An Armand's clematis vine growing on a fence is full of creamy white flowers. The four to six petaled blooms open to reveal pale yellow anthers. The buds are light green, and grow on sinuous red stems. The dark green, shiny oval leaves reflect some blue from the sky. This year the clematis are so full of flowers it's amazing.

Broadleaf lupine (Lupinus latifolius), growing in the park's naturalized area, is leafing out. The palmate leaves have up to 10 leaflets, covered with downy hairs. Many of the leaves in this image have a water drop at the center, trapped and misshapen by the hairs at the point where the leaves radiate. It makes them look like jewelry

An enthusiastic clematis and water drops in lupine leaves. The Armand's clematis is the first to bloom around here. And I love how water drops always sit in the middle of lupine leaves
#Photography #SeattleWashington #SeattleSpring #SeattleParks #MapleLeafPark #BloomScrolling

A cluster of bright red-orange madrone (Arbutus menziesii) berries hangs down amid dark green glossy leaves. The leaves are lanceolate, thick and have well marked yellow veination. The trees are evergreen. The background is more leaves and clusters or single berries in this healthy tree.

More berries for the birds
#Photography #SeattleWashington #SeattleAutumn #MapleLeafPark

An array of dark blue Virginia creeper berries at the end of bright red stems hangs down from a dark vine branch arching across a tough fence. The bright sun casts the shadows of the berries and the branches on the fence. The roughness of the boards also casts shadows. The reds and blues are very contrasty. FYI the berries are not for people because they can make one sick. They're for the birds!

Berries for the birds
#Photography #SeattleWashington #SeattleAutumn #MapleLeafPark #EastCoastKin

A bright, daisy-like, golden yellow tickseed flower peeks from the tan autumn grasses. Its long green stem has almost no leaves. The single row of outer ray flower petals have a raggedy edge. The inner flowers are opening to show their pistils and pollen loaded anthers. These flowers will turn into a brown, hard seed that apparently to some people look like ticks. Tickseed theoretically is not native to Washington, but it is so pervasive in prairie flower seed mixes and gardens that its march across the Great Plains into the PNW flora is inevitable.

Tickseed (Coreopsis lanceolata), also known as sand coreopsis, lanceleaf coreopsis and lanceleaf tickseed isn't native to the PNW, but still is a bright spot in the restored prairie at Maple Leaf Park.
#BloomScrolling #Photography #MapleLeafPark #SeattleWashington ##SeattleAutumn #FloraOfThePNW

The flowers of Oregon sunshine look like miniature pure gold sunflowers about 2 inches (5 cm) wid. The single row of ray flowers encircle the disk flowers. The leaves are either simple or pinnately compound and are often blue green and covered with woolly hairs as are the stems and sepals. In this photo the clump is in the middle of medium height mixed grasses in Maple Leaf Par.

Oregon sunshine (Eriophyllum lanatum), one of the woolly sunflowers, grows in cheerful clumps amid the park restoration grasses
#Photography #SeattleWashington #SeattleSummer #MapleLeafPark #SeattleParkRestorations #BloomScrolling #SeattleParks

These 5 petalled waterleaf flowers growing in the park restoration are a greenish white. The numerous lilac colored stamens with yellow anthers, the hairy stems and sepals, all make the flowering cluster look like a fuzzy ball on top of its upright green stem. The alternate compound leaves are fuzzy as well,.

Another native plant spotted in Seattle park restoration areas: the Pacific waterleaf (Hydrophyllum tenuipes) has cool cucumber-ish colors and likes the edges of woodsy spots.
#Photography #SeattleWashington #SeattleSummer #MapleLeafPark #SeattleParkRestorations #BloomScrolling #SeattleParks

Bushes full of pink and white weigela flower corymbs line the path through the park. The 5 petaled tubular flowers have stamens fused to the corolla and a pistil with a white tip. The ovate and strongly veiled green leaves make a nice backdrop to the flowers. Some weigela species are scented like their honeysuckle cousins, but these are not.

Weigela in the park
#Photography #SeattleSpring #SeattleWashington #BloomScrolling #MapleLeafPark

A snapshot of a Pacific madrone tree full of flowers in a neighborhood park. The tree has a rounded crown, branches covered with reddish bark, abundant large, oval, leathery dark green leaves, and panicles of sweet scented white flowers. The tree is flanked by a couple of other trees, and stands tall above a hill covered with an understory of laurels, small pine trees full of leaf candles, and other shrubs. The foot of the hill is edged by a lawn, with a small gray shih tzu iz sniffing the grass prior to giving himself a full body stinky roll.

I took the dog for a walk in the park. I can't recall such a gorgeous spring. Here's a snapshot of a splendid madrone (arbutus or madrona depending on your USDA zone, Latin name, Arbutus menziesii) in Maple Leaf Park
#Photography #SeattleSpring #SeattleWashington #MapleLeafPark

Tall spikes of bright navy blue flowers rise from mounds of the palmately compound dark green leavesof the big leaf lupin (Lupinus polyphyllus). The flowers look like pea flowers, with blue heels and a white to pint splotch on the top petal. The flowers spikes are blooming from the bottom up, with yellow green buds at the top. These plants are growing in a partially restored patch of Puget prairie, part of a Seattle Parks effort at restoration of native habitat.

Lupin in the park (Lupinus polyphyllus)
#Photography #SeattleSpring #SeattleWashington #MapleLeafPark #NativePlants #BloomScrolling

A branch of madrone ends with a cluster of racemes full of white urn shaped flowers. The leaves of the tree are oval, dark green, and leathery. If you look closely, the flowers eack look like pearly old fashioned lampshades. The scent is light and mildly like honey.

A young Pacific madrone tree sits by the edge of park densely covered with dark green leaves and flowers all the way down to the ground. The lawn beneath is bright green and dotted with yellow dandelions.

The Pacific madrones (Arbutus menziesii) are full of flowers this year, much more so than I have ever seen. #Photography #SeattleWashington #SeattleSpring #NativePlants #MapleLeafPark

Some coral red blossoms on a flowering quince share branches with some different lichens and moss. The lichens are fruticose and sage green (reindeer lichen?), gray and foliose, and yellow and crustose. The flowers are bright and cheery, mostly partially opened, with 5 petals and yellow stamens poking out.

Flowering quince on lichen and moss covered shrubs.

#SeattleWashington #Photography #MapleLeafPark #SeattleSpring #BloomScroll

I reached into one and it bit me.

White and gray cumulus clouds head east in a blue Seattle sky over Maple Leaf Park. You can see the iconic Maple Leaf water tower, the evergreens and other trees at the perimeter, and the houses abutting the park. The entire upper park area is the top of a water tank covered with concrete and a layer of soil, which is why the trees are all around the outer edge. The grassy field on top of the tank lid is used as a soccer field and for outdoor summer camps, among other things.

Lunch time cumulus clouds heading east. I read that these indicate fair weather. Ha. They were piling up against the mountains and produced a hailstorm and downpour and wind this afternoon.
#SeattleWashington #SeattleSpring #MapleLeafPark #Weather

A cluster of Oregon grape flower buds is going from tightly closed green to more open rose to almost open yellow. Soon happy pollinators will be visiting the blooms. Meanwhile, you can see the thorny holly-like leaves are changing from burgundy red to green.

Spring colors: the tattered leaves are shifting from winter red to green. The flower buds are shifting fron rose to yellow. Tall Oregon grape (Mahonia aquifolium) #Photography #SeattleWashington #SeattleSpring #MapleLeafPark #BloomScroll

A cyme of pink and white viburnum flower buds on a green shrub blows in the warm (55 F!) breeze. A few 5 petaled flowers are open, and a couple have stamens full of pollen, looking at bit like tiny drumsticks.

Virburnums of all kinds like this climate. Late February bloomer looks like early spring with white and pink buds and small delicate flowers.
#Photography #SeattleWashington #SeattleSpring #MapleLeafPark #Bloomscroll

A twig of fuzzy gray willow catkins grace a willow tree in Maple Leaf Park.

I've been struggling with getting a good photo of a patch of a crust mushroom. So have some willow catkins, a preview of spring
#Photography #SeattleWashington #MapleLeafPark

Fuzzy white caps emerge from a dead tree trunk like piles of sugar powdered cookies

As the mushrooms age, they often turn cream colored. You can see how fuzzy they are

Looking at the underside of split gill fungi, you can see that the gills look a bit like a fan. The edge of the cap shows the densely packed hairs which have a soft spongey texture,

Split gill mushrooms growing on trees (Schizophyllum commune). Apparently all split gill fungi world wide are the same species, which is very unusual to have no speciation from different environmental conditions.
🍄📷 #Photography #FungiFriends #FungiFriday #SeattleWashington #MapleLeafPark