Native Plant Society of Oregon, Emerald Chapter

10/13/2025

NPSO Booth at Mount Pisgah Arboretum Mushroom Festival
Come and visit us in the nonprofit row at the Mount Pisgah Arboretum Mushroom Show on Sunday, October 26th. We have slots available for volunteers to sit in our booth and greet the public from 1:00 pm - -3:00 pm. If you can help us, sign up here:
https://www.signupgenius.com/go/10C0448ADA92BAAFC1-58476572-sunday

For more information about the Mushroom Festival:
https://mountpisgaharboretum.org/festivals-events/mushroom-festival/

With Fall right around the corner, we are excited to announce our 2025 Mushroom Festival!

Get ready to see hundreds of mushrooms on display, learn from experts, dance to live music, take a hayride, peruse scarecrows, shop fungi-themed goods from local vendors, enjoy a mushroom meal, and wash it all down with fresh-pressed apple cider!

Check out this year's poster featuring Inocybe pallidicremea with a red tree vole (Arborimus longicaudus), stunningly rendered by our returning festival artist Emily Poole https://www.epooleart.com/

Tickets go on sale September 26th! Arboretum members get free festival tickets, become a member anytime before the festival and get in free (you'll also get free tickets to our Spring Wildflower Festival, plus more perks)!

Head to our website for more 🍄🌲

10/04/2025

If you're curious about how fire impacts pollinators, don’t miss this upcoming talk by Lauren Ponisio "Fire and Pollinators"!

Happening on Wednesday, October 8, 2025 from 7:15pm to 9:00 p.m. (Presentation: 7:30–8:30 p.m.). It is hosted by the Lane County Butterfly Club at the Main Hall, Hilyard Community Center, 2580 Hilyard St, Eugene

An Oregon Chapter of the North American Butterfly Association   Anise Swallowtail by Rick Ahrens News UPCOMING MEETING: Wednesday, October 8, 2025, “Fire and Pollinators” with Lauren Ponisio.  More information here. The updated edition of Neil Bjorklund’s book Finding Lane County Butterflies...

09/22/2025

NPSO Emerald Chapter members explore Three Mile Prairie County Park, August 2025

To find out more about this park and how the community is working to conserve and protect this special ecosystem, please visit:

​PRESERVING THE BEAUTY OF THREE MILE PRAIRIE A Call for Responsible Park Enjoyment Recent Challenges and Conservation Efforts 2023 Q4 Parks E-Newsletter Updated Links.pdf Winter 2023, scroll to end of this newsletter.https://cdnsm5-hosted.civiclive.com/UserFiles/Servers/Server_3585797/File/Parks/Newsletters/2023%20Q4%20Parks%20E-Newsletter%20Updated%20Links.pdf

Scotch Broom Removal at Three Mile Prairie, LANE COUNTY PARKS QUARTERLY NEWSLETTER Summer 2025 https://myemail.constantcontact.com/Quarterly-Newsletter---Summer-2025.html?soid=1138747835545&aid=WvkCE2PoGTg
Save the Oregon Dunes: Siuslaw middle and high school students removing invasive Scotch broom from Three Mile Prairie County Park https://www.saveoregondunes.org/news-events-2/

An additional iNaturalist link with observations specific to this trip was submitted by Ed Alverson and has been included here with Gail Baker’s September 23rd trip write up. Ed notes that some observations were dated the 24th, not the 23rd, and that over 60 observations were made by the group. To view these observations, visit:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations?order_by=observed_on&place_id=174491&subview=table

09/22/2025

Hidden Gem of an Urban Sand Dune Ecosystem: Three Mile Prairie County Park in Florence, Oregon.

- A report of our 8/23/2025 NPSO Emerald Chapter field trip-

This 170-acre park between Fred Meyers and the neighborhoods along Rhododendron Drive in Florence deserves to be designated as a ‘hidden gem.” For most of the 9 individuals joining Ed Alverson, Natural Areas Coordinator for Lane County Parks, this was a new discovery and a cool exploration of the urban sand dune ecosystem. The temperatures this day hovered around 70F on the coast and went up to 100F in Eugene.

This park is not directly on the ocean; the nearest water is the Siuslaw River, and it is a mosaic of open dunes, seasonal ponds/wet meadows, and shore pine forest, all seen within a 2-mile loop around the park. The native plants associated with this mosaic make these plant communities rare.

Not only was the park an unexpected find but so were some of the plants, at least to me. Two diminutive species were new and interesting. The beach knotweed’s (Polygonum paronychia, Knotweed Family) flower is only 0.4cm across; its flowers are clustered and were in full bloom. It is native to the coastline of western North America from British Columbia to California.

Sandcarpet (Cardionema ramosissimum, Carnation family) is a mat-forming plant with flower petals 0.3–0.5 mm. It was in fruit during our visit. It has an interesting disjunct distribution throughout the Americas, found on the Pacific coast of North America from Puget Sound to Baja California, in central Mexico, and widely across South America, from the Andes in Colombia to most of Argentina. It would be interesting to know more about how this species disperses to these noncontiguous locations. Birds?

All the shrubs were full with luscious fruit: bog bilberry, evergreen huckleberry, salal, and several species of manzanita. There were still some small ponds in the seasonal wet meadows where ladies' tresses were plentiful. Wrentits were calling from the shore pine forest, many insects were spotted, and bear tracks had been observed within a week of our visit. As of 9/1/2025, there were 178 observations of plants (51 plant species) posted on iNaturalist for Three Mile Prairie County Park. To see current examples of organisms at Three Mile Prairie County Park, visit https://www.inaturalist.org/observations?place_id=174491&subview=map&view=species

07/28/2025

A Field Trip in Full Bloom: Exploring Iron Mountain/Cone Peak

The wildflowers on the Iron Mountain trail presented a spectacular show providing leader Jenny Lippert with plenty to point out and describe. In the cool forest understory, queen's cup beadlily (Clintonia uniflora), windflowers (Anemone deltoidea), vanilla leaf (Achlys triphylla) and meadowfoam (Tiarella trifoliata) dominated. Then the forest parted to show rock gardens with sheets of buckwheat (Eriogonum compositum and umbellatum), blue and red gilia (Gilia capitata and G. aggregata), several species of stonecrop and big blue blobs of Lewis's flax (Linum lewisii). The mesic meadow habitats featured alpine knotweed (Koenigia phytolaccaefolium), Alice's fleabane, (Erigeron aliceae), Triangle-leafed senecio (Senecio triangularis), slender Luina (Raineria stricta), western waterleaf (Hydrophyllum occidentale) and tall bluebells (Mertensia paniculata). There seemed to be a new species around every corner!

The excursion was enhanced by lichen and fungi expert, Sara Uebel, Forest Service Botanist, and leaf miner and gall expert, Michael Palmer. The trip concluded with a side trip to Fish Lake
Remount Depot with a trek across the dry lake bed to enjoy an unplanned encounter with a docent who provided access into the historic Santiam District Ranger Office.

*Group Photo in front of Fish Lake Remount Depot Historic Cabin, Iron Mountain Field Trip, Photo courtesy of Jenny Lippert, June 2025*

07/21/2025

Interested in a PAID, in-person Coastal Programs internship? This Fall 2025, offered by the NEC with a focus on Coastal Cleanup Month 2025

!!! Applications are due July 25th, 2025 !!!

07/20/2025

Mount Pisgah Arboretum Wildflower Festival 2025

This year brought another successful MPA Wildflower Festival. Jenny Lippert, our outgoing president, organized the plant collection done by our chapter members and US Forest Service volunteers. Under the tutelage of botanists Gail Baker, Susie Holmes, Jenny Lippert, Bitty Roy, and Aryana Ferguson, Lane Community College students and NPSO volunteers enhanced their botany knowledge by identifying plants and then setting them out on tables for viewing. The result was having 319 plant species on display.

Another positive aspect was that Emerald Chapter volunteers were able to greet Festival attendees at the entrance to the White Oak Pavilion under our new canopy that beautifully promotes the NPSO Emerald Chapter in print and logo above the entrance and on the canopy backdrop.