rocky slopes. It also occurs in Europe, but this subspecies is native to western North America.

Fireweed

Chamerion angustifolium

• Hul’qumi’num Name: lulutthulp
• Description: Perennial from rhizome-like roots gives rise to a leafy, unbranched stem and a terminal raceme of spectacular rose to purple flowers. Grows 80cm to up to 3m tall.
• Habitat: Moist to dry disturbed areas, meadows, thickets, and riverbanks.
• Harvest: New shoots in May; leaves from June onwards. Mature stalks for cordage.
• Edibility: The cooked shoots are a tasty spring vegetable. Roots are used in herbal remedies.
• Fun Fact: Fireweed is a famous fire-follower, growing en-masse in recently burned areas or other sites of disturbance

Fool’s Onion

Triteleia hyacinthina

• Description: Perennial herb up to 70cm tall. Leaves are grass-like, flowers are white to light blue, in clusters on a long stem.
• Habitat: Open, grassy areas at low elevations, and coastal bluffs.
• Pairs with: Camas, sea blush, death camas, monkeyflowers, and chocolate lily.
• Fun Fact:  Fool’s onion looks a bit like an onion, but doesn’t smell or taste like one. Its delightful white flowers are an excellent addition to a wildflower meadow.

Fringecups

Tellima grandiflora

• Description: Perennial from 40-80cm tall. Fuzzy, heart shaped leaves producing sprays of white to pink flowers on spikes. Flowers are fragrant, with frilly petals.
• Habitat: Moist forests, glades, stream banks, avalanche tracks, and clearings.
• Pairs with: Osoberry, false lily-of-the-valley, crevice alumroot, and twinflower
• Fun Fact: Fringecups are an attractive, low-maintenance wildflower for shady garden borders and moist areas.

Gairdner’s Yampah

Perideridia gairdneri

• Hul’qumi’num Name: sháwəәq
• Description: Slender perennial herb from a tuberous edible root. Solitary stems give rise to finely dissected leaves and white, terminal umbel inflorescences.
• Habitat: Moist to dry meadows, woodlands, and coastal bluffs.
• Harvest: Roots are best to harvest in late spring, prior to flowering.
• Edibility: Roots are small, starchy, and can be eaten raw or cooked.
• Fun Fact: Yampah was and is a common root crop harvested by Indigenous people throughout the west. In BC, it grows only in dry, southern areas.

Great Camas

Camassia leichtlinii

• Hul’qumi’num Name: speenhw
• Description: Perennial herb to 70 cm tall, from a starchy, bulb-like corm. Leaves are grass-like, flowers are pale to deep blue and purple, followed by papery capsules.
• Habitat: Grassy meadows, ocean bluffs, and Garry Oak-associated ecosystems.
• Harvest: Harvest mature corms when the seed pods are dry.
• Edibility: Camas corms are full of a starch called inulin, and are traditionally cooked overnight in steaming pits.
• Fun Fact:  Camas was and is a staple food of Coast Salish peoples. To harvest, it’s best to grow it yourself for several years until it is ready.

Henderson’s Shooting Star

Dodecatheon hendersonii

• Description: Perennial with egg-shaped leaves surrounding a leafless flowering stalk. Purple flowers are swept backwards, attached to a red-purple stamen tube. 5-50cm tall.
• Habitat: Dry grassy meadows, coastal bluffs, and open woodlands.
• Pairs with: Snowberry, spring gold, sea blush,fawn lily, chocolate lily, and camas.
• Fun Fact: The leaves of this species are edible raw in a pinch, but they are too rare in the wild to harvest. They are a great addition to a wildflower meadow.

Menzies’ Larkspur

Delphinium menziesii

• Description: Stout, slender-stalked perennial with green lobed leaves. Deep-blue to purple flowers appear in beautiful racemes. Up to 50cm tall.
• Habitat: Grassy bluffs, rock outcrops, and meadows.
• Pairs with: Spring gold, camas, chocolate lily, field chickweed, and sea blush.
• Fun Fact: Menzies’ Larkspur are a beautiful addition to a wildflower garden, but don’t eat them – they’re toxic to humans and livestock.

Mountain Sweet Cicely

Osmorhiza berteroi

• Description: Taprooted perennial with slender stems, 30-100cm tall. Carrot-like leaflets toothed and thin. Flowers are greenish-white and inconspicuous in loose umbels.
• Habitat: Coniferous and broadleaf forest understory, forest edges, thickets, and shady areas.
• Pairs with: Vanilla leaf, dull Oregon grape, sword fern, evergreen huckleberry, and salal.
• Fun Fact: The leaves are edible and have a pleasing anise flavour. The roots are medicinal and have been used in preparing root-beer.

Nodding Beggarsticks

Bidens cernua

• Description: Annual herb growing up to 150 cm, with bright yellow, nodding flowers.
• Habitat: Swamps, marshes, wet meadows, and lakesides.
• Pair with: Slough sedge, skunk cabbage, rushes, and black cottonwood.
• Fun Fact: The unique nodding flowers attract a variety of pollinators, and the seeds are eaten by birds and ducks.

Nodding Onion

Allium cernuum

• Hul’qumi’num Name: q’wuxwi’uc
• Description: Perennial herb from clustered bulbs. Pale purple nodding flowers appear in summer. Unmistakable aroma of onion emanates from hollow, tube-like leaves and bulbs.
• Habitat: Dry open woods, meadows, rock outcrops, and coastal bluffs.
• Edibility: The strap-like leaves can be eaten like chives, and the bulbs are delicious roasted. Flowers are spicy.
• Fun Fact: These plants can self-seed and spread in bunches when happy. Good for a sunny, hot area.

Pacific Water Parsley

Oenanthe sarmentosa

• Description: Herbaceous perennial with soft stems up to 1m tall. Finely dissected leaves give rise to clusters of white umbel flowers.
• Habitat: Low wet sites in standing water. Marshes, bogs, and swamps.
• Pairs with: Sedges, horsetails, salmonberry, hardhack, and skunk cabbage.
• Fun Fact: This common plant of wet areas is an underappreciated beauty. It is not, however, parsley – don’t eat it.

Palmate Coltsfoot

Petasites palmatus

• Description: Perennial, 10-50 cm tall. White flower clusters appear in early spring, followed by large, woolly, deeply lobed leaves.
• Habitat: Streambanks, gravel bars, moist forest clearings, and swamps.
• Pair with: Salmonberry, thimbleberry, sedges, horsetails, skunk cabbage, and red elderberry.
• Fun Fact: Palmate Coltsfoot is unusual in that the flowering stems appear well before the leaves. It is commonly used in herbal smoking blends and in herbal teas to address chronic respiratory ailments.

Pearly Everlasting

Anaphalis margaritaceae

• Description: Perennial herb with white woolly stems and leaves, 20 – 100cm tall. Papery white flowers with bright yellow centers appear in the late summer.
• Habitat: Rocky slopes, open forests, roadsides, and disturbed areas.
• Pair with: Trailing blackberry, yarrow, coastal gumweed, and oceanspray.
• Fun Fact: This beautiful late-season wildflower grows well on harsh soils and disturbed sites, is loved by pollinators, and makes a lovely dried bouquet. The flowers can be harvested and used in a spicy medicinal tea for respiratory ailments.

Pretty Shooting Star

Dodecatheon pulchellum

• Description: Perennial with lance-shaped leaves surrounding a leafless flowering stalk. Purple flowers are swept backwards, attached to a yellow-purple stamen tube. 5-50cm tall.
• Habitat: Dry grassy meadows, coastal bluffs, wetlands, and open woodlands.
• Pairs with: Snowberry, spring gold, sea blush, fawn lily, chocolate lily, and camas.
• Fun Fact: Larger and more widespread than Henderson’s shooting star, pretty shooting star is found throughout the coast north to Alaska.

Rattlesnake Plantain

Goodyera oblongifolia

• Hul’qumi’num Name:  kwul’heen
• Description: Evergreen perennial herb, stems from 20 – 45cm tall, with exquisite dark green striped leaves. Delicate inflorescences of white flowers are borne on long stalks.
• Habitat: Dry to moist coniferous forests.
• Pair with: Sword fern, trailing blackberry, Douglas-fir, and western redcedar.
• Fun Fact:  Early settlers believed this orchid could cure snake bites because of the unique snakeskin-like markings on the leaves. This turned out to be wrong. This delicate plant is not a plantain at all – it is actually an orchid!

Red Columbine

Aquilegia formosa

• Description: Perennial herb with finely-lobed basal green leaves and bright red and yellow drooping flowers.
• Habitat: Moist, open to partially shaded sites in forests, meadows, and streambanks.
• Pair with: Deer fern, vanilla leaf, salmonberry, thimbleberry, and tiger lily.
• Fun Fact: This unmistakable wildflower is beloved by hummingbirds, pollinators, and gardeners alike. It will cross-pollinate with garden columbines to produce a range of unusual hybrids.

Redwood Sorrel

Oxalis oregana

• Description: Creeping perennial with 3 heart-shaped leaflets, like clover, from 5 – 15 cm tall. Flowers are delicate and white.
• Habitat: Shady forests and forest edges.
• Harvest: Leaves and flowers can be harvested year-round.
• Edibility: This tasty herb is filled with oxalic acid, giving it a pleasant sour flavor. It is best eaten raw in salads.
• Fun Fact:  At night, in direct sun, or in rain, redwood sorrel will fold its leaves in half, then unfold them again in the soft sunlight it prefers. In Canada, it occurs only on Vancouver Island.

Sea Blush

Plectritis congesta

• Description: Annual wildflower with an upright stem, 10 – 60cm tall. Leaves are oblong and smooth, flowers are pink and clustered at the end of short stalks.
• Habitat: Coastal bluffs, Garry oak meadows, wet meadows, and rock outcrops.
• Pair with: Camas, monkeyflowers, chocolate lily, farewell-to-spring, spring gold, q’uxmin, and white fawn lily.
• Fun Fact: Hills look like they’re blushing for the ocean when sea blush is in full bloom.

Seep Monkeyflower

Erythanthe guttatus

• Description: Annual, self-seeding herb from 10 – 80cm tall. Leaves are in pairs, oval, and coarsely toothed. Flowers are large, cheerful, and yellow.
• Habitat: Crevices, rocky seeps, streambanks, gravel bars, ditches, and meadows.
• Pair with: Camas, chocolate lily, sea blush, miner’s lettuce, and crevice alumroot.
• Fun Fact: Monkeyflowers are highly variable, and there are several species on Galiano Island.

Self-heal • Heal-all

Prunella vulgaris

• Description: Perennial, rhizomatous herb with spreading stems, 10 – 50cm long. Smooth, lance-shaped leaves give rise to terminal spikes of purple flowers.
• Habitat: Seeps, moist areas, clearings, fields, roadsides, lawns, and forest edges.
• Harvest: Leaves and flowers in mid-summer.
• Edibility: The flowers and leaves are used in tea and as medicine.
• Fun Fact: Self-heal is a truly cosmopolitan species, and is documented on every continent. It has many medicinal uses, as the name suggests, but it does not, in fact, ‘heal all’ afflictions.

Skunk Cabbage

Lysichiton americanus

• Hul’qumi’num Name: ts’a’kw’a’
• Description: Perennial semi-aquatic herb from a short, thick rhizome, growing up to 70 cm. Giant green leaves cradle a bright yellow, lantern-shaped inflorescence known as a spadix.
• Habitat: Swamps, wetlands, and moist forests.
• Pair-with: Western redcedar, slough sedge, salmonberry, red alder, cascara.
• Fun Fact: The root of skunk cabbage is used as an antispasmodic, and has been processed for food in times of famine. The unusual inflorescence emits a “skunky” odor to trick flies and other insects that are attracted to carrion into pollinating its diminutive flowers.

Slimleaf Onion

Allium amplectens

• Description: Perennial herb with strap-like leaves to 30cm tall. Grows from a deeply buried bulbs. Flowers are speckled white to pink.
• Habitat: Open, rocky sites and coastal bluffs.
• Pair with: Sea blush, camas, stonecrop, white fawn lily, and chocolate lily.
• Fun Fact: This is a blue-listed species; there are only a small handful of occurrences on Galiano. Please do not disturb them! These beauties are a sign of a healthy ecosystem, and habitat destruction is their biggest threat.

Spring Gold

Lomatium utriculatum

• Description: Perennial herb from 10 – 60cm tall, with soft, lacy leaves. The flowers are bright yellow umbels, followed by carrot-like seed clusters.
• Habitat: Dry, open, rocky slopes, grassy bluffs, and vernal meadows.
• Pair with: Sea blush, camas, stonecrop, white fawn lily, and Oregon sunshine.
• Fun Fact: ‘Spring gold’ refers to the splashes of gold flowers that appear in the spring. They are loved by pollinators and people alike.

Springbank Clover

Trifolium wormskjoldii

• Hul’qumi’num Name: tkwla’i’shen
• Description: Low-growing perennial herb with tripart leaves and juicy rhizomes. Pink clover flowers appear in mid-summer.
• Habitat: Estuaries, seeps, riverbanks, and moist soils.
• Harvest: The long, spaghetti-like rhizomes can be harvested in fall.
• Edibility: The rhizomes are like bean sprouts – crunchy and refreshing.
• Fun Fact: The rhizomes were traditionally stored and eaten with the long brown roots of Pacific silverweed. They were dried, bundled, and stored for winter meals.

Stinging Nettle

Urtica dioica

• Hul’qumi’num Name: tth’uxtth’ux
• Description: Herbaceous perennial up to 200 cm, spreading by underground rhizomes. Leaves and stems are covered with hollow hairs (trichomes) which delvier a powerful sting.
• Habitat: Moist to mesic thickets, streambanks, deciduous woodlands, and open sites.
• Harvest: Stem tips, leaves, seeds, and rhizomes. Harvest stems and leaves prior to flowering and seeding.
• Edibility: Stems and leaves are delicious in a variety of dishes, and can be eaten raw or cooked after processing.
• Fun Fact: This highly nutritious and versatile herb is also an important larval food source for several native butterflies.

Tapertip Onion

Allium acuminatum

• Description: Perennial herb up to 30cm tall. Leaves are grass-like, flowers are bright pink to purple. Also known as Hooker’s onion.
• Habitat: Open, grassy areas at low elevations; dry, rocky bluffs.
• Pair with: Camas, sea blush, death camas, fool’s onion, and chocolate lily.
• Fun Fact: The bulbs and leaves are edible and have a strong onion odor, but this colourful wildflower is best enjoyed for its beauty. On wet years, the blooming can be spectacular.

Three-leaved Foamflower

Tiarella trifoliata

• Description: Perennial herb from scaly rhizomes, growing up to 50 cm. Leaves have three leaflets, and inflorescences bear numerous small, white flowers.
• Habitat: Moist forests, meadows, streambanks, and ditches.
• Pair with: Western redcedar, twinflower, mountain sweet cicely, red columbine
• Fun Fact: This attractive groundcover is an indicator for forest soils with above-average moisture and nutrient levels. At low elevations, it has three distinct leaflets on each leaf, but at higher elevations the leaflets join to become one leaf with three lobes.

Tiger Lily

Lilium columbianum

• Description: Perennial herb with slender stems and whorled leaves, up to 1.2m tall. Showy, nodding flowers are unmistakable in early summer.
• Habitat: Meadows, thickets, open forests, and clearings.
• Pair with: Alumroot, thimbleberry, vanilla leaf, cow parsnip, and white fawn lily.
• Fun Fact: The spotted petals gave rise to a belief that smelling the flower would give one freckles. We have been unable to verify this, but will continue to try!

Tomcat Clover

Trifolium wildenovii

• Description: Annual spreading herb with tripartite leaves, from 5 – 20cm tall. Purple flowers bloom in springtime.
• Habitat: Open forests, rocky slopes, meadows, and coastal bluffs.
• Pair with: Bunchgrasses, camas, dense-spike primrose, and farewell-to-spring.
• Fun Fact: This is a wonderful annual flower for pollinator gardens. It also supports moth species, such as the orange sulphur moth.

Twinflower

Linnaea borealis

• Description: Trailing, slender, semi-woody perennial evergreen groundcover, with nodding, pink trumpet-like flowers that bloom in pairs.
• Habitat: Coniferous forests, forest edges, roadsides, and rocky slopes.
• Pair with: Oregon grape, vanilla Leaf, salal, alumroot, and sword fern.
• Fun Fact: This flower has a subtle, fragrant perfume and makes a lovelygroundcover. It was the favorite flower of Carl Linnaeus, the Swedish ‘father of taxonomy’ for whom it is named.

Vanilla Leaf

Achyls triphylla

• Description: Perennial herb that spreads by thin rhizomes. Single leaves are fan shaped and three-lobed, followed by delicate white flower spikes.
• Habitat: Coniferous forests, forest edges, roadsides, and shady areas.
• Pair with: Oregon grape, twinflower, redwood sorrel, fringecups, and sword fern.
• Fun Fact: When cut and dried, the leaves emit a powerful fragrance of vanilla. They can be bundled and used to repel insects and perfume interior or exterior environments.

White Fawn Lily

Erythronium oregonum

• Description: Perennial herb to 30cm tall, with mottled green and brown lance-shaped leaves. Nodding white flowers with reflexed petals appear in early spring.
• Habitat: Open woodlands, thickets, meadows, and coastal bluffs.
• Pair with: Sword fern, snowberry, sea blush, camas, spring gold, and Oregon grape.
• Fun Fact: This early spring wildflower is simply delightful, and deserves a place in any coastal garden both for its beauty and its value to early-season native pollinators.

Woodland Strawberry

Fragaria vesca

• Hul’qumi’num Name: stsi’yu
• Description: Trailing perennial herb, spreading via runners. Leathery leaves and cheerful white flowers give rise to delicious but diminutive berries.
• Habitat: Open forests, forest edges, rocky slopes, and clearings.
• Harvest: Berries ripen continuously through the summer. Harvest leaves when green.
• Edibility: Best eaten fresh. Selectively harvest leaves for a tasty tea.
• Fun Fact: stsi’yu often creeps along without being noticed until the large white flowers and berries emerge.

Woolly Sunflower

Eriophyllum lanatum

• Description: Woolly perennial herb with silver, finely dissected leaves. Flowers are like rays of sunshine, 25 – 60cm tall.
• Habitat: Dry open sites, rocky ridgelines, and coastal bluffs.
• Pairs with: Stonecrop, farewell-to-spring, camas, kinnikinnick, fool’s onion, crown brodiaea, and bunchgrasses.
• Fun Fact: Also called woolly sunflower, this drought-tolerant species lights up a dry corner of the garden. They attract many species of butterfly and beneficial insects, and make a great addition to a rock garden.

Yarrow

Achilea millefolium

• Hul’qumi’num Name: t’uliqw’ulhp
• Description: Herbaceous perennial with soft, finely dissected, aromatic foliage. White flowers emerge in late summer.
• Habitat: Highly adaptable – open sites from wet to dry.
• Harvest: Young leaves and flowers.
• Edibility: The young leaves can be added to salad, the flowers and leaves to tea.
• Fun Fact: The leaves can be applied to cuts to stop bleeding. Other medicinal uses are many and varied, dating back thousands of years.

Yerba Buena

Clinopodium douglasii

• Description: Aromatic, trailing, evergreen, perennial herb with egg-shaped leaves and small white flowers.
• Habitat: Open, well-drained forests, grassyclearings, and rocky slopes.
• Harvest: Mature aromatic leaves in summer.
• Edibility: The leaves are wonderful in tea.
• Fun Fact: Can be grown indoors as a potted plant. ‘Yerba buena’ means ‘good herb’ in Spanish, and was the original name of San Francisco in the 1800s.

Baldhip Rose

Rosa gymnocarpa

• Hul’qumi’num Name: qel’qulhp
• Description: Deciduous shrub grows up to 1.5m tall. Soft prickles densely cover the stem. Fragrant five-petal pink flowers are followed by “bald” red hips.
• Habitat: Dry to moist soil. Hightly drought tolerant in partial shade.
• Harvest: Fragrant pink flowers bloom May to mid July. Harvest the hips in the fall, when bright orange or red. Hips are sweeter after a frost.
• Edibility: Pear-shaped hips are great in tea.
• Fun Fact: One hip contains as much vitamin C as an orange. Hummingbirds and butterflies love the flowers.

Blackcap Raspberry

Rubus leucodermis

• Hul’qumi’num Name:  tsulqama’
• Description: Deciduous shrub growing up to 2m tall. Leaves have three sharp-toothed leaflets with white undersides and hooked prickles covering bluish-white stems.
• Habitat:  Grows mainly in open forests, fields and disturbed sites. Prefer well-drained, drier areas.
• Harvest: Flowers bloom May-June with fruit ripening July-August
• Edibility: Delicious berries! The leaves can also be harvested for tea and the young shoots can be peeled, eaten raw, or cooked.
• Fun Fact: The berries are highly pigmented and can be used for purple dyes.

Blue Elderberry

Sambucus caerulea

• Hul’qumi’num Name: tth’uykwikw
• Description: Erect deciduous shrub from 4.5 – 9m tall, with large, pinnately-divided opposite leaves. Fragrant, umbel-shaped inflorescences ripen into clusters of blue berries.
• Habitat: Open woods and sunny locations on the edges of forests.
• Harvest: Berries ripen in late summer.
• Edibility: Berries should be cooked prior to consumption! They are used in jams, pies, cough syrups, and wine. The flowers can be dried for tea or used to make cordial.
• Fun Fact: Very uncommon in the Southern Gulf Islands.

Columbian Manzanita

Arcostaphylos columbiana

• Hul’qumi’num Name: qi’qun’aanlhp
• Description: Evergreen shrub with contorted stems up to 3m tall. Older branches have a rich, red bark that flakes and peels. Urn-shaped flowers yield clusters of dry, red berries.
• Habitat: Dry rock outcrops, ridgelines, and well-drainage slopes.
• Harvest: Berries can be harvested in summer.
• Edibility: The dry berries are sweet and can be ground into a sugar substitute, seasoning, or ‘lemonade’.
• Fun Fact: Qi’qun’aanlhp requires fire or other disturbance to germinate its seeds. It is among the earliest flowers in spring, feeding newly emerging pollinators.

Dull Oregon Grape

Berberis nervosa

• Hul’qumi’num Name: sunii’ulhp
• Description: Low-growing evergreen shrub, up to 60cm tall. Leaves are shiny and leathery, often turning a beautiful red or gold in fall. Flowers are yellow, followed by blue berries.
• Habitat: Dry to moist forests understories.
• Harvest: Ripe blue berries are harvestable in early to mid summer.
• Edibility: Berries are tart but tasty, best mixed with sweeter berries.
• Fun Fact:  The berries have natural pectin, making them a great addition to jams an jellies. The rhizomes are yellow due to an alkaloid called Berberin, which is used in herbal medicine.

Evergreen Huckleberry

Vaccinium ovatum

• Hul’qumi’num Name: ayum sqw’iil’muhw
• Description: Evergreen shrub with waxy, deep green leaves. Grows up to 4m height and 2m across when mature. Small, white urn-shaped flowers are followed by blue berries.
• Habitat: Coniferous forests and coastal bluffs
• Harvest: Small blackish blue berries in late summer.
• Edibility: Ripe berries are tasty raw or cooked.
• Fun Fact: This highly versatile shrub makes a beautiful low screen, and is deer-resistant. In spring, its small leaves have red an copper tones.

Falsebox

Paxistima myrsinites

• Description: Attractive evergreen shrub to 1m tall. Leaves are opposite, leathery, and shiny with toothed margins. Maroon flowers are small and fragrant.
• Habitat: Coniferous forests, rocky openings, and dry mountain slopes.
• Pairs with: Red-flowering currant, crevice alumroot, and oceanspray.
• Fun Fact: Falsebox is often used as greenery in floral arrangements, and is an important winter browse for ungulates. It makes a handsome evergreen hedge.

Gummy Gooseberry

Ribes lobbii

• Hul’qumi’num Name: t’em’hw
• Description: Erect, spreading deciduous shrub 0.5 to 1 m tall, with thorns at leaf axils. Pendant flowers are large and showy in spring, followed by large, red, sticky berries.
• Habitat: Open forests, forest edges, rock outcrops, and clearings.
• Harvest:
• Pair-with: Salal, oceanspray, tall Oregon grape, red-flowering currant, Douglas-fir.
• Edibility: 
• Fun Fact: This attractive shrub thrives in open, disturbed forest clearings, and produces large, unusual fruits that are very sticky and glandular. It is scattered throughout the Gulf Islands, and uncommon on Galiano.

Hairy Honeysuckle

Lonicera hispidula

• Description: Vining perennial, crawling and branching up to 6m. Leaves are oval and leathery. Flowers are pinkish-purple, trumpet-shaped, and whorl above the disk leaf.
• Habitat: Dry coniferous forests and thickets.
• Pairs with: Douglas-fir, arbutus, oceanspray,salal, and trailing blackberry.
• Fun Fact: Hummingbirds enjoy the sweet nectar at the base of these profuse flowers. These drought-tolerant vines are very hardy and can form dense thickets to cover fences, shrubs, and tree trunks.

Hardhack

Spiraea douglasii subsp. douglasii

• Hul’qumi’num Name: t’eets’ulhp
• Description: Deciduous shrub, often forming thickets, growing 1-2m tall. Flowers form a pink plume. Leaves are oblong, dark green above and lighter and slightly woolly underneath
• Habitat: Prefers sunny wet areas, such as stream banks, swamps, and bogs.
• Pairs with: Salmonberry, thimbleberry, red-osier dogwood, and willow.
• Fun Fact: This shrub provides habitat for many waterbirds including song sparrows, red-winged blackbirds and marsh wrens.

Highbush-cranberry

Viburnum edule

• Hul’qumi’num Name: qwemtsuls
• Description: Deciduous shrub growing between 0.5-3m tall. The flowers are white and form small clusters, producing bright red berries. Leaves have 3 lobes and toothed margins.
• Habitat: Prefer moist areas, along streams and forest edges.
• Harvest: Flowers May-July. Fruit ripens late summer which are present throughout winter.
• Edibility: Raw berries are edible, but are sweeter when dried.
• Fun Fact: One of the few shrubs with berries available throughout winter, making it a very important food source for birds.

Kinnikinnick • Bearberry

Arctostaphylos uva-ursi

• Description: Trailing evergreen shrub with bright, leathery green leaves, smooth red stems, white urn-shaped flowers, and attractive red berries.
• Habitat: Dry open sites, rocky outcrops, and coastal bluffs.
• Harvest: Harvest and dry the bright green leaves during the growing season.
• Edibility: Steep the dried leaves in boiling water to make an astringent tea. Leaves are used in smoking blends.
• Fun Fact: Kinnikinnick is an Algonquin word for tobacco substitute. The latin binomial translates as ‘bear grapes bear grapes’.

Labrador Tea

Rhododendron groenlandicum

• Hul’qumi’num Name: me’uhwulhp
• Description: Fragrant evergreen shrub 0.5-1.5m tall. Leaves are oblong, leathery, deep-green above with dense, rusty hairs beneath. Flowers are white in umbrella-like clusters.
• Habitat: Peatlands and bogs; an indicator of wet, acidic, nutrient-poor organic soils.
• Pairs with: Sweet gale, bog laurel, cranberry, hardhack, crowberry, and pine.
• Fun Fact: The leaves have been used as an aromatic tea, but should be consumed in moderation due to the presence of potentially toxic glycosides.

Mock Orange

Philadelphus lewisii

• Hul’qumi’num Name: s-tth’uhlp
• Description: Erect, loosely branched deciduous shrub, to 3m tall. Leaves are oval, short-stalked, and opposite, with 3 major veins. Flowers are white, fragrant, in spectacular clusters.
• Habitat: Open forests and forest edges on moist rich sites. Coastal bluffs, rocky outcrops, and streambanks.
• Pairs with: Osoberry, fringecups, ninebark, highbush cranberry, and thimbleberry.
• Fun Fact: The flowers are showy and smell wonderful. The scientific name for the genus means ‘brotherly love’.

Nootka Rose

Rosa nutkana

• Hul’qumi’num Name: qel’qulhp
• Description: Thicket-forming deciduous shrub up to 3m tall, spreading by rhizomes. Erect, prickly stems give rise to fragrant, pink five-petaled flowers, followed by juicy hips.
• Habitat: Favours rich, moist soils. Found in forest edges, streambanks, clearings, fields, shorelines, and thickets.
• Harvest: Petals in spring. Hips in late summer to early fall.
• Edibility: Petals make a fragrant tea. Hips are high in Vitamin C and used in teas, jams, and jellies.
• Fun Fact: The leaves and petals, when infused in vinegar, make an astringent spray to treat sunburns.

Oceanspray

Holodiscus discolor

• Hul’qumi’num Name: qathelp
• Description: Deciduous multi-stemmed shrub up to 4m tall. Leaves are coarsely toothed and bright green; flowers are creamy white in dense, lilac-like clusters in mid-summer.
• Habitat: Dry, open woods and coniferous forests. Clearings and bluffs.
• Pairs with: Douglas-fir, arbutus, Oregon grape, salal, and Saskatoon berry.
• Fun Fact: Oceanspray is also called ‘ironwood’,as the wood is very strong and hasbeen used for spears and digging sticks. It is a common shrub in our upland forests, and creates a spectacle when it blooms en masse in the summer.

Orange Honeysuckle

Lonicera ciliosa

• Description: Climbing deciduous vine up to 6 m. Leaves are oval and join to form a disk at branch tips. Flowers are orange, trumpet-shaped, and whorl above the disk leaves.
• Habitat: Open woodlands, thickets, and coastal bluffs.
• Pairs with: Douglas-fir, evergreen huckleberry, red hucklebery, and salmonberry.
• Fun Fact: Both children and hummingbirds enjoy the sweet nectar at the base of these showy flowers

Osoberry

Oemleria cerasiformis

• Hul’qumi’num Name: tth’uxwun’
• Description: Deciduous shrub from 1.5 to 5m tall. Bark is purple-brown, leaves are oval-shaped, and white flowers dangle in clusters. Berries ripen red, orange, then purple.
• Habitat: Open woods, streambanks, and rich mixed woodlands on mesic to moist soil.
• Pairs with: Salmonberry, thimbleberry, currants, red alder, and maples.
• Fun Fact: Also known as Juneplums, the small “plums” are worth a try, and the leaves smell and taste like cucumber. These are among the very first flowers of spring, and are a welcome sight to pollinators and people alike at the end of a long winter.

Pacific Ninebark

Physocarpus capitatus

• Description: Deciduous shrub with shedding bark up to 4m tall. Leaves have 3-5 toothed lobes and are shiny green; flowers are white in conspicuous rounded clusters.
• Habitat: Wet open areas, streambanks, coastal bluffs, and wet-meadows.
• Pairs with: Salmonberry, fringecups, perfumecurrant, osoberry, and elderberry.
• Fun Fact: The name ‘ninebark’ refers to the shedding bark, which comes off inlayer after layer. This is a beautiful plant for a wet site.

Perfume Currant

Ribes bracteosum

• Hul’qumi’num Name: s’peetth
• Description: Fragrant, glandular deciduous shrub to 3m tall. The leaves have a maple-leaf shape, with deep lobes. Flowers are white in long, erect clusters, followed by berries.
• Habitat: Streambanks, swamps, seeps, and moist forested areas.
• Pair with: Salmonberry, osoberry, elderberry, red alder, and bigleaf maple.
• Fun Fact: This delightfully aromatic species was given the malodorous epithet ‘stink currant’ by early settlers, butits perfume makes it a wonderful addition to a wet area. The berries are savored by birds, and are worth sampling – sometimes they’re tasty!

Red Elderberry

Sambucus racemosa

• Hul’qumi’num Name: tth’iwuq’
• Description: Deciduous shrub growing 1-6m tall with leaves containing 5-7 lance-shaped, toothed leaflets. Produces pyramidal white flowers that ripen into a cluster of waxy red berries.
• Habitat: Prefers wet sites with some shade, but can be found in open areas.
• Harvest: Flowers bloom April-July with fruit ripening in June.
• Edibility: The berries are edible when cooked, though the seeds are emetic, and the flowers are used in tea and cordial.
• Fun Fact:  This shrub has many medicinal properties. The leaves, bark and roots can relieve aches and pains when applied externally.

Red Huckleberry

Vaccinium parvifolium

• Hul’qumi’num Name: sqw’uqwtsus
• Description: Deciduous shrub with tiny lime-green leaves and elegant architecture. Urn-shaped white flowers in early spring, followed by tasty red berries.
• Habitat: Moist, shady, rich coniferous forests and clearings, often on stumps.
• Harvest: Small, bright red berries ripen in early-to-mid summer.
• Edibility: Huckleberries are tasty raw and cooked. Makes a fantastic jelly.
• Fun Fact: Traditionally, sqw’uqwtsus berries were harvested by hitting the branches with a stick, letting the ripest ones fall into a basket.

Red-flowering Currant

Ribes sanguineum

• Hul’qumi’num Name: sqwulius
• Description: Deciduous shrub to 2.5 m high and 2 m wide. Bright showers of pink flowers appear in early spring, accompanied by lush green foliage, and followed by waxy blue berries.
• Habitat: Full sun to partial shade on forest edges, clearings, and rock outcrops.
• Pair with: Oceanspray, falsebox, baldhip rose, wild gooseberry, and salal.
• Fun Fact: Sqwulius is adored by hummingbirds, and it’s easy to spot both Anna’s and rufous hummingbirds dancing around the pink flowers in spring. The berries are edible, but probably best left for the birds.

Red-Osier Dogwood

Cornus stolonifera subsp. sericea

• Description: Freely spreading shrub with many bright red stems, 1 – 6 m tall. Leaves are oval with prominent veins, follow by white flowers in dense clusters.
• Habitat: Moist soils, swamps, streamside forests, clearings, and thickets.
• Pair with: Salmonberry, mock-orange, Pacific ninebark, and Pacific crabapple.
• Fun Fact: Red-osier dogwood is an important winter browse for deer. These shrubs are beautiful year-round, but are especially striking in winter, when their bright red stems are fully exposed.

Salal

Gaultheria shallon

• Hul’qumi’num Name: t’eqe’
• Description: Evergreen shrub with large, waxy leaves, up to 1.5m tall. Fuzzy white-pink bell-shaped flowers are followed by dark blue berries.
• Habitat: Widespread, usually in coniferous forests on acidic soils.
• Harvest: Clusters of dark blue berries ripen in mid-to-late summer.
• Edibility: Berries are delicious raw, dried, baked, or in jams and jellies.
• Fun Fact: The stems and leaves are used in floral arrangements. Among our most productive, delicious, and underappreciated native plants and foods.

Salmonberry

Rubus spectabilis

• Hul’qumi’num Name: lila-ulhp
• Description: Deciduous shrub with bright green leaves, magenta flowers in early spring, and brightly colored red, orange, and yellow berries, up to 3m tall.
• Habitat: Part shade to full sun on moist soils.
• Harvest: New shoots in early spring; berries in early-to-mid summer.
• Edibility: Berries are tasty raw, in jam, or in baked goods. New shoots are eaten peeled, raw or cooked.
• Fun Fact: When lila-ulhp berries ripen, it’s a sign that the spring salmon run will begin soon.

Saskatoon Berry

Amelanchier alnifolia

• Hul’qumi’num Name: tushnets
• Description: Deciduous shrub with toothed, oval-shaped leaves, purple berries, and beautiful, profuse white flowers in spring.
• Habitat: Dry slopes, coastal bluffs, forest edges, clearings, and thickets.
• Harvest: Purple berries ripen mid-summer.
• Edibility: Berries are eaten raw or cooked.
• Fun Fact: Tushnets is a favourite berry acrossthe north. In southwest BC, however, only plants with full sun, rich soil, and lots of water will produce palatable fruit. Birds adore it.

Snowberry

Symphoricarpos albus

• Hul’qumi’num Name: p’up’q’iyasulhp
• Description: Deciduous shrub growing 1-2 m tall. The small flowers are bell-shaped and range from white to pink, blooming May-August and producing white berries September-October.
• Habitat: Forest edges, Garry oak meadows, thickets, and coastal bluffs.
• Pair with: Saskatoon berry, Garry oak, salal, osoberry, oceanspray, and camas.
• Fun Fact: Berries are poisonous to humans, though an important winter food source for a variety of birds, such as sooty grouse.

Soopalallie

Shepherdia canadensis

• Hul’qumi’num Name: sxwesum
• Description: Deciduous shrub growing 1 – 2m tall with leaves that are green and fuzzy on top with rusty scales on the underside. The flowers are yellowish-brown, producing small shiny red berries.
• Habitat: Prefers dry open spaces in full sun.
• Harvest: Flowers bloom May – June, with fruit ripening in July.
• Edibility: The berries are edible but bitter, and should be eaten in moderation.
• Fun Fact: The saponins found in the berries produce a foaming texture and are used to make a much beloved frothy dessert by many First Nations, including Hul’q’umi’num’ speaking people.

Sweet Gale

Myrica gale

• Description: Aromatic deciduous shrub up to 1.5m tall. Stems are slender and dark red; leaves are lance-shaped and dotted with wax glands. Flowers take the form of catkins.
• Habitat: Lake shorelines and wetlands.
• Harvest: Mature leaves in summer and fall.
• Edibility: The leaves are wonderful in tea.
• Fun Fact: Sweet gale can fix nitrogen into the soil through its association with nitrogen-fixing bacteria that form nodules in its roots. This allows it to thrive in nutrient-poor environments, like bogs and fens.

Tall Oregon Grape

Berberis aquifolium

• Hul’qumi’num Name: luluts’ulhp
• Description: Evergreen shrub, up to 3m tall. Leaves are shiny, leathery, and pinnately divided, often turning a beautiful red or gold in the winter. Flowers are bright yellow.
• Habitat: Dry, open forests and coastal bluffs.
• Harvest: Glaucous blue berries are ready in mid-summer.
• Edibility: Berries are tart but tasty, best mixed with sweeter berries.
• Fun Fact: The berries have natural pectin, making them a great addition to jams and jellies. The rhizomes are yellow due to an alkaloid called Berberine, and are used in herbal medicine.

Thimbleberry

Rubus parviflorus

• Hul’qumi’num Name: t’uqwum’
• Description: Deciduous shrub up to 3m, with soft, fuzzy palmate leaves, large white flowers, and delicious thimble-shaped red berries.
• Habitat: Moist sites in part-shade to full sun.
• Harvest: Soft red berries ripen continuously from mid to late summer.
• Edibility: Berries are best eaten fresh, but also make tasty jams and baked goods.
• Fun Fact: Thimbleberry is closely related to raspberries, blackberries, and salmonberries, but is soft and free of sharp prickles. The leaves make great toilet paper.

Trailing Blackberry

Rubus ursinus

• Hul’qumi’num Name: sqw’iil’muhw
• Description: Deciduous, trailing vines with purple stems, prickles, white flowers, and tasty berries.
• Habitat: Trailing blackberry is often found in fairly open to dense woods, clear-cuts, fire scars, and logged areas.
• Harvest: Harvest leaves throughout the season, and fruit in the late summer when juicy, plump and black.
• Edibility: Leaves make an astringent, mineral- rich tea. Berries are delicious raw.
• Fun Fact: Unlike the invasive Himalayan blackberry, with leaves that are silver on the underside, sqw’iil’muhw leaves are green underneath.

Wild Gooseberry

Ribes divaricatum

• Hul’qumi’num Name: t’em’hw
• Description: Erect deciduous shrub from 0.5 – 2m tall, covered with thorns at leaf axils. Pendulous flowers ripen into juicy black berries.
• Habitat: Adaptable, from moist open woods to beaches and rocky shorelines.
• Harvest: Berries ripen in mid-summer.
• Edibility: The berries are tasty and tart, more akin to black currants than gooseberries.
• Fun Fact: This fruiting shrub is easy to grow and produces well in a variety of settings.

Arbutus

Arbutus menziesii

• Hul’qumi’num Name: quaanlhp
• Description: Deciduous tree growing 10-25m tall. Young bark is chartreuse and smooth and matures to a
  darker reddish-brown peeling bark. White urn-shaped flowers produce orange-red berries.
  
• Habitat: Prefers sunny, dry, and rocky areas.
• Pair with: Garry oak, broad-leaved stonecrop, wooly sunflower and farewell-to-spring.
• Fun Fact: Canada’s only broadleaf evergreen.  It is favored by cavity-nesting birds, whose burrows can later become home to other small animals. The peeling bark makes a pleasant tea.

Bigleaf Maple

Acer macrophyllum

• Hul’qumi’num Name:  ts’alhulp
• Description: Deciduous tree can grow up to 30m tall. Small, greenish-yellow clustered flowers produce winged seeds. The distinct, five-lobed leaves yield beautiful fall colour.
• Habitat: Can tolerate drier areas but prefers moist sites.
• Harvest: Flowers from March-May.
• Edibility: Flowers and sprouted seeds can be eaten. The sap is sweet.
• Fun Fact: Lives up to 200 years old! The bark attracts a variety of mosses which can form a thick layer, allowing other trees to sprout. These are known as ‘canopy roots’.

Bitter Cherry

Prunus emarginata

• Hul’qumi’num Name: t’ulum
• Description: Deciduous tree, 2-15m tall. Leaves are oval, finely toothed and rounded at the tip. Flowers are white in a flat-topped cluster. Cherries are bright red and bitter.
• Habitat: Moist forests and along streams. Also thrives in recently logged areas. An important pioneer species for forests.
• Harvest: The bark is harvested in late winter and early spring, and used to make medicine for sore throat, fever, bronchitis, and other maladies.
• Fun Fact:  Cherries of this species are so bitter they are virtually inedible for people, but are much loved by birds.

Black Cottonwood

Populus balsamifera subsp. trichoarpa

• Hul’qumi’num Name:  tsuw’nulhp
• Description: Deciduous tree growing up to 50m tall, with sticky, fragrant buds. Leaves are thick and heart-shaped. Catkin flowers yield cottony seeds. Bark is grey with distinct deep furrows.
• Habitat: Prefers wet sites, alongside rivers and in floodplains
• Pair with: Salmonberry, thimbleberry, willow, hardhack, and red alder.
• Fun Fact:  The resin is disinfectant and is used by bees to produce propolis, which protect their hives and traps intruders, such as mice.

Black Hawthorn

Crataegus douglasii

• Hul’qumi’num Name: metthun’ulp
• Description: Small deciduous tree with beautiful white flowers, edible black berries, and thorns
• Habitat: Moist, open sites with full sun.
• Harvest: Black berries -called haws- are ready to harvest in late summer.
• Edibility: The haws are good eaten raw or in jam. They also used for tea, which is excellent for heart health

Cascara

Rhamnus purshiana

• Hul’qumi’num Name: q’ey’xulhp
• Description:  Deciduous tree up to 5-12m tall. The leaves range glossy and green with deep veins. Flowers grow in umbrella-shaped clusters, yielding fruit that ripens to purplish-black
• Habitat: Prefers wet sites, but can tolerate a range of conditions.
• Harvest: Flowers bloom May-June with fruit ripening August-September
• Edibility: Berries are edible but not delicious.
• Fun Fact: Bark can be brewed into a tea to produce a strong laxative. Spanish explorers gave it the name ‘cascara sagrada’, or ‘sacred bark’.

Douglas Maple

Acer glabrum var. douglasii

• Hul’qumi’num Name: sits’ulhp
• Description: Small deciduous tree up to 10 m tall. Palmate leaves turn bright yellow to red in thefall. Yellow inflorescences yield small, dry winged fruits that twirl to the ground.
• Habitat: Moist to dry forests and forest edges.
• Pair with: Red alder, red elderberry, salal, salmonberry, thimbleberry.
• Fun Fact: This small, handsome tree is much less common than the bigleaf maple on the Gulf Islands, but is frequent in mountainous areas throughout the west. It is adaptable, but prefers moist conditions and sunlight.

Douglas-fir

Pseudotsuga menziesii subsp. menziesii

• Hul’qumi’num Name:  ts’sey’
• Description: Coniferous tree with thick ridged bark. Needles are flat and spirally arranged. Cones have papery scales with 3-forked bracts extending from each scale.
• Habitat: This is the dominant tree in our coastal forests. It grows on all but the wettest soils.
• Harvest: Green tips from March-June
• Edibility: Young fir tips are high in vitamin C and can be collected in spring and eaten raw or dried for tea.
• Fun Fact: The tallest Douglas-firs today are around 90m tall. It is believed that historically they would reach 120m and live up to 1300 years.

Garry Oak

Quercus garryana

• Hul’qumi’num Name: p’hwulhp
• Description: Deciduous tree growing 25-30m tall. Bark is gray, thick and furrowed and leaves are distinct with rounded lobes. Acorns are produced and ripen August-November.
• Habitat: Prefers open areas and dry rocky slopes.
• Pairs with: Camas, spring-gold, chocolate lily, oregon sunshine, and sea blush.
• Fun Fact: Garry oak meadows are critical for biodiversity and contain many important indigenous foods. They require human management to persist in any but the driest sites.

Grand Fir

Abies grandis

• Hul’qumi’num Name: t’a’hw
• Description: Coniferous tree growing up to 80m tall. Young bark is mottled and smooth with resin blisters and matures to a scaly, grayish-brown. Cones sit erect from branches.
• Habitat: Somewhat shade-tolerant and prefers drier climates but can be found in dry-wet habitats
• Harvest: New tips in spring.
• Edibility: Young tips are high in vitamin C and can be collected and eaten raw or dried for tea.
• Fun Fact: Termed a ‘rainshadow’ species for its specific range. It can be distinguished from other firs by its flat, horizontal needles.

Hooker’s Willow

Salix hookeriana

• Hul’qumi’num Name: sxwelu’elhp
• Description: Deciduous tree growing up to 8 m tall. Flowers are borne in catkins, branches are flexible, and leaves are oval with soft, wooly undersides.
• Habitat: Wet sites, including coastal bluffs, swamps, and dunes.
• Pair with: Hardhack, salmonberry, red alder, Pacific ninebark, red-osier dogwood.
• Fun Fact: This willow is also known as “dune willow” because it is frequently found growing in coastal sand dunes. Unlike the more common Scouler’s willow, this species has hairy leaves and is limited to wet sites.

Pacific Crabapple

Malus fusca

• Hul’qumi’num Name: qwa’upulhp
• Description: Mid-size deciduous tree with grape-sized, tart apples and beautiful sprays of white flowers in the spring.
• Habitat: Open forests, streambanks, and beaches on moist soils.
• Harvest: Crabapples are ready to harvest in late summer.
• Edibility: The crabapples are tart raw, and tasty cooked into jams, sauces, and pies. They contain natural pectin.
• Fun Fact: Qwa’upulhp can be differentiated from domestic apples by the asymmetrical teeth on the leaves, which are highly variable.

Pacific Dogwood

Cornus nuttallii

• Hul’qumi’num Name: kwi’txulhp
• Description: Deciduous tree growing up to 20m tall. Leaves are oval shaped and green, changing to pink in the fall. Showy flowers produce clusters of red berries.
• Habitat: Prefers well-drained, moist sites. An understory species, most commonly found in open forest.
• Pair with: Sword fern, oceanspray, snowberry, Douglas-fir, grand fir, and red alder.
• Fun Fact: BC’s Provincial flower. The flowers are only 5mm across and greenish-white. These form a tight cluster which is surrounded by 4-6 large white bracts, commonly mistaken for petals.

Pacific Willow

Salix lucida subsp. lasiandra

• Description: Deciduous tree growing 6-18m tall. Flowers are hairy and pale yellow catkins. Branches are a glossy yellow with smooth, lance-shaped leaves.
• Habitat: Prefers wet sites near open water, such as riparian areas and wetlands.
• Pair with: Hardhack, salmonberry, red alder, Pacific ninebark, red-osier dogwood.
• Fun Fact: With its yellow branches, this species is very attractive throughout the winter season.

Red Alder

Alnus rubra

• Hul’qumi’num Name:  kwulala’ulhp
• Description: Deciduous tree growing 15-25m tall. Gray bark with patches of white lichen. As it matures the base becomes scaly. Flowers in the form of catkins produce small brown cones.
• Habitat: A pioneer species – prefers moist to wet soils, but is quite adaptable.
• Pair with: Salmonberry, thimbleberry, hardhack, highbush-cranberry, and black hawthorn.
• Fun Fact: Helpful in restoring disturbed sites, the roots of red alder form a symbiotic relationship with a nitrogen-fixing bacteria that aids in fertilizing the soil.

Scouler’s Willow

Salix scouleriana

• Description: Deciduous tree growing 2-12m tall. Floral bracts and catkins produce silky capsuled fruit. Branches are dark to yellowish-brown and velvety. Young leaves are velvety.
• Habitat: Highly adaptable, from riverbanks and wetlands to dry slopes and fields.
• Pair with: Douglas-fir, red alder, salmonberry, western redcedar, and salal.
• Fun Fact: Because it is able to survive on drier sites, Scouler’s willow is also known as ‘upland willow’.

Seaside Juniper

Juniperus maritima

• Hul’qumi’num Name: p’tth’une’lhp
• Description: Evergreen tree with peeling bark, growing to 15m or more. Leaves needle-like when young, scale-like with age. Glaucous green-blue cones borne on upturned branches.
• Habitat: Coastal bluffs and rock outcrops. Never far from the ocean.
• Harvest: Cones, or ‘juniper berries’, present in winter.
• Edibility: Cones can be eaten fresh in moderation, and are used in various dishes and beverages.
• Fun Fact: Can live up to 200 years. Prefers alkaline soils.

Shore Pine

Pinus contorta subsp. contorta

• Hul’qumi’num Name: qw’iyul’ushulhp
• Description: Coniferous tree growing up to 30 m, often in a contorted, ‘bonsai’-like form. Needles occur in groups of two, and cones are 3 – 6 cm with stiff bracts.
• Habitat: Shorelines, bogs, and open forests.
• Pair with: Douglas-fir, western yew, arbutus, evergreen hucklberry, salal.
• Fun Fact: On Galiano Island, shore pine can be found growing along the Strait of Georgia shoreline. This same species also occurs in mountains regions of the interior, where it grows upright and is known as lodgepole pine.

Sitka Willow

Salix sitchensis

• Hul’qumi’num Name: sxwelu’elhp
• Description: Deciduous tree growing up to 10 m tall. Flowers are borne in catkins, and leaves are oval with hairy, shiny undersides.
• Habitat: Wet sites, including coastal bluffs, swamps, and dunes.
• Harvest:
• Pair-with: Hardhack, salmonberry, red alder, Pacific ninebark, red-osier dogwood.
• Edibility: 
• Fun Fact: This willow can be distinguished from the similar Hooker’s willow by the hairs on the underside of the leaf, which are appressed and shiny as opposed to tangled and wooly.

Trembling Aspen

Populus tremuloides

• Hul’qumi’num Name: qw’i’qw’iyulushulhp
• Description: Deciduous tree growing up to 25 m, spreading via underground roots. Blue-green leaves borne on flattened petioles shimmer in the wind, turn bright yellow in fall.
• Habitat: Moist forests, swamps, meadows, and floodplains.
• Pair with: Red alder, black cottonwood, willows, thimbleberry, Pacific ninebark.
• Fun Fact: This beautiful tree can form colonies by spreading through underground roots, allowing it to take advantage of disturbances like wildfires and floods. It is uncommon on Galiano, largely restricted to swamps and depressions.

Western Hemlock

Tsuga heterophylla

• Hul’qumi’num Name: thq’iinlhp
• Description: Coniferous tree growing up to 60m tall. Bark is rough, furrowed and reddish-brown. Needles are blunt and vary in length, producing flat sprays. Recognizable by its drooping leader.
• Habitat: Can grow in dry-wet sites and is very shade tolerant. Often found growing on decaying wood or ‘nurse logs’.
• Pair with: Douglas-fir, evergreen huckleberry, salal, sword fern, false lily-of-the-valley, and western redcedar.
• Fun Fact: A climax species, the tallest known hemlock is over 73m tall and the oldest are around 1200 years old.

Western Redcedar

Thuja plicata

• Hul’qumi’num Name: xpey’
• Description: Coniferous tree growing up to 60m tall. Bark is fibrous and reddish-brown. Branches droop and curve upward, leaves are green and scale-like. Produces small (~1cm in length) egg-shaped cones.
• Habitat: Prefers wet areas and shaded forests but can be found in drier sites.
• Pair with: Douglas-fir, evergreen huckleberry, salal, false lily-of-the-valley, Oregon grape, and sword fern.
• Fun Fact: Also known as ‘Giant Arborvitae’, which translates to ‘tree of life’. Some of the oldest known western redcedars are around 1400 years old. An important cultural keystone species.

Western Yew

Taxus brevifolia

• Description: Evergreen tree growing 2 – 15m tall. Bark is papery and reddish-brown with flat needles that are light green on top and striped underneath. ‘Fruit’ is a single seed encased by a red fleshy cup.
• Habitat: An understory species found in moist old-growth forests.
• Pair with: Douglas-fir, western redcedar, salal, evergreen huckleberry, sword fern, and false lily-of-the-valley.
• Fun Fact: The seeds are very poisionus to humans. The bark contains taxol, an important medicinal compound. The ‘fruit’ is actually a fleshy cone, known as an aril.

• Description: Tufted perennial, grows up to 1m tall.  Bulbs at the base of the stem.  Leaves are flat and hairy on top, with narrow spikelets containing 2-5 purplish-bronze flowers.
• Habitat: Dry-moist meadows in shady or open sites.
• Pair with: Hairy honeysuckle, Henderson’s shooting-star, camas, spring gold, and fawn lily.
• Fun Fact: This shade-loving grass is named oniongrass for its bulb-like corm, which is edible and has a nutty flavour.

Blue Wildrye

Elymus glaucus

• Description: Perennial, upright tufted grass with tall stems and terminal spikes. Stems are often covered with a waxy coating or “bloom” that gives them an attractive blue-green appearance.
• Habitat: Dry slopes, meadows, rock outcrops, forest edges, and open forests.
• Pair with: Roemer’s fescue, California oatgrass, Douglas-fir, Garry Oak, snowberry.
• Fun Fact: Blue wildrye is a highly adaptable native grass that tolerates disturbance and drought. It provides important cover, forage, and habitat for native birds, mammals, butterflies, and insects.

California Oatgrass

Danthonia californica

• Description: Perennial, tufted bunchgrass from fibrous roots, with a tussled appearance. This species is a slow-to-establish, but long-lived native bunchgrass of open ecosystems.
• Habitat: Meadows, rock outcrops, shorelines, and open woodlands.
• Pair with: Roemer’s fescue, crown brodeia, fool’s onion, great camas, death camas.
• Fun Fact: Bunchgrasses are an important component of Garry Oak meadows, and provide cover, forage, and structure for a variety of native birds, mammals, butterflies, and insects.

Lady Fern

Athyrium filix-femina

• Hul’qumi’num Name: lə́q’ləq’ʔey’
• Description: Perennial, deciduous , upright fern. Grows up to 2m tall. Large feathery fronds taper at both ends to create a diamond-like shape.
• Habitat: Moist to wet forests, meadows and streambanks.
• Harvest: Pick fiddleheads in early spring when young (<4″ tall). Pick only a few fiddleheads per plant so it may continue to grow.
• Edibility: Fiddleheads can be scrubbed of the brown-papery scales and must be cooked thoroughly before eating.
• Fun Fact: Easy to grow and maintain. Quite sun tolerant compared to other ferns.

• Hul’qumi’num Name: tlu’siip
• Description: Small, leathery fern, growing up to 0.7m tall, though commonly much smaller. Once pinnate leaflets are >3cm in length and connected by creeping rhizomes.
• Habitat: Prefer wet and mossy sites; often growing on tree trunks and rocks.
• Harvest: In order to sustainably harvest, only take 10-20% of the ferns in the fall.
• Edibility: Rhizomes and stems can be chewed or brewed into a sweet tea.
• Fun Fact: Appropriately named for the sweet, licorice-flavoured stems and rhizomes.

Pacific Rush

Juncus effusus ssp. pacificus

• Description: Tufted perennial, grows up to 1.3m tall. Leafless, small yellowish-green or brown flowers arise in clusters directly from stem.
• Habitat: Prefers sunny, moist to wet sites, such as pastures and wetland margins.
• Pair with: Red alder, red-osier dogwood, salmonberry, and sedges.
• Fun Fact: Helpful for stabilizing soil along wet sites. The native subspecies looks very similar to several introduced subspecies.

Roemer’s Fescue

Festuca roemeri

• Description: Perennial bunchgrass, grows up to 0.8m tall. Leaves have a waxy coating and grow around the base in dense tufts. Stem color ranges from light green to darkish purple.
• Habitat: Prefers sunny sites such as meadows, open forests, and rocky slopes.
• Pair with: Camas, sea blush, Garry oak, farewell-to-spring, tomcat clover, and western fescue.
• Fun Fact: Deer resistant, drought tolerant and non-aggressive. Pairs well with other plants.

Slough Sedge

Carex obnupta

• Hul’qumi’num Name: tl’utl’
• Description: Perennial, densely-tufted herb from long creeping rhizomes to 150 cm. Male flower spikes are borne above female spikes in a terminal inflorescence.
• Habitat: Swamps, marshes, riverbanks, wet meadows, and depressions.
• Pair with: Western redcedar, willows, hardhack, small-headed bulrush, salmonberry.
• Fun Fact: Slough sedge is the most common sedge on Galiano Island, and is found in areas that are seasonally wet. It is a traditional basketry plant, as well as an important component of local wetland ecosystems.

Small-headed Bulrush

Scirpus microcarpus

• Hul’qumi’num Name: psháyʔ
• Description: Perennial, densely-tufted herb from long creeping rhizomes to 150 cm. The inflorescence is a panicle of clustered spikelets.
• Habitat: Swamps, marshes, riverbanks, wet meadows, and depressions.
• Pair with: Western redcedar, willows, hardhack, slough sedge, salmonberry.
• Fun Fact: Small-headed bulrush is common in wetland ecosystems throughout North America. This species can spread rapidly and is good for controlling erosion and stabilizing soils on wet sites.

Sword Fern

Polystichum munitum

• Description: Large, upright fern, growing up to 1.5m tall. Erect leaves with sharp-toothed leaflets. Fronds are once-pinnate and brown-fuzzy.
• Habitat: Prefers moist to wet forests but can tolerate sunnier and drier sites.
• Pair with: Western redcedar, lady fern, salal, false lily-of-the-valley, thimbleberry.
• Fun Fact: Easy to grow and unlikely to be eaten by animals other than the mountain beaver. Deer will nibble on the tips. Individual pinnae have a small ‘hilt’ -hence the common name ‘sword fern’.

Western Fescue

Festuca occidentalis

• Description: Perennial, grows up to 1m tall. Spikelets have 3-5 flowers and droop at the top. Soft, hair-like leaves grow around the base in large tufts.
• Habitat: Prefers sunny sites such as open forests, meadows, and rocky slopes.
• Pair with: Camas, sea blush, Garry oak, farewell-to-spring, tomcat clover, and yerba buena.
• Fun Fact: Deer resistant. Festuca is an ancient term for ‘a straw’ or ‘a mere nothing’.

• Description: Deciduous climbing vine growing up to 3-6.1m tall. Striking heart shaped leaves that come in a variety of colours. Requires 1 male for every 3-4 females to produce fruit.
• Habitat: Enjoys north-facing or canopied locations with partial shade. Best grown in fertile, medium moisture, well-drained soils.
• Harvest: Blooms during early summer, and produces greenish-yellow edible fruits in the fall. These grape-sized fruits resemble a miniture kiwi and taste just as refreshingly sweet.
• Fun Fact: Highly tolerant of urban pollution and will even thrive in inner city environments

• Description: Fast growing deciduous shrub that reaches up to 6m tall.
• Habitat: Suitable for a majority of wet to moist soils, except those with basic (alkaline) pH levels. Grows best in full sun.
• Harvest: Coppicing willow will result in highly flexible rods; excellent material to weave baskets, chairs & fencing. The bark is also known for anti-inflammatory and pain relieving properties; containing salicin which is metabolized into salicylic acid, the active ingredient in Aspirin.
• Fun Fact: Their shallow roots are great for erosion control along river banks.

• Description: Aromatic deciduous shrub growing to 1m tall. Self-pollinating, and will not require other plants to produce fruit. Clusters of black berries in summer.
• Habitat: Cold and frost-tolerant (zone 3 hardiness). Tolerates partial to full sun, with average to moist soils.
• Harvest: Produces prolific yields of berries in summer which contain antioxidants and Vitamin C. Fragrant leaves are used in teas for their antimicrobial properties and delicious flavour.
• Fun Fact: Attracts pollinators. Will require light maintenance such as pruning, netting, and soil amendments.

• Description: Small decidous tree or shrub that ranges from 1-12m tall. The ‘Desert King’ variety is aSan Pedro fig, with two crops in a season – but usually only the first ripens in our climate.
• Habitat: Requires full sun exposure, good drainage, and regular watering until it is fully established.
• Edibility: ‘Desert King’ is an excellent choice for our area, as it has an abundant breba (first) crop which grows on the old branches and develops without pollination. Pruning can help the fruit to get enough sun to fully ripen.
• Fun Fact: Fig leaves are also edible, and tasty as a wrap, flavouring or tea.

• Description: Deciduous broadleaf tree. Plants can be male or female; both are needed for fruit. Grows up to 25m tall. Distinctive fan-shaped leaves turn bright yellow in the fall.
• Habitat: Grows in hardiness zones 4-9. Soil pH between 5.0-8.0, deep draining sandy soil, and full to partial sun. Drought and salt tolerant.
• Edibility: Leaves can be made into teas used for improving cognitive function and circulation issues. Nuts are delicious after separation from stinky fruits.
• Fun Fact: Linked to a primitive family of tree commonly found 160 million years ago in China, it’s one of the world’s oldest living tree species!

• Description: Small to medium deciduous shrub, growing up to 0.6-1.5m tall. Berries are plump, tart and tasty. This variety is self-fertile.
• Habitat: Thrives in full sun to partial shade, and is easily grown in average, medium moisture, well-drained soils.
• Harvest: Blooms from March-May, and produces berries that ripen mid-summer. They have a sweet flesh and contrasting tart skin, which are excellent for jams and desserts.
• Fun Fact: Attracts pollinators. Will require light maintenance such as pruning, netting, and soil amendments.

• Description: Medium sized deciduous shrub that grows up to 1.8m tall. Partially self-fertile; fruiting is better with multiple varieties.
• Habitat: Grows in hardiness zones 4-9. Tolerates most soil conditions ranging from sand to clay or acidic, alkaline and salty. Does well in full sun or partial shade.
• Edibility: Bears fruit after 2-3 years. Blooms in spring and berries are ready in summer. The berries are rich in vitamin A, C and E as well as essential fatty acids.
• Fun Fact: Great pollinator species. Fixes nitrogen for itself which allows it to grow in poor soils, and makes it a great companion plant.

• Description: Fast-growing deciduous climbing vine that grows up to 3.6-6.1m tall. Dark green foliage with fragrant white flowers. Requires at least 1 male for every 8 females to produce fruit.
• Habitat: Grown best in full sun to part shade and medium moisture, preferably acid, well-drained soils.
• Harvest: Blooms from mid to late spring, and produces grape-sized, smooth skinned, green fruits ready to harvest early to mid-fall.
• Fun Fact: Trained up a supporting structure, vines can function as privacy hedges/screening.

• Description: Cold-tolerant deciduous shrub growing up to 1.5m tall. Two varieties with compatible genetics are needed for pollination.
• Habitat: Full sun. Prefers moist, sandy, clay soil that is also slighly acidic. Mulching willaid root growth and establishment. Requires minimal water after the initial 2 – 3 year growth period.
• Edibility: Produces tasty oblong berries, with a flavour that could be describes as a cross between raspberry and blueberry. There are early blooming, mid-season, and late season varities.
• Fun Fact: Native to East Asia. May require protection from birds.

• Description: Hardy deciduous self pollinating tree that reaches up to 10m high.
• Habitat: Prefers full sun but will tolerate partial shade. Requires regular watering and well-draining soils that are fertile and loamy. Cold hardy.
• Edibility: Blooms in late spring, and produces edible ‘fruit’ in late summer. The ‘fruit’ can be eaten fresh, or dried, and can also be used in teas.
• Fun Fact: This tree is originally from China, Japan, and the Himalayas. The ‘fruit’ is actually swollen stalks.

• Description: Deciduous tree that reaches up to 6m tall and bears fruit after 2-3 years. This variety is self-fertile.
• Habitat: Grows in plant hardiness zones 5-9. Requires well-drained soils as well as partial to full sun exposure. Tolerant of dry, poor soils, and salt.
• Edibility: The delicious, juicy, nutritious berries ripen July through September. The leaves have anti-inflammatory properties and can be brewed into a tasty tea that balances blood sugar and promotes heart health.
• Fun Fact: Silk worms dine on white mulberry leaves.

• Description: Perennial berry bush, produces prolifically once mature at 2-3 years old. Branches/canes are biennial. Cross between loganberries and youngberries.
• Habitat: Grows in plant hardiness zones 4-9. Best in sunny areas, with slightly acidic, well-draining soils pH 5.5-7.0. Should be trained on a trellis.
• Edibility: Berries are ripe late spring to early summer. Their flavour is a perfect juicy balance of sweet and tart.
• Fun Fact: Olallieberries were developed in 1949 by the U.S. Department of Agriculture at Oregon State University.

• Description: Small deciduous shrub growing up to 0.6-1.5m tall. Has aromatic maple shaped leaves, small pendulous yellow flowers and attractive transparent berries with a pink tint.
• Habitat: Grow in full sun or partial shade. Low maintenance and grows well in most soils but prefers moist well-drained locations.
• Harvest: Flowers bloom in early May, and berries ripen July and August. The berries are generally the sweetest of the currents. Eaten fresh or used for jams, jellies, and juices.
• Fun Fact: The berries are very rich in antioxidants and have a much higher source of vitamin C than oranges.

• Description: Deciduous shrub growing up to 6m tall and 13.5m wide. Wind-pollinated and requires one male plant for every five females to produce fruit.
• Habitat: Requires full sun, and well-drained soil. Does not tolerate standing water, and will not produce fruit in the shade. Tolerates poor soils.
• Edibility: The fruit ripens in late summer. Leaves, flowers, seeds, and fruit are highly nutritious. The leaves make a great tea and the berries are a tart addition to smoothies, syrups, vinegar and honeys.
• Fun Fact: Fixes atmospheric nitrogen. When picking, beware the thorns!

• Description: Vigorous deciduous vine with textured green foliage, bearing fruit on last year’s wood. Self-pollinating, but planting more than one improves harvest.
• Habitat: Prefers rich soil with good drainage in an open, sunny location.
• Edibility: Produces large clusters of small, seedless, and sweet white grapes that are excellent eaten fresh as a dessert grape.
• Fun Fact: Makes a great ornamental shelter on an arbor, or can be trellised or trailing along fences.

• Description: Perennial aromatic herb that grows outward from rhizomes up to 0.5m tall. Leaves are bushy, veined, and fuzzy. Flowers are numerous, white to blue.
• Habitat: Grows in hardiness zones 5-7. Prefers moist, well-drained soil in full sun. Drought and light shade-tolerant.
• Edibility: Blooms from June to September. The leaves are most aromatic just before blooming and make a delicious addition to a tea blend to aid digestion or to ease a cold or a flu.
• Fun Fact: Native to Europe, this herb forms self-seeding ground cover that will continuously spread if left alone. Good pollinator species.

• Description: Herbaceous flowering perennial that reaches approximately 1m high and 1m wide. This variety is sterile, meaning it can’t spread by seed.
• Habitat: Comfrey is adaptable but enjoys full to partial sun exposure and moist soils.
• Uses: Used as living mulch – leaves will release nutrients such as potassium from deep taproots. A great addition to compost, lasagna beds, and compost tea. Used in external poultices as a cell proliferant for healing burns, bruises, and more.
• Fun Fact: Easily confused with poisonous foxgloves – look closely!

• Description: Large perennial that grows up to 2.1-3m tall. This member of the daisy family has stout stems bearing yellow flowers and pointed leaves.
• Habitat: Prefers moist rich, or clay, soil. Does well in full sun, but can tolerate partial shade.
• Harvest: Blooms in early July. Roots harvested 2-3 years after establishment (fall/winter) until early spring. The root is most commonly used in herbal remedies for its digestive or expectorant qualities.
• Fun Fact: A single leaf can grow to over 3ft in length!

• Description: Hardy, aromatic perennial herb that grows up to 1m in height.
• Habitat: Grows in hardiness zones 4-8. Will grow in average soil with full sun.
• Edibility: Blooms from July to August with white to lavender coloured flowers. Leaves are most aromatic just before blooming and make a delicious addition to a tea blend to aid in digestion or to ease colds or the flu.
• Fun Fact: Deer resistant, and is a pollinator magnet. It is more drought tolerant than regular mints.

• Description: Herbaceous, late-blooming perennial that grows up to 2m tall and 1m wide Whorled leaves on tall stems give rise to terminal clusters of purple flowers.
• Habitat: Enjoys rich, moist soil, with full sun to partial sun exposure.
• Edibility: Roots, leaves and flowers can be used in teas to treat respiratory problems and fevers, as they contain immune-boosting polysaccharides. When burned the foliage and leaves are a mosquito repellent, while the flowers and leaves are used in natural dyes.
• Fun Fact: Used to attract birds, and insects into the garden late in the season. The flowers have a vanilla aroma.

• Description: Evergreen perennial shrub growing up to 1m tall. Leaves present all year; and seeds ripening from August to October.
• Habitat: Suitable for dry grassy slopes amongst exposed rocky areas. Growing best in well-drained soil and full sun exposure. Preferring neutral to alkaline soils.
• Harvest: Blooms from July to September. Petals and flowering tips can be used in tinctures, essential oil or to provide an aromatic flavor for foods and drinks. Known for its soothing and relaxing effect upon the nervous system.
• Fun Fact: Deer Resistant!

• Description: Long-lived, aromatic perennial that reaches up to 1.5m tall and 1m wide. Bright yellow umbel flowers appear in summer.
• Habitat: This easy to grow, attractive plant is happy in full sun to partial shade. It has deep taproots.
• Edibility: Harvest the stalks and leaves and 2-3 year old roots prior to flowering and harvest the seeds once ripe. Lovage is valued for its aromatic scent in both herbal and culinary circles.
• Fun Fact: Lovage is a popular food for bees, parasitic wasps and flies. The dead stalks provide housing for pollinators.

• Description: A perennial aromatic herb that can reach to 6ft in height, and is grown primarily for its culinary and medicinal properties.
• Habitat: Mugwort grows in hardiness zones3-8. It prefers full sun and well-drained soil, and can be drought tolerant and robust once established.
• Uses: This plant has antiseptic and antifungal properties, and can be used in a digestion aid tonic. Culinarily, it can be used to flavour foods and has a sage-like aroma. It can also be used to enhance dreams.
• Fun Fact: Mugwort has a history of use in Eurasia and North America.

• Description: Flowering perennial, growing up to 1.5m tall, with purple daisy-like flowers up to 15cm wide.
• Habitat: Grows in plant hardiness zones 3-9. Drought-tolerant; requires full sun.
• Edibility: Blooms mid-summer to mid-fall. All parts of the plant can be used for various applications in herbalism. The aerial parts can be juiced and the root is often used in tinctures and teas.
• Fun Fact: Purple coneflowers grow fast and are great at attracting pollinators. Flower production is better in poor soil; fertile soil will result in lush foliage and poor flowering.

• Description: Herbaceous perennial shrub growing 0.3-0.6m tall. Strongly aromatic purple leaves, with two-lipped, lavender-blue flowers blooming in late spring.
• Habitat: Enjoys full sun (light shade is tolerated) in average, dry to medium, well-drained soils.
• Harvest: Blooms in late spring. The purple gray-green leaves are strongly aromatic and are frequently used fresh or dried in cooking as seasoning.
• Fun Fact: The genus name Salvia comes from the Latin word salveo meaning “to save or heal,” in reference to its traditional uses in herbal medicine.

• Description: Also called Lacy Phacelia or Fiddleneck, this annual plant grows up to 60cm tall. It has purple-blue flowers that are great at attracting pollinators such as bees.
• Habitat: Grows in hardiness zones 5-10. Is tolerant to drought and poor soil, and prefers well-drained soil and full sun.
• Uses: This plant blooms in early summer and can be used to attract pollinators to crops receiving insufficient pollination. It is also used as a cover crop, and may self-seed.
• Fun Fact: Purple Tansy is native to southwestern North America. Some people’s skin reacts to it, so it is recommended to wear gloves when handling.

• Description: Everbearing perennial. Reproduces through crown division, but not runners.
• Habitat: Enjoys well-aerated, rich, moist soils, that are rich in organic matter. Adaptable, but is less productive in extremely hot growing conditions.
• Edibility: Fruits from early spring throughout summer. Unique delicious flavour that is amazing eaten out of hand but has a short shelf life. Leaves make a tasty tea.
• Fun Fact: Birds don’t seem to notice the ripe white berries! Can produce fruit with as little as 4 hours of sunlight per day.

• Description: Herbaceous perennial up to 1m high and wide, with dense clusters of deep blue, pea-shaped flowers on upright spikes.
• Habitat: Does well in sunny, well-drained, nutrient-poor soils. This beautiful, nitrogen-fixing plant has a deep taproot, making it hard to move once established and drought-tolerant.
• Edibility: Edible only to pollinators, although it is used medicinally in traditional herbal medicine.
• Fun Fact: Wild blue indigo, also known as ‘false indigo’, is native to central and eastern North America, where it is used as a dye plant.