Native Oregon Coastal Plant I.D. Challenge!

This is a 24 question, plant identification challenge for those of you who are novice to intermediate botanists and naturalists who are familiar with and love our Oregon flora!

I would recommend writing your answers to each photo on a piece of scratch paper to compare with the answer key at the end.

This is just for fun and I already have photos for the next one lined up; so have fun and let me know by your comments what you think!

Note:
Plants may appear twice. I'll give answers in 'Common name' form even though there are several common names for some plants. Ask if you have any questions...


COASTAL ZONE:


1. This shade-lover can turn a crimson color in the Fall...

2. This shrub and sometime small tree should be an easy one (?)...

3. This fragrant-when-crushed beauty likes shady moist forest floors...

4. This large leaf plant is common in bogs and streams in coastal Oregon...

5. This plant has a descriptive name, common in Oregon rain forest...

6. This prickly shrub is a non-native (I just threw it in anyway)...

7. Creeping along the forest floor...who am I?

8. See if you can guess the name of this tree; hint: it's not a Douglas Fir...

9. This berry tasty shrub is usually seen along the coast...

10. Oregon boasts at least 12 species from the Rubus genus; which one is this?

11. Alaska to Northern California this good-looking tree is common...

12. This Fern is a common site in moist oregon woods...

13. This shrubby plant can be called a groundcover but has been seen to grow to 10 feet tall!

14. Edible and common in woodlands, give it your best shot!

15. This lovely fern is a common woodland plant in Oregon...

16. This shrub or small tree is a native used in plantings and is also commonly seen as 'brush'...

17. This non-native is so widespread most think it is a native to this area and it is a popular hedge plant...

18. This introduced plant thrives as far North as the Coos Bay Region...

19. This plant can look vastly different in the many different places it grows...

20. Should be a easy one for anyone familiar with the Oregon Coast...

21. Am I getting tricky on this one? Don't over think this native...

22. This Honeysuckle family member is common along the coast...

23. This small tree has medicinal bark and several common names...

24. This Shrub is common along the Oregon Coast...

ANSWER KEY

1. Vine Maple

2. Filbert or Hazelnut

3. Wild Ginger

4. Skunk Cabbage

5. Pig-a-back-plant

6. Gorse or gorsebrush

7. Pacific Blackberry (Rubus ursinus)

8. Sitka Spruce

9. Evergreen Huckleberry

10. Thimbleberry

11. Western Red Cedar

12. Deer Fern

13. Salal

14. Red Huckleberry; Red Bilberry

15. Lady Fern

16. Pacific Wax Myrtle

17. Escallonia

18. Gorse

19. Salal

20. Shore Pine

21. Pacific Blackberry

22. Black Twinberry

23. Cascara, Buckthorn, Chitum bark

24. Evergreen Huckleberry