Text and photos
by Nancy Partlow©
All photos taken
at the Capitol Lake Interpretive Center unless otherwise noted
The Capitol Lake
Interpretive Center is a verdant refuge for wildlife. Its extensive palette of native trees and
shrubs provide a bounty of food and shelter for many creatures.
Native plants create healthy ecosystems. Indigenous insects have evolved to eat plant leaves of a certain chemical composition – namely, those provided by endemic flora. In other words, local insects have evolved to eat local plants.
By definition,
native insects have shared little or no evolutionary history with alien
plants…, and they thus are not likely to possess the adaptations required for
using these plants as nutritional hosts. Consequently, the solar energy
harnessed by alien plants is believed to be largely unavailable to native
insect(s)…- at least until they evolve the behaviors and physiology necessary
to eat them – and therefore unavailable to all animals that include these
insects in their diets.
From Bringing Nature Home by Douglas W. Tallamy
From Bringing Nature Home by Douglas W. Tallamy
In addition to
their chemically-compatible leaves, native plants offer up a wide
buffet of flowers, fruits and seeds throughout the year. Their branches host bark-dwelling insects,
and their leafy ground detritus hides countless worms, grubs and other critters
that birds and small mammals love to scavenge and eat.
For human users
of the CLIC, native plants bestow a subtle beauty to the eye, and the
opportunity to observe animals “at home” in their natural setting.
Here are photos
of some native plant species growing at the CLIC:
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| Holodiscus discolor - Ocean Spray |
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| Lonicera involucrata - Twinberry |
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| Spiraea douglasii - Spirea |
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| Sambucus racemosa - Red elderberry |
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| Rosa nutkana - Nootka rose |
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| Philadelphus lewisii - Mock Orange |
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| Mahonia aquifolium - Tall Oregon grape |
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| Physocarpus capitatus - Pacific ninebark |
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| Salix sitchensis - Sitka willow |
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| Cornus sericea - Red-osier dogwood |
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| Rubus parviflorus - Thimbleberry |
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| Rubus spectabilis - Salmonberry |
Resources:
Native plant species installed at the CLIC in 2004:
Red Elderberry
Salmonberry
Serviceberry
Snowberry
Thimbleberry
Twinberry
Oregon Grape
Nootka Rose
Redosier Dogwood
Red Flowering Currant
Ninebark
Mock Orange
Vine Maple
Western Red Cedar
Ocean Spray
Beaked Hazelnut
Indian Plum
Western Crabapple
Western Hemlock
Sitka Willow
Black Hawthorn
Black Cottonwood
Sitka Spruce
Bigleaf Maple
Cascara
Additional natives that were already there:
Spirea
Paper Birch
Alder
