With a list of over 570 flowering plants and ferns, Crater Lake’s
richness in species and individuals compares favorably with other
national parks. This is not at first apparent to the visitor. If he
enters by the usual gateways and travels the beaten paths, he may even
be disappointed in the flowers. Over much of the region, all of which is
volcanic, the soil is made up chiefly of fine pumice sand, and for most
of the growing season is lacking in moisture. So perforce the plant life
must be limited to those forms whose peculiar structure adapt them to
such environment. To many, however, this situation only lends variety
and adds peculiar interest. Pleasing to the eye are the massed color
effects in the open spaces and the drier forest areas. Wherever the
highway enters the regions of the streams, these massed effects
increase, and one is gladdened by the transformation due to water’s
magic touch. If the visitor travels the many byroads and winding trails
to the mountain meadows beside the singing brooks, or by boat along the
rocky shore of the lake, he will find gardens of transcendent beauty. No
more enchanting ones can be found than Castle Crest Gardens at park
headquarters and Talus Garden under the towering walls of Cloud-cap, or
lovelier spots than Boundary Springs and Copeland Creek along the
western slope of old Mount Mazama.
Soon after entering the park, the attention is caught by bright flashes
of the scarlet trumpets of the mountain gilia (_G. aggregata_), the
pineland paintbrush (_Castilleja pinetorum_), and the abundant white
sprays of the snowbrush (_Ceanothus velutinus_). Sheltered by the denser
and more somber forests farther along are noteworthy representatives of
the heath family, such as prince’s pine (_Chimaphila umbellata_) and
several species of _Pyrola_, some of the latter with the usual green
leaves, yet others without such foliage. Several near relatives belong
to this class of leafless saprophites which obtain their food by feeding
on decaying vegetation, as, for examples, the tall brownish pine drops
(_Pterospora andromedea_) and the snow-white phantom orchid
(_Cephalanthera austinae_).
Responding to the influence of the diversity of topography and soil and
moisture conditions, various types of flowers are abundantly represented
around park headquarters. Near at hand on the first bare spots among the
snowdrifts, cheerful harbingers of spring, come the lovely wind-flowers
(_Anemone occidentalis_) with cups of white, and the strikingly
beautiful yellow lamb’s tongue (_Erythronium grandiflorum pallidum_).
Stone crop (_Gormania watsonii_) covers the rock ledges, and finest of
the rock-loving plants, the pink pentstemon (_P. rupicola_) drapes the
rock walls in company with the lace fern (_Cheilanthes gracillima_).
Delicate bog orchids (_Lemnorchis_), elephant heads (_Pedicularis
groenlandica_), masses of yellow and pink monkey-flowers (_Mimulus_),
banks of daisy-like fleabane (_Erigeron salsuginosus_), giant ragwort
(_Senecio triangularis_), and a host of others fill the wet meadows and
line the streams. On the talus slopes are long strips of Arnica (_A.
longifolia_). In openings in the hemlock forest the ever abundant
narrow-leaved aster (_A. ledophyllus_) presents a field of purple with
intermingled pink fireweed (_Epilobium angustifolium_) and the tall corn
lily or false hellebore (_Veratrum_ _viride_), while the surrounding
forest floor is carpeted with the grasslike turf of the smooth wood-rush
(_Funcoides glabratrum_), the most abundant herbaceous plant of the
upper forests. In the open pumice fields of the rim area, Douglas phlox
(_Phlox douglasii_), sulphur flower (_Eriogonum umbellatum_), and the
low desert lupine (_Lupinus aridus_) contribute to the varied color
scheme, later transformed into red and gold by the autumnal foliage of
Newberry’s knotweed (_Polygonum newberryi_).
Over the crater’s rim, down the trail to the lake, one is attracted to
the trailing raspberry (_Rubus lasiococcus_), clothing the steep banks,
and the spiny currant (_Ribes lacustre_), prostrate on the rock walls.
Abundant on the lower part of the trail and rocky shore of the lake, the
large rose-pink flowers of Lewis’ monkey-flower (_Mimulus lewisii_) are
the most conspicuous and striking features of the vegetation.
Across the blue water, even in the more forbidding lavas of Wizard
Island, one is greeted at the boat landing by many fine clumps of
bleeding heart (_Dicentra formosa_). A little distance along the trail
leading up the island cone, the parrot’s beak (_Pedicularis racemosa_)
is seen under the spreading hemlocks. At the summit, crowning the rim of
the miniature crater, emulating the volcanic fires of old, grow the
flaming paintbrushes (_Castilleja applegatei_), mainly restricted to the
Crater Lake region. Other plants less showy, sending their long roots
deep into the cinders and pumice, reach for moisture and struggle for a
foothold in the unstable rock material of the precipitous slope.