Botany Class 19: Shrubs

Now that many of the flowers of Paradise Meadows have been covered, on to shrubs of the sub-alpine.

Pink & Gold

A beautiful day in Strathcona Park today, with sun and moderate temperatures (just below freezing at the meadows elevation). The snow base in the meadows is about 3.3 m. (Last year at this time, the snow base was over 5 m!) That's still a lot of snow for skiing - and hopefully, it means an early hiking season!

Botany Class 18

As well as unusual sub-alpine flowers, Paradise Meadows has many interesting grasses & sedges: here are just two of the most striking.

An Evening with the Mad Mapper

Tomorrows' presentation with Trevor “Mad Mapper” Moelaert has been featured in the Comox Valley Echo and Comox Valley Record. The ‘Journey Below the Surface of Vancouver Island’  will be at the North Island College theatre at the top of Ryan Road in Courtenay. 

Doors will open at 6 p.m. with the show running from 7 – 9, followed by a question period. There is a cover charge of $10 per person at the door. ($5 for high school students) Proceeds will support the work of the Strathcona Wilderness Institute.

Botany Class 17

There are not that many flowers of this particular colour in the meadows, so these two really stand out.

Botany Class 16

Resuming 'Botany Class' after a short interlude....
In the spring, be sure to go 'treasure-hunting' in the meadows for these two goldthreads - worth looking for, rewarding to find, and very challenging to photograph.