The images in this series, photographed on Orcas, Waldron, and Yellow islands in the San Juans, offer wondrously engaging closeups of the delicate and diverse native island flora.
Imagine the joy of finding a field of buttercups (Buttercup and Chickweed)! Or lying down in the grass to appreciate a Shooting Star sparkling and glistening with dew (Shooting Star) or finding a cluster of freshly-fallen madrona berries perched on a rocky outcrop, glowing from within, illuminated by the strong side light of the morning sun (Madrona Berries). Or accidentally finding out, firsthand, the secret of Salal—it’s surprisingly sticky with resin (Salal)!
Yellow Island, known for its wildflowers, lives up to its name. Purple-flowered camas, backlit and bright, pop against a contrasting backdrop of yellow wildflowers (Camas). Their edible bulbs are prized by the Lummi. Beware however! White-flowered camas bulbs are deadly. Another Yellow Island native, the chocolate lily, is more subtly demure with its pedals of speckled-yellow and brown (Chocolate Lily)
In the San Juans one can also find Indian Paintbrush, whose vivid, red petals seem on the verge of bursting with chromatic tension (Indian Paintbrush).
Other island natives include sea pink which used to carpet the glades kept open by wildfires set by the ancestral residents of theses islands in order to promote Camas production (Sea Pink). The woodland star grows a tiny, modest flower whose translucent petals are suffused with soft, pink veins (Woodland Star). What the calypso orchid, also known as the fairy slipper, lacks in height it makes up for in delight as its beautiful pink and purple flowers enliven the surroundings of the forest floor (Calypso Orchid).
A Calypso orchid highlighted by the morning sun.
This is stone crop, a succulent with tall, spiked, yellow flowers.
These madrona berries bask in the brilliant sunlight on eponymous Madrona Point.
The earthy tones of these chocolate lilies often blend into the surroundings on Yellow Island.
The delicate, pink-and-white flowers of the woodland star stand out, backlit, against a darkened forest.
Sea pink flowers often gather in the open glades of the San Juans Islands.
In late spring, Indian paintbrush lends brilliant splashes of color to Point Disney on Waldron Island.
The yellow flowers, for which Yellow Island is famous, blur into the background behind this purple camas. This camas is backed by the yellow flowers that make the island famous.
The fawn lily offers its softness to this intimate portrait. Soft intimate view of a fawn lily.
A progression of salal blossoms in springtime
Buttercup and chickweed in bloom on Point Disney, a wildflower preserve on Waldron Island.
This bright-pink shooting star glistens on Madrona Point, in its ephemeral coat of morning dew.