What's Blooming - Mid Spring (April)
The following list of plants can be seen on McBee, Badger, and areas in and around the Tri-Cities (see Hikes / Plant lists for directions)
- Purshia tridentata (bitterbrush) - blooming now in the warm spots
- Balsamorhiza careyana (Carey's balsamroot) - large yellow flowers
- Phlox longifolia (phlox) - pink flowers
- Pteryxia terebinthina (turpentine desertparsley)
- Lupinus species (lupine) - about 8 species of lupine are found in the Mid-Columbia region
- Lithospermum ruderale (puccoon)
- Astragalus caricinus (buckwheat milkvetch)
What's Blooming - Early Spring (February/March)
The following list of plants can be seen in the Wallula Gap area: Telephone House Hill, Two Sisters, and Hat Rock State Park (see Hikes / Plant lists for directions)
- Astragalus purshii (wooly-pod milkvetch) - purple blossom on a cushion-like plant.
- Crocidium multicaule (gold star) - Flower head single on long stem, - 8 ray flowers
- Draba verna (Whitlow grass) - a tiny, tiny plant of sagebrush country, flowers an inch or two above ground in early spring.
- Erodium cicutarium (storksbill) - a weed!
- Fritillaria pudica (yellow bells)
- Lithophragma parviflorum (smallflower fringecup)
- Lithophragma tenella (woodland or prairie star)
- Lomatium gormanii (salt & pepper desert parsley) - large-fruited desert parsley about 4+ inches high, with a clumpy blossom.
- Lomatium piperi (Piper's desert parsley) tiny and white
- Phox longifolia (longleaf phlox) - growing on dry hillsides among sagebrush