Sitka Spruce

Alpine Larch

The alpine larch, also called the subalpine larch, stands 12-15 metres tall. These trees are found throughout the Cascade and Rocky mountains.

Arbutus

Also known as the Pacific madrone, the Arbutus has distinctive reddish-brown bark, thick waxy and a beautiful twisted trunk that can grow to 30 metres tall.

Arctic Willow

Alpine willow is commonly found in northern B.C., the Yukon, the Northwest Territories and Alaska. It is adapted to grow in open, dry areas.

Balsam poplar

These trees often grow on the eastern slopes of hillsides. They thrive in moist soils near rivers or floodplains, but they can also grow in rocky soils.

Balsamroot

Balsamroot is a relative of the sunflower. Its leaves are coarse and arrow-shaped, and a single plant can have many yellow flowers.

Big Sagebrush

Big sagebrush can be thought of as a protector plant for many understory community members.

Black Cottonwood

Black cottonwood gets its name from their fluffy white seeds, which look like cotton. These seeds can be seen floating through the air in late spring.

Black Huckleberry

Black Huckleberry is an important food in many First Nations communities. These berries can be eaten fresh, cooked, or dried into cakes.

Black Spruce

The black spruce can live for up to 250 years! Their cones which appear in clusters, are recorded to stay on the tree for 20 to 30 years at a time.

Blue Camas

The blue camas is a perennial herb. The beautiful flowers range from hues of blue and purple, but there are also some with white flowers.

Bunchberry

Bunchberries flower in May and June, later in the Northern Mountains and frequently flower a second time in the fall.

Cattail

Cattails are an important part of wetland ecosystems! They provide food and shelter for many animals.

Cloudberry

Cloudberries are some of the most desirable, and yet elusive berries in the world. They grow in high altitudes, and cold, swampy, acidic environments.

Common Green Sphagnum Moss

Sphagnum moss is a small but mighty community member. Mosses are some of the first organisms to grow back after disturbances, such as fires and floods.

Common Juniper

Juniper berries stay on the tree for at least two years, and are eaten by American robins and black-capped chickadees.

Creamy Peavine

The creamy peavine reaches 0.3 to 1 metres in height and it is a climbing plant.

Crowberry

Crowberries spread sometimes by seed, but most commonly by underground roots.

Devil's Club

Despite its name, the Devil’s Club holds many gifts of healing. Its flowers appear in late spring to mid-summer.

Dog Lichen

Lichens can often be overlooked, but they contribute to ecosystem health like any other species!

Douglas-fir

The Douglas-fir grows to 20-100 metres tall, but the tallest trees are only found on the B.C. coast.

Eelgrass

Eelgrass is actually a flowering plant, not an eel OR grass. Eel grass has dark green leaves that are 2-12 mm wide and up to 100 cm long!

Engelmann Spruce

These cold-tolerant trees can live up to 1000 years old! They start to produce cones after 20 years.

Fireweed

Fireweed grows up to three metres tall. It has clusters of pink four-petaled flowers and long, green leaves growing out of a single tall stem.

Garry Oak

The Garry oak is a slow-growing tree. The leaves of the oak turn dull yellow or brown in fall and produce small acorns.

Grand Fir

Grand firs are gifted givers; these trees provide not only shelter, but also food and medicine.

Henderson's Shooting Star

Shooting stars are a major plant in the Garry oak meadows of southern Vancouver Island. The plant flowers in the spring and early summer.

Highbush Cranberry

Despite the name, highbush cranberry is not a cranberry at all! These are actually part of the honeysuckle family

Horsetail

Horsetails can be found almost everywhere around the world except Australia and New Zealand.

Hybrid White Spruce

The hybrid white spruce is a mixture of white spruce and Engelmann spruce. It grows up to 40 metres tall and has large branches and a narrow top.

Kelp

Kelp is a type of marine algae, which are aquatic plants. They are common in oceanic waters around B.C.

Kinnikinnick

Kinnikinnick is a small, trailing, evergreen shrub with dark green leaves. Its bright red berries look like miniature apples and have a large hard seed.

Knight's Plume Moss

In Knight’s plume, there is a brown capsule that grows out of the branches to release these spores.

Labrador tea

Found in low to mid elevations, they grow in peatlands and boggy areas. Labrador tea is able to grow in soil that is acidic and low in nutrients.

Leafy Aster

These plants provide nectar for native bees, moths, and most importantly, the migratory monarch butterfly.

Lodgepole Pine

Lodgepole pine has serotinous cones, which means they rely on fire to open. Cones open when heat is present, and the seeds are then spread on the open ground.

Moss campion

Moss campion is found in slightly moist areas in mountains, on rocks or cliffs and in open cold areas.

Mountain Heather

This beautiful alpine shrub is in full bloom from July through August and does not produce berries after the flowers have wilted.

Nootka Lupine

The Nootka lupine is notable for the beautiful pink and white flowers that pop up in the summers of British Columbia.

Oregon grape

Oregon grape is a tall evergreen plant with pairs of spiny leaves. It has bright yellow flowers and blue berries.

Pacific Bleeding Heart

The Pacific bleeding heart is a giving plant and has many relationships with other beings.

Pacific dogwood

Pacific dogwoods grow to 15 metres tall as a shrub or tree. They are covered with white flowers in spring.

Pacific Willow

The Pacific willow is considered one of the tallest native willows, growing 1-9 metres tall. It has long, pointed leaves and shiny, reddish-brown branches.

Paper Birch

Paper birch is a small to medium sized deciduous tree that grows 30 to 40 metres tall and has a trunk that grows up to 75 centimetres in diameter.

Pinegrass

Pinegrass flowers in small green clumps, with seeds that are spread by wind, animals, birds, and animal’s fur. These seeds are eaten by birds!

Pink Fawn Lily

The pink fawn lily has flowers that hang downward, protecting the pistil and pollen from springtime rains.

Ponderosa Pine

This tree has a cone shaped top and grows 30 to 50 meters tall. Ponderosa pine has two or three needles in a bunch and yellow to red-brown bark.

Prairie Lupine

Although other lupines have been known to kill animals that eat the plant, this lupine is considered a good food source for cattle.

Prickly Pear Cactus

Prickly pears bloom in late spring and early summer. The flowers are large and yellow, and they turn into small, hard, pear-shaped fruits.

Prickly Rose

The prickly rose grows up to 1.5 metres tall and has stems covered in short, hard prickles. It has a large pink single flower with a strong sweet smell.

Queen's Cup

The Queen’s cup is an important species in B.C. It is a small plant, but its presence can help us learn a lot about the ecosystem.

Red Alder

The red alder grows to 24 metres tall and is often found in recently disturbed areas, especially along marshes, floodplains and stream banks.

Red Huckleberry

Red huckleberry is an important species to many beings in British Columbia. Red huckleberries are often found growing on rotting logs and stumps.

Red-Osier Dogwood

Red-osier dogwood is a plant that protects and provides for its community.

Round-Leaved Sundew

This is a small insect-eating plant that has sticky red tentacles for capturing insects such as mosquitoes, midges and gnats.

Salal

Salal is an evergreen plant, so it keeps its beautiful green leaves all year round. It spreads by underground stems and roots.

Salmonberry

Salmonberries are one of the many berries which bears and birds eat. The young shoots of the salmonberry can be peeled and eaten raw or steamed.

Saskatoon berry

The Saskatoon berry plant varies in size from being a shrub of one metre tall to a small tree of five metres tall. The berries are purple to nearly black in colour.

Scrub Birch

Also known as bog birch, swamp birch and dwarf birch. Scrub birch is a shrub with resin-filled wart-like glands on its twigs.

Skunk Cabbage

In many ways, skunk cabbage is an initial sign of spring as the heat created from the root system melts the surrounding snow.

Snowberry

The snowberry fruits ripen in the fall with two seeds. They spread out by their seeds and by underground stems.

Soopolallie

Soopolallie is an incredibly important plant for bears! The berries of this shrub appear from late July to mid-August. These berries are a main part of a bear’s diet.

Subalpine Fir

Subalpine fir is an important tree for animal habitat in B.C.’s interior and high-elevation forests.

Sword Fern

Sword ferns reproduce by spores not by seeds; they need lots of moisture to spread the spores to sprout in a new spot.

Tall Bluebell

The tall bluebell is signified by its beautiful blue flowers, which are are pollinated by native bumblebees.

Tamarack

Tamarack is a conifer tree that loses its needles in the fall. It usually only grows as high as 15 meters and has three-sided needles in clusters of 12 to 20.

Thimbleberry

Thimbleberries contribute so much to the ecosystem throughout the year! Native bees love to eat the thimbleberry nectar hidden deep inside the flowers.

Trembling Aspen

The trembling aspen is quick-growing but does not live for more than 50 years. These plants are gifted at fostering community.

Twinflower

Twinflower is a short trailing shrub, less than 10 centimetres tall, with long stems that run along the ground and send up shoots.

Western hemlock

The western hemlock always has droopy new growth at the top of the tree with soft foliage and needles. A full-grown tree can be 30 to 50 metres tall.

Western Red-Cedar

The western red cedar has long been known as the “Tree of Life” for its abundant gifts and contributions to ecosystem health.

White Mountain Avens

White mountain avens are pioneer species; this means they are some of the first to grow in an area.

White Spruce

White spruce grow from a stunted bush up to a 40 metre tall tree, with smooth, shiny twigs and grey scaly bark.

Whitebark Pine

Whitebark pine is one of the shorter pine trees in the mountains. Its round bushy treetop grows from many different twisted stems.

Wild Ginger

Wild ginger is an evergreen plant with thick roots and trailing stems with heart-shaped leaves on long stalks.

Wolf Willow (Silverberry)

Wolf-willow is one of the few plants that is able to fix its own nitrogen through a partnership with nitrogen-fixing bacteria.

Woods Rose

Woods rose has flowers that are bright pink and look very different from roses you can buy in a flower shop.

Yarrow

Yarrow is a generous plant and a team player. The flowers, leaves, and entire plant have edible and medicinal properties.

Yellow-Cedar

Yellow cedar can live for hundreds of years! Young cedars will sprout out of damp rich earth and out of old, downed trees.

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