Hannah Belloli
Winter in the PNW can be a little tough. The short days and rainy weather can be hard to manage. Living in the PNW for 3 winters now, I realized that the best way to kick the seasonal darkness is to get out and find the beauty in the woods! Winter plant I.D. is a great way to get outdoors and experience nature in a way often taken for granted. Being able to distinguish plants from one another in their winter, leafless state greatly adds to our appreciation of a season spent too much indoors. Instead of seeing a landscape as dead, dormant, and rather boring, winter plant I.D. helps us see the beauty in the forgotten details. We begin to see orange twigs of salmonberry and the bright pink buds of red huckleberry, the lasting inflorescence of Douglas Spirea and oceanspray and the fuzzy branches of beaked hazelnut. Here are a few of my favorite winter twigs and how to I.D. them. And you can head over to Native Plant Salvage to sign up for their official Winter Twig I.D. class that is held every January. Get out and see just how beautiful the PNW winters can be! Just don’t forget your rain jacket.
Salmonberry (Rubus spectabilis)
Most people know salmonberry by the delicious fruit we get from them during the summer months, but salmonberry is also a pretty cool winter plant. Salmonberry has bright orange/burnt orange stems that really pop once you notice. Salmonberry also has the well known for being covered in fine prickles mostly at the base of the shrub. One cool thing about salmonberry, it has a symbiotic relationship with a common fungus that is black. This can often times give it a “tiger stripe” quality.
Photo by Portland Audubon Society
Redosier Dogwood (Cornus sericea)
Okay, this is one of the COOLEST plants (in my opinion)! Redosier dogwood not only have a really cool stem, deep red on top of the stem and a bright green underneath, but it also has lenticels (essentially openings within the plant that help it breath) that can grow roots! These are called adventitious roots… pretty cool. The leaf buds of Redosier Dogwood look like little black paint brush tips and are arranged oppositely along the stem. Dogwood is also water loving and likes its “feet in the water” meaning you will always find it near wetlands, streams, riverbanks, and lakes.
Douglas Spirea (Spirea douglasii)
If you are anything like me, nothing helps more than a fun rhyme or metaphor to learn a new plant. Douglas Spirea is best remembered by referring to it as “spiralling spirea” The tiny white buds of spirea appear to spiral up the stem leading to the remnant fruits that Spirea hold onto for all winter. Spirea is another plant that loves to have its feet wet, so keep an eye out for it in marshy wetland areas, lake and swamp edges, and even roadside ditches.
Photo By: Oregon State University
Black Twinberry (Lonicera involucrata)
Twinberry is an easier one to identify in the winter once you know what you are looking for. It helps us by having everything in “twins”. The stem itself is four sided giving it a squared look, especially on the younger growth. There are remnant fruits that grow in pairs and the leaf buds are in pairs (oppositely arranged). Twinberry’s color is rather dull and can appear to look “dead” in the winter time, but take a closer look at all the fun features it has to offer.
Photo by: Green Seattle Partnership
Red Huckleberry (Vaccinium parviflorum)
Red Huckleberry is a real eye catcher in the gloomy winter months. The lime green stems with hot pink buds is a delightful sight. The pink buds are alternately arranged along the stem. Red huckleberry can also have a “sunburnt” effect, where the stems will turn reddish-purple or bronzed when exposed to a lot of sun. Red Huckleberry can often be confused with Scott’s Broom, a nasty noxious weed, due to the broomy branching structure of both having green stiff stems. The difference is within the buds, so keep an eye out for the pink buds on Red Huckleberry.
Photo by: North Cascades Institute
Hopefully this has sparked an interest in getting outside and learning winter twig I.D.! If you are interested in a structured class, check out https://www.nativeplantsalvage.org/ for their official class, book, and other great opportunities. See you in the woods!
A little about me:
My name is Hannah Belloli and I work for Skillings Connolly, Inc. as a Staff Scientist. Skillings is an engineering firm with a small environmental department who does environmental consulting along with all sorts of other environmental science related work. I am originally from southern Idaho where I grew up roaming the high mountain desert and learning all I could about the ecology of the area. I went to college at the University of Idaho where I graduated with a B.S. in Rangeland Ecology and Management and Restoration Ecology (the desert left quite an impression). During my summers at college, I worked as a Wildland firefighter where I fell even more in love with the environment and all it’s wild processes. After graduating college, I left my desert for the rainforest of Western Washington where I served as an AmeriCorps member for Native Plant Salvage Foundation for a year, before starting my current job. Although my soul will always long for the high mountain desert, I have come to really love these WA trees. When I am not working, I love to hangout with my two pups, Winnie and Tuttle, and fiance, Max. We love hiking, gardening, cooking, and a good PNW beer.
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