Pender Island Field Naturalists

Pender Post Article August 2020 For the past several months we have featured various flora and fauna found on Pender. This month includes information about another interesting plant that is sometimes seen in our area, the Indian Pipe (Monotopa uniflora). This perennial plant is unusual in that it has fleshy, waxy, white coloured leaves and flowers as a result is also known as ghost flower, corpse plant and ice plant. Although it appears fungus like it is a plant not a fung...Continue reading

Special Message from PIFN Board Chair Hello Pender Island Field Naturalists Members. In an email sent to you in February, I advised that PIFN was considering combining with the Pender Island Conservancy Association (the Conservancy). We received only positive comments in response, so we decided to proceed to combine operations. On Sunday July 5, 2020 the PIFN board passed a resolution that it will terminate the organization effective August 31, 2020 with a view to conducti...Continue reading

Pender Post Article July 2020 Due to the ongoing CORVID-19 gathering restrictions that may continue to some degree throughout the summer, we have decided to delay our planned evening speaker program and Wednesday walks until fall. Instead, each of our monthly articles will focus on some aspect of the natural world that surrounds us. This month we will consider the easily missed and little understood Spittlebug (Philaenus spumarius). I hope with the lockdown, we have just com...Continue reading

Pender Post Article June 2020 Due to the ongoing CORVID-19 gathering restrictions that may continue to some degree throughout the summer, we have decided to delay our planned evening speaker program and Wednesday walks until Fall. Instead, each of our monthly articles will focus on some aspect of the natural world that surrounds us. This month we will consider two species of plants that grow in Garry Oak ecosystems common on dry warm exposure slopes around Pender. The range... of Garry Oaks is composed of a fairly narrow band along the west coast, but spans an extensive north-south range, from southwestern British Columbia to southern California. The Canadian distribution is limited to southeastern Vancouver Island and the Gulf Islands with its Mediterranean-like climate. Garry Oak meadows provide habitat for nearly 700 varieties of flora and fauna that live in symbiosis, relying upon each other to thrive and as such these ecosystems are important to maintain. Two such species that are found in Garry Oak meadows have similar names but dissimilar characteristics. They are Common Camas (Camassia quamash) and Death Camas (Zygadenus venenosus) and are members of the lily family. Both of these species can be found flowering in May along the pathways that meander through Garry Oak meadows in parks such as on George Hill in the Port Washington area of Pender. Common Camus, with its blue flowers composed of 5 tepals, was an important staple food source for the Coast Salish First Nations that inhabited the Southern Gulf Islands, and the bulbs were eaten whenever they were available. The bulbs were harvested during or shortly after flowering so that they would not be confused with the deadly Death Camus. Camus beds could be owned and inherited and were semi-cultivated. Each season the beds were cleared of stones, weeds and brush. The harvested bulbs were steamed in pits for 24 hours to make them palatable and sweet before being consumed. Death Camus with its creamy white bell-shaped composite flowers grow in the same beds with Common Camus but is deadly poisonous. The bulbs and leaves resemble those of blue Common Camus, but give a burning sensation when touched to the tongue. The plant contains a powerful alkaloid and some First Nation groups, who were aware of its poisonous properties, used Death Camus as a violent emetic. When not in flower the two plants are very similar so the First Nations used to weed out the Death Camus to reduce the risk of harvesting the wrong plant. Some of the information included here was excerpted from Plants of Coastal British Columbia by Pojar and MacKinnon. Bob Vergette See more

Pied-billed Grebe pair. A beautiful nest sitting on a water lily patch at the top of Magic Lake across from the picnic table (May 14). Can't wait to see the chicks when they hatch.

Pender Post May 2020 Due to the ongoing CORVID-19 gathering restrictions, we have decided to delay until fall the speaker who we were planning to present in May. Instead this article will focus on a local creature that most everyone on Pender is familiar with, the Banana Slug. Slugs are gastropods which also includes snails and they are in the phylum mollusca. Pender has several varieties of slugs only one of which is native, that being the Banana Slug (Ariolimax Columbianu...Continue reading