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Welcome to the Natural Coalescence Blog
Here you will find botanical tales and planty fun of all kinds with botany nerding and ecology through a entertaining lens.


Stop and Smell the Irises: Does iris flower scent match their colors?
Irises aren't just in all the colors of the rainbow, they seem to also be every scent of the cornucopia- a nose rainbow. But do their colors match their smell? Sniff for yourself and read all about them.
7 min read
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Dying Season- make natural dye/ink
Making and testing natural inks & dyes from fruits and flowers in PNW.
12 min read
14 views


Camas: common or death?
Edible or lethal plants. Comparing and admiring common camas with death-camas, and a few native plant relatives in the PNW.
5 min read
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Oaks Don’t Make Apples
Oak apples aren't a fruit, they're a gall from a wasp and they may not be edible but you can use them for home-made ink.
9 min read
573 views
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Red Belted Conk: Cool PNW Medicinal Mushroom
medical traits and ID of wild shelf mushroom red belted conk (Fomitopsis pinicola)
3 min read
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PNW Tree of Life: WRCedar
There are many cool trees all over the world and possibly more than our 'fair share' in the Pacific northwest due to the variety of...
5 min read
50 views
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Wet* Hot Wild Berry Summer in the PNW:
*(sweaty, even while standing still because… heat domes & such) It’s a berry Pacific Northwest kind of life in summer time here. The sun...
13 min read
130 views
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Oh-my-laria! The Equinox to Solstice plant- Oemleria cerasiformis
As the summer solstice passes, a very 'spring to summer' plant comes to mind- oso berry. They are pretty much the very first native plant...
4 min read
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Black Locust Flower- Pancakes Plague?
I will never forget being puzzled by a large tree, trying to ID it during a plant monitoring project but the leaves were all too high up...
5 min read
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Random Roots to Weed-Out & EAT
What's the best way to get rid of weeds? Eat them, of course! And we are hitting prime dandelion season, so it's time to get digging. ...
7 min read
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Some Call Me Chocolate
You know how it is. When you're a pretty little thing with a brown complexion, folks tend to nickname ya "Chocolate". Not that I have...
7 min read
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My 'Currant' Vodka Infusion
There are dozens of flavors for vodkas on the liquor shelves, some fruity, some floral. As delightful as a toasted marshmallow vodka can...
6 min read
51 views
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Rosy Twisted-Stalk- tasty mountain stream treat
I would bet this plant is among those that most people, even the botanically interested, would pass right by. Rosy twisted-stalks, and...
5 min read
87 views
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Begonia's Spirals
Begonia flowers are cooler than most people realize. I painted their corkscrew pistils as an oil painting, honoring them as I eat them.
4 min read
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Tale of Three Junipers and a Gin
Junipers are not the trees you think of associated with the drizzly Pacific Northwest. But they are old friends from home in the much...
13 min read
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Peeking at Beaked Hazelnut – wild filberts
Roast them by an open campfire, if you can find them. Or stick to chestnuts. I challenge you to roast pine nuts though. So small. Not...
6 min read
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When you have to wait in line to bathe
collecting fall leaves, then giving them a bath
1 min read
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