I was walking down North Beach in Port Townsend the other day, admiring the glacial deposits on the Cliffside-quite interesting-when I spotted some Soopollallie shrubs growing on the sandy silty banks. Soopollalie (Shepherdia canadensis is the high -priced name), one of my favorite plants for various reasons.

A bit further down the sloughing cliff was a big patch of bright red Indian Paint brush, which got me to thinking about parasites. Indian paintbrush is semi parasitic on other plants but does have its own chlorophyll to create some good 'ol solar energy. There are a number of plants around PT that I've gone whole hog on the parasitism thing. They have created their own strange palette of colors.

Off the top of what's left of my head I can think of three particularly interesting examples. First is the California Broomrape. This strangely colored plant grows fairly commonly along the sandy shores of PT (I've written about it before) amongst other plants further up the beach shore. It looks like a little golf ball sized bunch of dusty lavender flowers. Weird.

Another strange-o,is the dwarf mistletoe which grows on conifers. It's effects on its host are more spectacular than the actual plant, which is a little bitty twig like exuberance from the hosts branches. If you come across what is typically known as a '"witches broom", typically on a hemlock tree (an extra dense fan of foliage growing from a thickened gnarly branch) with a little closer examination may reveal the olive, or yellowish brown mistletoe.

Possibly the strangest, or at least brightest, of all them parasites is the Salt-marsh Dodder. It looks like someone went nuts on the marsh with cans of super fine Silly String,or dumped a bunch of fine monofilament fishing line all over the place.

Dodder is a brilliant orange color - you can see a clump of the stuff from a hundred yards away, sitting on or strung thru it's host plant, Salicornia. The best place I know to see it is on on the Salicornia marshes on the south shore of Indian Island, which is currently all torn up with a new bridge project and supposedly salmon enhancement project - I hope it works.

Birdwise the area is going through much teen-age bird dispersal - Fort Worden had so many teen Robins chasing each other around at high speed I nearly got whopped upside the head a few time. Also that "honorary shorebird", the immature Cowbirds are showing up in greater numbers going through the beach wrack. What are their deadbeat parents off to now? Looking for cows I guess.

Jeff Gibson
Doddering around
Port Townsend, WA





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