Browsed by
Category: Botany

A Summer Hike in Cypress Provincial Park

A Summer Hike in Cypress Provincial Park

Trip Report by Helen Baker “Find something different,” our hike leader Gail Ross challenged us. Our group of nine were strolling on a cool green path that winds through a grove of old-growth Hemlock and Yellow-Cedar in Cypress Provincial Park. We all stopped and peered through the tree trunks and underground. “I see something!” someone said, pointing to a clump of spindly purple stems growing straight up from the forest floor. Gail nodded and explained the unusual coral-like growth was…

Read More Read More

Tree-identification walk along English Bay

Tree-identification walk along English Bay

Trip Report by Nina Shoroplova. Photos by Nina Shoroplova and Caroline Penn. The first time some members of Nature Vancouver joined Caroline Penn and me, Nina Shoroplova, on a tree-identification walk of the many trees along English Bay, we went from west to east. This time we met in front of the Vancouver Aquatic Centre and walked from Sunset Beach Park in the east, through English Bay Beach Park in the west, and ended in Alexandra Park, the one known…

Read More Read More

Walking a loop trail through Honeymoon Bay Ecological Reserve

Walking a loop trail through Honeymoon Bay Ecological Reserve

Trip Report by Nina Shoroplova If you were just driving by and didn’t know it was there, you might never notice the Honeymoon Bay Ecological Reserve. But if you had heard about it, or been before, or spotted it on the map as you drove northwest from Honeymoon Bay near Cowichan Bay on Vancouver Island to, say, Nitinat, you would know you had found it and would look a little closer. I went there with my son, Alun, on the…

Read More Read More

Birds and Wildflowers of Horth Hill Park

Birds and Wildflowers of Horth Hill Park

Trip report by Naomi Ross With a last-minute change of leaders, trip to Horth Hill became an exploratory field trip. Thankfully, Wally was able to join us as a local guide and wildflower expert for part of the trip. Denis and Teresa were our botanists, Harvey and Michelle were our birders, and Denis was able to provide navigation when Wally wasn’t with us. On April 12, twelve participants, including four guests, met on board the ferry from Tsawwassen which more…

Read More Read More

🌿 Report on Hike in West Vancouver Arbutus grove April 2nd, 2025

🌿 Report on Hike in West Vancouver Arbutus grove April 2nd, 2025

Three hikers walked from Cranleigh Dr and Bluebell Dr in West Vancouver (near Marine Dr, to avoid $25 pay parking), and walked up Nelson Creek in the general direction of the old helipad, steep in places. This hike was posted on Nature Vancouver Events Calendar with very short notice, after a report from a friend that the Manzanitas were in flower – they were glorious. There are also thousands of Arbutus in this area, but not yet in flower. We…

Read More Read More

Identifying Trees at English Bay

Identifying Trees at English Bay

Submitted by Nina Shoroplova Twenty seven of us gathered in Alexandra Park, Vancouver, on the morning of Saturday, March 22, to learn about the 160-plus trees that have been planted (including a few that are native) along English Bay Beach Park and Sunset Beach Park.  We admired the Heritage Red Oak,[i] perhaps planted on the first day of the new century, January 1, 1901.[ii] (Caroline took the photo at the end of the walk, which is why no one is there!)…

Read More Read More

Nature Walk along Burnaby Lake and Brunette River

Nature Walk along Burnaby Lake and Brunette River

Trip Report by Bev Ramey On 16 March 2025, Kelly Sekhon led a group of nine on a lovely spring walk from Still Creek, along the North side trails of Burnaby Lake and down the Brunette River. We followed about ten kilometres of trails including the Brunette-Fraser Regional Greenway to Hume Park. We enjoyed sightings of several birds along the way and especially the close-up views of the rich assortment of birds at Piper Spit and the viewing tower where…

Read More Read More

Fall Colours in Stanley Park – 2024-10-22

Fall Colours in Stanley Park – 2024-10-22

Post by Nina Shoroplova It was fortunate that Caroline Penn and I moved the date of Nature Vancouver’s “Fall Colours in Stanley Park” tree-identification walk away from Saturday, October 19, the heaviest rainfall day of the latest atmospheric river. But perhaps not so good that we moved it to the morning of Tuesday, October 22, because it rained cats and dogs once again. Originally there were twenty of us registered for the Saturday, but weather and work intervened and just…

Read More Read More

Jericho Beach Park in front and the North Shore beyond, seen through the layering branch of a southern catalpa tree.
August 1st Tree ID Walk at Jericho Beach Park

August 1st Tree ID Walk at Jericho Beach Park

Photographs by Caroline Penn; post by Nina Shoroplova Twenty-three members of Nature Vancouver gathered in front of a leafy entrance to Jericho Beach Park. We each had a list of native and naturalized shrubs, native and ornamental trees growing in the park. Numbered from right to left: 1) a western redcedar, Thuja plicata, with seed cones; not a true cedar; 2) three Sawara false cypresses, Chamaecyparis pisifera var. squarrosa, with seed cones; a feathery form; 3) a yellow cedar, most…

Read More Read More

Walking in Memorial South Park to Learn About Its Trees – June 22, 2024

Walking in Memorial South Park to Learn About Its Trees – June 22, 2024

Submitted by Nina Shoroplova Few of us Nature Vancouver members knew Memorial South Park when we first met at its Cenotaph on Saturday, June 22, to learn more about its trees (https://covapp.vancouver.ca/parkfinder/ParkDetail.aspx?InParkId=186). Memorial South Park opened on May 22, 1926, almost a hundred years ago, before South Vancouver, Point Grey, and Vancouver amalgamated into the City of Vancouver in 1929. The park seems primarily to be a sports park, offering tennis courts, soccer fields, a baseball diamond, a field hockey…

Read More Read More

Nature Vancouver