May09_2008

Botanical Glossary - Home - References Cited

Photos - Frames left and right: One of half a dozen wooden foot bridges over Clack Creek in Cliff Gilker Park (near Roberts Creek) on the sunshine Coast. Families are always willing subjects to pose in areas that cry out for posed individuals. That's my sister Morraine Upson with Brandon and Brook.

Center frame: Vaccinium Parvifolium (Red Huckleberry) leaves just forming on revitalized, spring shoots. The berries are bright red, round, 1cm round, and vary in taste from sour to sweet evergreen when ripe. I have tried the berries in the unripe stage, and found them to be palatable and fill the hungry gap. The berries are also attractive to wildlife and are useful as fish bait in streams (the ripe berries look like fish eggs). The shrub flowers in May (small bell flowers either greenish yellow, or pinkish) and the fruit ripen by August. I have seen some bushes with fruit still clinging to the branches in late October, very unusual (the longer the berries stay on the bush, the sweeter they taste). The berries were eaten by most of the aboriginal West Coast people, either fresh, squashed for juice, or dried into cakes, or stored in grease for winter consumption. (Vaccinium berries are sweet and contain high concentrations of both mono- and di-saccharides. Berries are rich in vitamin C and energy content but low in fats.) The leaves and bark of the shrub were mushed and boiled into a decoction for use as a gargle for sore throats and sore, inflamed gums. (Huckleberry foliage is relatively high in carotene, manganese, and energy content.)

Photos - Moss on logs, moss on rocks next to Clack Creek. The moss in center frame is Kindbergia Praelonga (Slender Beaked Moss) This moss is usually found in irregular mats on logs, humus and tree bases. The leaves are broadly elliptic, gradually narrowing to a sharp point with branches scruffy, uneven and irregularly branched, smaller than other forms of Kindbergia, and much more untidy.

There is something wildly hypnotic about flowing water in a stream. It's kind of like watching the dancing flames in fire light while seated in front of a camp fire. Moving water can totally absorb one's attention visually while the sound of the water muffles out all other sounds making the hypnotic effect complete on two levels.

Photos - A creek runs through it. The beauty of flowing water through trees and shrubs at Clack Creek. The fallen trees and low hanging shrubs, and slow moving pools provide hiding places for salmon fry and trout as they mature.

Click here for more photos of Cliff Gilker Park for this day.