The Koma Kulshan chapter of the Washington Native Plant Society ventured a few miles north of the border today to check out the early spring wildflowers in Hi-Knoll and Campbell Valley Regional Parks. Hi-Knoll is a Surrey city park and Campbell Valley is just north of the US-Canada border on the south edge of Langley.

The star attraction at Hi-Knoll was two species of fawn lilies, Erythronium revolutum and Erythronium oregonum. The first is pink, and quite uncommon in northwest Washington and southwest British Columbia. Conveniently, they’re right by the trail as one enters the park. The second is white, with a bit of pale yellow on the back of the tepals. It is considerably more common, but also found along the trail at Hi-Knoll.

Bleeding heart was just getting started, salmonberries were glorious, Indian plum was still looking good but getting toward the end of its season, Ribes divaricatum was blooming nicely, and we failed to positively identify the willows we found in bloom. The showiest flower was Trillium ovatum which was at its peak and quite numerous.

Hi-Knoll Park is a short distance west of 200th Street on 50th Avenue, just across the border between Langley and Surrey. We entered Campbell Valley Regional Park from 16th Avenue eash of 200th Street. If you’re nearby they’re both worth a visit now and again in a couple of weeks when a whole new set of flowers will be blooming.

Thanks, Wayne, for organizing and leading this trip to your backyard.

A photo note: All the flowers were photographed with a 100mm macro lens with natural light. We were blessed with a nearly wind-free day under fairly bright overcast. The video was created with Animoto after lightly processing the originals in Lightroom.

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