One of the great things about living in Pullman, Washington is how the city is so full of natural beauty. All around are wide open spaces filled with natural wonders such as trees, birds, and all kinds of flowers. In fact, Pullman has quite a few wildflowers, and these are ten species that you can find in the area:
1. Arrowleaf Balsamroot (Balsamorhiza sagittata)
The Arrowleaf Balsamroot is a very common flower in Pullman, Washington. The Arrowleaf Balsamroot can be easily identified, thanks to its very bright yellow color and arrow-shaped leaves. This large yellow wildflower bears the resemblance of a sunflower, and the Arrowleaf Balsamroot is often referred to as an “Oregon Sunflower”.
2. Lupine (Genus lupinus)
The Lupine is a genus consisting of 200 species of plants in the pea family, and they are very plentiful in Pullman and most of western North America. The Lupine grow to lengths of 1 to 4 feet tall, and Lupine are well-known for their cool colors of deep blue to purple.
3. Common Camas (Camassia quamash)
Common Camas is a blue to bluish-violet wildflower from the Liliaceae, or lily family, of flowers and there are 478 species of them in North America. Common Camas can be found in seasonally moist meadows that dry out by late spring, and this one plant was detailed at length by Lewis and Clark in their expeditions.
4. Yellow Violet (aka Pioneer Violet) (Viola glabella)
The Yellow or Pioneer Violet can be found in moist and shaded places in the woods. The yellow or pioneer violets are similar to the common violet except for the yellow color, and a spur or pouch behind its lower petal.
5. Indian Paintbrush (Genus castilleja)
There are about 200 species of this type of wildflower in North America, and the Indian Paintbrush is also known as just paintbrush and prairie fire. It is known for having an orange color and an odd collection of pedals.
6. Bluebells (Hyacinthoides non-scripta)
Bluebells are bell-shaped perennial herbs, growing underground as bulbs and then appearing above ground in April. Bluebells are deep violet-blue in color, sweet-smelling, and droop to one side of the flowering stem.
7. Bitterroot (Lewisia rediviva)
Bitterroot is very common in the western United States from Washington to California, and it is even the state flower of Montana. It is known for its deep pink pedals, and Meriwether Lewis (of the Lewis and Clark Expedition fame) first collected the species for science back in 1806.
8. Prairie Smoke (Geum triflorum)
The Prairie Smoke is a wildflower with some pink feathery seed heads, with each flowering stem holding three nodding pink bell-shaped flowers.
9. Palouse Goldenweed (Pyrrocoma liatriformis)
It doesn’t seem right not to mention wildflowers in Pullman without mentioning a wildflower that is named after the Palouse area. Palouse Goldenweed is endemic to the Palouse prairie, found in areas of blue bunchgrass.
10. Palouse Thistle (Cirsium brevifolium)
The Palouse Thistle is another wildflower that is native to the Inland Northwest or Palouse region, and only in Washington, Oregon, and Idaho.