On the Trout Creek Trail
While camping at Miracle Beach on Vancouver Island, I hiked the Trout Creek Trail to two waterfalls on Mohun Creek. Along the way, I stopped to photograph some of the flowering plants I spotted.
In the shaded forest there were two patches of Indian pipe (Monotropa uniflora). It is a saprophytic perennial, deriving its nutrients from tree roots in a complex relationship with fungi.
In the wet spray zone of the waterfalls were quite a few hedgenettles with their pink tubular flowers.
On the rocky shoreline, also in the spray zone were a few false bugbanes (Trautvetteria caroliniensis) in flower. They are a herbacous perennial that grow from rhizomes. The white flowers have no petals.
Tucked up into rock cervices at the side of the waterfalls were western maidenhar ferns (Adiantum aleuticum sp.). We sometimes see these in nurseries, as a decorative plant for woodland gardens.
Indian pipes are also called ghost pipe, corpse plant, ice plant and ghost plant.
We enjoyed the waterfalls and then returned the way we came, another day of exploration through the woods.