Elmera Racemosa

Day 310: Whenever I hike the Lakes Trail for MeadoWatch, I always continue climbing past the last waypoint to check on Elmer, i.e., Elmera racemosa, Yellow Coralbells. It's not exactly a common plant in Mount Rainier National Park, but not sparse enough to be called "uncommon" although you certainly won't find it without some effort. It prefers to grow in the rocky, dry subalpine/alpine zones, often in talus or on rocky ledges...you know, among those ankle-wrenching rocks so typical of Pacific Northwest mountain paths above treeline. Its foliage resembles that of the Heucheras and in fact, for many years it was placed with them botanically because of the morphological similarities. We now know that it is sufficiently distinct to merit a separate genus. I was happy to see the population above the Stevens/Van Trump Monument not only thriving, but spreading. As an aside to that, I also observed Sitka Valerian in the same environment; a bit of a puzzlement, that, and something which I believe bears watching.