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Category: Botany

Wild flowers, invasives on CBC Radio March 24

Wild flowers, invasives on CBC Radio March 24

Gloria Makarenko, temporary host of CBC Radio show The Early Edition, spoke with Teresa Gagné, member of Nature Vancouver’s Botany Committee, early on Friday March 24 2023. You can view the Video version on CBC TV Our Vancouver (April 1 edition) – starts at 33m18s. There is also the original 7 minute audio-only recording Below are photos of flowers and plants discussed: CBC studio; section of tree weighted down by English Ivy; Osoberry ; Salmonberry; Trillium (and some Ivy); Red…

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Tree Identification in Kitsilano – Feb 10, 2023

Tree Identification in Kitsilano – Feb 10, 2023

Report by Nina Shoroplova, Photos by Nina Shoroplova and Teresa Gagne Friday, February 10, 2023, was a sunny, dry day, perfect for “Identifying Trees in Winter at Kitsilano Park and Kitsilano Beach Park.” Eighteen Nature Vancouver members joined leaders Nina Shoroplova and Teresa Gagné mid-morning in the southwest corner of Kitsilano Park and for the next two hours identified both evergreen and deciduous, native and introduced, ornamental and invasive species of trees, shrubs, and herbaceous plants. Whereas evergreen trees offered…

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Pressed Plants: Making a Herbarium

Pressed Plants: Making a Herbarium

Book Review by Nina Shoroplova Linda P. J. Lipsen and Derek Tan’s Pressed Plants: Making a Herbarium, published in February 2023 by Royal BC Museum, Victoria, British Columbia One of the hobbies I enjoyed as a girl was pressing wildflowers. My friend Rosemary lived in a house that backed on to some wild land near Cyncoed Village. We would walk the lanes and trails collecting wildflowers: lesser celandine and meadow buttercup (we could tell the difference), willowherb, red campion, and red clover….

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Killarney Lake Circuit, Bowen Island

Killarney Lake Circuit, Bowen Island

Trip Report by Caroline Penn On September 22, 2022, nine members of Nature Vancouver gathered at the Snug Cove Library / Info Centre on Bowen Island at 10am to hike around Killarney Lake. It was a perfect early fall day with a slight breeze. We took the counterclockwise route. It is not clear whether Killarney Lake was initially man made or natural, but a dam built in the 1920’s increased its size and caused the ghostlike trees that we see…

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Cheakamus Lake Backpacking Trip

Cheakamus Lake Backpacking Trip

Trip report by Christine Thuring From Thursday to Saturday (June 16-18), a small group of five backpackers enjoyed the trials and tribulations of early summer in Garibaldi Provincial Park. The wildflowers were quite behind schedule, there were 5 active bears in the area and the snow line was surprisingly low. Still, we had a fantastic time.  Our home base was the Cheakamus Lake Campground (at 850m elevation), where we occupied two sites, separated by a thicket of dogwood and hawthorn….

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Tree Walk in Jericho Park

Tree Walk in Jericho Park

Report & Photos by Helen Baker On April 30, Ryan Regier, a tree enthusiast and UBC librarian, and Laura Cottle, a forester, guided a group of tree-lovers through Jericho Park, an urban forest with a mix of deciduous and conifer trees. With Ryan and Laura’s help, we learned to identify some common trees by examining bark, leaves, needles and cones.  Starting at the east side of the park, we followed a path that runs by the duck pond and into the forest. Ryan…

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Wildflowers at Whytecliff Park

Wildflowers at Whytecliff Park

Trip Report by Jane Srivastava Sometimes it’s good to slow down and look at what’s at your feet. On April 26, eleven of us enjoyed an easy walk to see many delicate wildflowers and other delights along the chain-link shaped trails on the bluffs in the northwest portion of Whytecliff Park in West Vancouver.  We met in the overflow parking lot. Then, passing red flowering currant in full bloom we followed a path from the far end of the parking lot,…

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Hike to Yew Lake & Bowen Lookout

Hike to Yew Lake & Bowen Lookout

Trip Report by Janet Snell & Lyn Grants This hike on, March 21, 2022, was scheduled to see the early evidence of spring emerging from the snow in the Yew Lake / Bowen Lookout area of Cypress Provincial Park. Instead, we were treated to 20 cm of new snow on top of another recent snowfall. All evidence of spring was obscured, and winter’s grip stayed strong. The creek leading from Yew Lake was nestled in a canyon-like cradle of snow….

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Big Trees of Lighthouse Park

Big Trees of Lighthouse Park

Trip Report by Helen Baker On March 16, Sally McDermott led a group of 13 on a four-hour loop hike through Lighthouse Park. Together we gazed up – way up – at the Douglas Fir and Red Cedar giants and made stops to look out at the ocean at Eagle Point and Juniper Point.  Signs of spring were everywhere – bald eagles flying into the treetops with sticks for nest building, salmonberry buds getting ready to burst and skunk cabbage poking up…

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Blue Gentian Lake hikes

Blue Gentian Lake hikes

Trip Report by Janet Snell Photos by Janet Snell, John Martin & Caroline Penn On 30 August and again on 9 September, 2021, two groups of hikers explored different routes to Blue Gentian Lake on Hollyburn Mountain this past month. The goal of both hikes was first and foremost to see the beautiful Blue Gentian flowers in bloom at the small lake of the same name. The first hike ascended from upper West Vancouver using the network of trails that…

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