Like the (rare) sign says: Trillium likes moist coastal forests.

This common PNW shrub thrives in moist coastal forest environments.

Vine Maple is an understory tree, which doesn’t grow high enough to compete for full sun; instead, it grows beneath the conifers and gives even more shade to the shrubs. This sapling is just starting to get some height. Moist coastal forest.

This is Salal (Gaultheria shallon). It grows in an environment similar to Vine Maple, in nutrient-rich, well-drained soils, often near water. Moist coastal forest.

This shrub forms colonies in mesic forest patches, where partial sun is available although it is shade tolerant. The identification is difficult because of so many plants with similar leaf shapes, but I agree with CoPilot. A denizen of moist coastal forests.

This plant is common to shrub thickets and riparian edge habitats.

This distinctive plant is Bigleaf Lupine (Lupinus polphyllus). It thrives at the edges of meadows in a full-sun environment with moist to dry soil. Those lovely appendages are seed pods, so I don’t know what the flowers look like. This plant thrives in prairie/oak woodland habitats.

This slender, flowering plant is thriving in the prairie section of the garden. Prairie/oak woodland environments.

This vine is Perfoliate Honeysuckle (Lonicera caprifolium). It is a non-native variety that is commonly planted on trellises and fences. This one was hard to identify; CoPilot failed completely but, with help from Claude (Anthropic’s AI), we finally figured it out. We could still be wrong, however.

This flowery shrub grows in meadows like the micro-environment at the Northwest Native Garden. Prairie/oak woodland habitats.

These non-native (to Tacoma) columns of volcanic rock show up everywhere in the PNW. They originate within the Cascades Range, near volcanic vents and volcanoes.

This lovely flower, growing through some ferns, is Douglas Aster (Symphyotrichum subspicatum). It is common in moist meadows and forest edges. I verified the identification from CoPilot. Common in moist woodland/forest edge habitats.

There is a small, articficial stream flowing through the garden and feeding a small pond. I don’t know where the water comes from … is it natural or recycled? No idea.

This is a rare non-native species planted in the garden for contrast. I checked this myself, and this variety is variegated.

Final Thoughts

The Northwest Native Garden is a great place to see many of the ecosystems in the PNW in one place. However, the lack of identification is a problem, which I addressed using CoPilot. But I had to check it a lot because it is a Large Language Model, not a specific plant-identification model. Nevertheless, it always got me into the ballpark; and it is easy to work with, like collaborating with a human who knows a lot but tends to jump the gun sometimes.

We spent about an hour strolling through four PNW environments, which was a lot easier than driving around. It reminded me of a Japanese garden, like the one in Portland. Very peaceful and colorful.

I hope that anyone who got this far enjoyed my trip through the Northwest Native Garden as much as I did. I plan to revisit it and learn about some more native PNW flora.