April is Native Plant Appreciation Month. How to find wildflower blooms around Tri-Cities

Native Plant Appreciation Month kicked off April 1, just as regional wildflowers and other plants begin to bloom. This inspired the Columbia Basin Native Plant Society and the local REI to host a presentation on local wildflowers at the Richland Public Library.

The multi-part presentation began with botanist Alexis Sullivan, who went over how to responsibly recreate in our climate. Before going out to find wildflowers blooming, you must first know how to conduct yourself in nature. Sullivan went over the leave no trace principles and essentials for hiking and botanizing.

Sullivan was followed by Janelle Downs, who has been a botanist and plant ecologist for over 40 years. She took attendees on a virtual wildflower walk, pointing out what blooms where in the region.

Leave no trace

The Leave No Trace organization is focused on educating people on how to care for the outdoors. The organization coined seven principles of leaving no trace, which Sullivan reviewed at the early April event. While neither organization is formerly affiliated with Leave No Trace, many nature-based groups stress these principles. Not all seven principles will apply every time you’re looking for wildflowers, but they’re still important to know.

Plan ahead and prepare

To plan ahead and prepare, Sullivan suggests you know before you go. Consider what the goal is, an approximate speed and time, how many people are going and other details, then prepare accordingly.

Travel and camp on durable surfaces

Traveling on durable surfaces is more complicated than people think. Regional wildflowers bloom in a sagebrush steppe habitat, a “widespread yet fragile ecosystem,” according to the National Wildlife Federation. If you often hike in the area, you may have seen signs reading “Don’t Bust the Crust.” A crust is a symbiotic organism, or a living thing made up of multiple different living species. They can look like a big clump of dirt, making it easy to walk on and destroy an entire ecosystem. It’s best to just follow the trail, but if you must leave the trail, step carefully and with purpose.

Dispose of waste properly

Disposing of garbage properly means more than just plastic. Anything you bring into nature should be taken back out. Even apple cores, orange peels and other things commonly left behind, as it can be unsafe for the nearby flora and fauna. This goes hand-in-hand with principle four, leave what you find.

Leave what you find

Don’t pick flowers, take plants home or otherwise disturb nature by moving things, it could also have disastrous impacts in the ecosystem. “Every flower picked is a flower that might not get to bloom next year,” Sullivan said.

Minimize wildfire impacts

Respect wildlife

When out in nature, you are in wildlife’s home. Do not disturb wild animals or their ecosystem.

Be considerate of other visitors

When it comes to being considerate of other visitors, Sullivan offered a few key tips. You should already be removing waste, but definitely clean up after yourself and any animals you bring with you. Check for restrictions before bringing pets. Out of respect for others and for animals, do not bring a speaker to blast music in nature. Downhill hikers should yield to uphill bikers, but botanists yield to everyone since they tend to take their time.

Wildflower hiking essentials

There are ten hiking essentials you should bring with you out into nature. No matter how short or simple your trip is planned to be, always be prepared for the unforeseen:

1. Navigation capability

2. Headlamp

3. Sun protection

4. First aid

5. Knife or multi-tool

6. Fire starter tools

7. Shelter

8. Extra food

9. Extra water

10. Extra clothes

To get the 14 botanizing essentials, simply add these three things:

1. Hand lens (or backwards binoculars)

2. Wildflower guide

3. Co-op membership

Regional wildflower blooms

Found in rocky soils like Badger Mountain, Candy Mountain, Saddle Mountains

• Bitterroot - Lewisia rediviva - Flowers from April to June

• Rock buckwheat, round-head - Eriogonum sphaerocephalum - Flowers from May to July

• Thyme buckwheat - Eriogonum thymoides - Flowers from April to June

• Hood’s phlox - Phlox hoodii - Flowers from April to June

• Rosy balsamroot - Balsamorphia careyana - Flowers from April to May

Found in silt loams like McBee Grade, Red Mountain, Badger Mountain

• Yellow bells, yellow fritillary - Fritillaria pudica - Flowers from March to June

• Carey’s balsamroot - Balsamorphiza careyana - Flowers from March to July

• Silky lupine - Lupinus sericeus - Flowers from May to August

• Long-leaf phlox - Phlox longifolia - Flowers from April to June
  
  

• Thompson’s paintbrush - Castilleja thompsonii - Flowers from May to September

• Nine-leaf desert parsley, triternate biscuitroot - Lomatium triternatum - Flowers from April to July

• Douglas cluster lilly - Triteleia grandiflora var. grandiflower, formerly Brodiaea douglasii - Flowers from April to June

• Upland larkspur, common larkspur, Nuttall’s larkspur - Delpinium nuttallianum - Flowers from March to August

• Woolly pod milkvetch, Pursh’s milkvetch - Astragalus purshii - Flowers from April to June

• Crouching milkvetch - Astragalus succumbuns - Flowers from April to June

• Piper’s daisy - Erigeron piperianus - Flowers from May to June

Where to find wildflowers

Local expert botanists have several recommendations for regional places to look at wildflowers:

Around Tri-Cities

• Badger Mountain

• Candy Mountain

• McBee Grade

• Hanford Reach National Monument

• White Bluffs

• Amon Creek Preserve

• Chamna Preserve

• Tapteal Greenway

• Horn Rapids Park

• Rattlesnake Slope Preserves

• Leslie Groves

Greater region

• Blue Mountains

• Wallula Gap

• Vantage

• Frenchman’s Coulee

• Cowiche Canyon

• Columbia River Gorge in Washington or Oregon.

More information on each location is available on the Plant Society’s website.