Western St. John's Wort

Today has been mostly consumed with a big effort to get up to speed on wild flowers in preparation for the hike I will lead on Sunday.  It’s like cramming for a final exam.  For the past five years I have been mainly focused on birds, and in that time the names and identification of wild flowers has slipped considerably. So, today I have been busy photographing, and digging through flower books, and searching on Cascade Ramblings in hopes of resurrecting my past knowledge on wildflowers. 

The above photo was taken today along Spring Creek here in Collier Memorial State Park.  I believe it to be the native St. John’s Wort (Hypericum formosum) sometimes called Western St. John’s Wort, or Scouler’s St. John’s Wort. The pleasing thing to me was to find this growing along Spring Creek, because a short distance away along the red cinder shoulder of busy Highway 97 can be seen a similar looking flower called Common St. John’s Wort or Klamath Weed which is a noxious European invasive weed. Once more I have a deeper appreciation for the environs of Spring Creek.