Rain Forest, Alaska

[karlsie]

I went out and took a few shorts around my home that illustrated a bit of rain forest, Alaska. The wild flowers have begun to bloom and this is how it looks from the first grassy knoll on the mountain.

[grainnerhuad]

Karla, that almost looks like the foliage you'd find down in my neck of the woods. Is that mountain lilac?

[karlsie]

You've got very sharp eyesight, Grainne. Yes, that is a mountain lilac, but it is not native to Alaska. Lilacs wouldn't grow here until about thirty years ago, when the Cook Inlet began warming up more. Now, we have "volunteers", shrubs and plants that send out their roots to grow babies. I'm planning an article that talks about global warming and the adjustments to plant life and explains a little of the rain forest belt that begins in Washington State and wanders up the Canadian Coast into the Panhandle and Cook Inlet.

Here is a photo of one of our indigenous plants; the rose hip.



While it blossoms, which is only for a couple of weeks, we call the rose hip the "Alaskan wild rose". It likes to decorate where it pleases., crafting its own art. We have only one native rose bush, the Sitka rose. It's the only domestic rose so far that will transplant into Cook Inlet soil. If the Cook Inlet continues becoming progressively warmer, this too, will change.