Those mysterious Mima Mounds, with bonus wildflowers

[mmegaera]

The odd landscape of the Mima Mounds.

Mima mounds are one of those quasi-mysterious landforms that no one really has an explanation for. They occur in various places in North America and elsewhere, but the landform itself is named after the mounds on the Mima Prairie, which happens to be just down the road from where I live (I’m northeast of Olympia, Washington, and the mounds are about 10 miles south of Oly). This area is also one of the few examples of native prairie left in western Washington, as well as a prime example of the mounds.  It’s now preserved as a Natural Area Preserve by the state of Washington, and as a Natural National Landmark by the federal government.

Some of the theories of Mima mound formation, as posted on the visitor kiosk.

I’d been there once before not long after I moved to Washington, then I completely forgot about it. Which is really too bad, actually.

But the real draw for me, especially this time of year, is the flowers. Of course. I saw at least a dozen different kinds. Here are some of them.

Siberian miners lettuce. A ubiquitous woodland flower, found this time in the woods near the parking lot.

Desert parsley.

A serviceberry shrub. A similar species back east is known as shadblow.

Western serviceberry blossoms.

Salal. Another common woodland plant, related to both blueberries and rhododendrons. I found it at the edge of the prairie this time.

Camas plants are scattered like this all over the mounds.  The yellow blossoms are western buttercups.

A close up of a camas bloom stalk.

The violets grew in patches, not scattered all over like the camas.

Death camas, so-called because the bulb is poisonous. The bulb is almost indistinguishable from the regular blue camas, so the Indians used to dig these up and get rid of them when they were in bloom, which was the only time it was easy to tell them apart.

And two other non-flower photos.

Not a flower, but this unfurling fiddlehead was just cool.

It’s not often you find a sky as open as this in western Washington.

Oh, and by the way, it’s pronounced like lima bean, not like Lima, Peru.

Mirrored from M.M. Justus -- adventures in the supernatural Old West.

Comments

[kk1raven]

Such pretty flowers! Longwood Gardens had some camas earlier this spring, but seeing them planted that way is just not the same thing as seeing them growing wild at all.

[mmegaera]

Thank you. I'm thinking about getting some for my garden when I get settled in my new place this fall.