Creeping Buttercup
Ranunculus repens
Description: A hairy perennial from tough fibrous roots, with stolons to 100cm long giving rise to several erect flowering stems. Leaves are dark green, triangular outline, with 3 leaflets that are toothed and lobed.
Ecology: A common plant in moist, disturbed sites, fields, pastures, gardens, lawns, ditches and clearings. This picture was taken in the ditch on the side of my road, in Sechelt, BC.
Notes: Caution: Leaves may cause irritation, blistering of skin and inflammation of throat and digestive tract if swallowed.
Red Columbine
Aquilegia formosa
Description: A perennial growing from a taproot, on tall simple stems up to 1m, slightly hairy beneath flowers but hairless below. Leaves are mainly basal and are twice divided in 3's and may be hairy or hairless, green above, lighter underneath. Pretty red flowers are red and yellow with 5 long reddish spurs with bulbous and glandular tips, drooping in groups of 2-5.
Ecology: Common from low lying areas up to the timberline in moist, open to partly shaded sites, meadows, rocky slopes, clearings and roadsides. (Pojar and MacKinnon; Plants of Coastal BC).
Notes: This picture was taken at the edge of Homesite Creek, it was in a group of several large healthy specimens, July 2003.
Fern-Leaved Goldthread
Coptis asplenifolia
Description: 10-30cm tall evergreen perennial with fern-like dark shiny leaves cut into 5-6 toothed lobes, leaves are all basal. Small, nodding pale greenish white flowers on a nodding stalk taller than the leaves. Fruits are characteristic with 7-9mm long follicles that spread open around the centre in a circle when mature, up to 12 of them, each contains 5-10 seeds.
Ecology: Found in moist forests and bogs at low to middle elevations, common and widespread, found to high elevation in southwestern BC.
Notes: This one was found at a bog near Lyon Lake, the Caren Range, BC.
