Late Winter and Early Spring Flowers

photos by Robert Mumby

Although Spring and Summer are typically regarded as “flower seasons,” there are many plants that flower — either naturally or with human encouragement — in late Winter or early Spring.  This collection of pictures, mostly taken during February 2024, illustrates the diversity of late winter flowers that may be found on and near the RVM campus.  Some of these are native to the area, while many are cultivated introduced species.

There are many resources — both books and computer programs — for those who wish to identify plants and flowers.  A good way to start is an online search for some combination of terms from the list: flower/plant identification guides/books/programs — and add Oregon if you want to restrict the search.  An example of one useful product (resulting from adding “ratings” to the search) is https://www.cnn.com/cnn-underscored/reviews/best-plant-identification-app.  Anyone with comments or suggestions is invited to share them in a “reply” to this article.

Readership Participation: One flower that we are not sure about is labelled **??CHALLENGE??**.  If you know what it is, use the Reply function below to tell us (and if you have a reference, let us know that too).  Everyone submitting a verifiably correct answer will be richly rewarded with a portrait and laudatory text in the next Complement issue.