Plants

1. Western Sword Fern (Polystichum munitum)
   
   This species is most easily identifiable by its dark green, sword-like, leathery, pinnately compound leaflets. The leaves are tapered at both ends and are opposite, in two rows, all the way down the stalk. The stalks are a light brown, and some are light green. They grow fresh, new stalks out of the center and have no flowers or berries.This species grows close to the ground, as the leaflets emerge directly from the dirt. This can be found growing in the more muddy, swampy areas, especially along the banks of Ravenna Creek, primarily at Station 6. Sword ferns can, however, also be found on hillsides and at the base of large trees.
   

   

   
   

2. Lady Fern (Athyrium filix-femina)
   
   One of my favorite plants, the Lady Fern is identified for its curvy, lady-like, and delicate shape. The individual leaflets are bi-pinnately compound, meaning that that leaflets themselves are pinnately compound ('twice-pinnately compound'). Like the Western Sword Fern, the leaflets come straight from the ground. It stands no taller than 2-3 feet in height, and shares a similar habitat to the Western Sword Fern, on the wet ground. These ferns cover the sloped walls of the backyard at my parent's home and as child I would often pick off the small bundles of seeds that hid underneath the curving leaflets. These seeds sit around sets of five seeds per leaflet. The stalks are blackish, scaly and stiff to the touch. At Ravenna Park, they can, again like the Sword Fern, be found in the muddy swamp along the banks of Ravenna Creek, at Station 6.
   

   

   
   

   

   A studied drawing of the Lady Fern
   

3. Licorice Fern (Polypodium glycyrrhiza)
   
   Out of the four fern species that exist within Ravenna Park, the Licorice Fern is by far the smallest. Characteristic of its epithetic nature, it lives and grows off of the branches of existing trees (such as the Big-leaf Maple featured below) using it as a host, but not in a destructive way. It takes on water from the tree's roots deep in the ground and can easily find sunlight as they climb up tall trunks toward the sky. It's stalks are often separate, rather than clustered in a star-like shape like the Sword and Lady ferns. The roots are edible, giving it the name of 'Licorice Fern', and they have the strong, perfumey taste of black licorice. The stalks are a light green with shiny, fine-toothed and broad-based leaflets in two rows. The Licorice Ferns I have seen at Ravenna Park are featured either on the highest visible branches of the Bigleaf Maples, or on the lowest, mossy, sprawling branches of a Pacific Yew, almost touching the water. These ferns are only featured West of the Cascades in Washington, we are lucky to find them at Station 6! 
   

   

   http://www.inaturalist.org/photos/8302

   

   Licorice Ferns growing on a Bigleaf Maple tree 

   
   
4. Thimbleberry (Rubus parviflorus)
   
   Although it is part of the Rose Family, this shrub lives without a spiky stem, having no thorns or bristled-leaves. The leaves are soft and fuzzy and appear maple-like in their 5-lobed, star-like appearance. The leaves start out very tiny, some at not even 0.5" in diameter, but have grown up to six inches in diameter. The leaves are toothed and rounded with deep wrinkles. Between May and June the shrub blooms small white flowers, characterized by their round and crinkled petals. The stem is a light brown and it can grow up to five feet tall, just under eye-level. This shrub can be found just off of the beaten-trail at my observation site, hugging the coastline as Ravenna Creek flows past it, clearly visible from Station 6. 

   

   
   

   

   Studied drawing of the Thimbleberry

   
   
5. Pacific Bleeding Heart (Dicentra formosa)
   
   One of my favorite flowers of Ravenna Park is this small, fern-like plant that looks like mere ground-cover when devoid of their distinct purple flowers. These flowers are very small, less than one inch long, and nod over, drooping toward the ground in small clusters of two to three flowers per bundle. The flowers are heart-shaped, giving it the name of 'Bleeding Heart'. It has elaborately pinnately compound leaves with very sharply defined leaflets. They can be found directly on the ground at no more than one to two feet in height and like to hang out in moist forests by stream-side. This specific plant is the only one of its kind at my observation site and was hiding behind a Western Sword Fern when I stumbled upon it. It is visible at Station 6 if you look past the erratic, looking plainly at the southward facing slope.