Salmonberry

The first pink flowers of the Spring in Cascadia, the Salmonberry. Here is what PLC’s database looks like (less the SAM Garden statistics). It is among the earliest of blooming flowers and the earliest of fruits. The latter tend to be golden to dark red, the flowers almost always pink. You will find it in the Gardens everywhere as it spreads in moist and covered areas, but Kiosk 9 is its assigned study place (by the blackened cedar stump). Native Americans used its fruit widely, eaten raw and dried for later consumption. It, and the Red Alder, have the lowest probabilities of natural disasters causing extinctions. (We’d put the Douglas Fir there also, but the genetic engineering that is so invasive, may be weakening its hardiness).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rubus_spectabilis
https://burkeherbarium.org/imagecollection/taxon.php?Taxon=Rubus%20spectabilis
https://www.pnwherbaria.org/data/results.php?DisplayAs=WebPage&GroupBy=ungrouped&SortBy=Year&SortOrder=DESC&SearchAllHerbaria=Y&QueryCount=1&Genus1=rubus&IncludeSynonyms1=Y&Zoom=4&Lat=55&Lng=-135&PolygonCount=0

Among the early flowers of the Spring, one finds it by looking for the color:

pink
white
yellow

Comments, content, questions appreciated; email bb@plc215.org