Beacon Hill Spring Bouquet

It's said that when Hudson Bay Factor (and later Governor) James Douglas was sailing past this place in 1843, he saw these meadows of Camas Lilies on the slopes of Beacon Hill and decided to found Fort Victoria nearby. What he thought was a natural phenomenon we now know was a human artifact. These glorious meadows are the result of selective cultivation by the local Lekwammen native people, who harvested the edible roots of the Blue Camas Lily as food. They called Victoria "Camosun", which means something like "place of Camas." While the Camas here are no longer harvested, they still form a fabulous carpet of blue on Beacon Hill at this time of year. The intermixed white flowers are Fawn Lilies and the yellow are Buttercups.

Goldstream Park - Fawn Lily

Seventeen kilometers (about 10 miles) from Victoria lies Goldstream Park. This park, largely original coastal rainforest, is a beautiful place and I propose to visit it often during the coming months to try and capture some of the indigenous plants and animals of this area. As well as a seasonally changing flora, the Goldstream River is the scene of a large salmon run every autumn. The salmon apparently attract record numbers of hungry Bald Eagles as well as the occasional bear.... The lovely spring flower pictured here is a Giant White Fawn Lily (Erythronium oregonum) There are quite a large number of species of this lily and my identification may not be correct. Any taxonomists out there please inform me if I'm wrong. I am guessing it is called a fawn lily because the mottled leaves (see photo to the right) are reminiscent of the dappled coats of fawns.