Washington Native Plant Society: Starflower Image Herbarium

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Native Plants with Red or Pink Flowers

	*Allium acuminatum* Taper-Tip Onion This native wild onion has grass-like basal leaves overtopped by umbels of purple flowers, and egg-shaped bulbs containing a fibrous network on the surface. Height: Up to 12 inches (30 cm). In umbels at stem tips. Each umbel consists of 7-25 flowers that grow from stalks (pedicels) arising from a common point and spread out like the spokes of an umbrella. The flowers are primarily rose-colored but occasionally white. A distinguishing characteristic of this plant is that the tepals (petals) turn back at the tips. The umbel has two bracts underneath.
	*Allium cernuum* Nodding Onion Clusters of long grass-like leaves overtopped by nodding umbels of pink flowers. Height: Up to 20 inches (50 cm). The pink to rose-purple, bell-shaped flowers are in umbrella shaped clusters with bracts below the umbel. The name nodding onion comes from the fact that the flower umbels bend over at the top of the stem and points downward toward the ground.
	*Alnus rubra* Red Alder A fast-growing deciduous tree well suited to disturbed sites. Height: Up to 80 feet (25 meters). Male flowers appear as hanging, cylindrical spikes (catkins) and emerge before leaves while female flowers are borne in small stubby cones. the catkins are reddish-orange with yellow highlights, 5-12 cm (2-4.5 in) long. The femal cones are green when young, then turning brown, 2 cm long.
	*Aquilegia formosa* Red Columbine Delicate perennial with large nodding, star-shaped, spurred flowers that are a favorite of hummingbirds. Height: Can grow up to 3 feet (1 meter) tall. Flowers have 5 long, straight red spurs with bulbous, glandular tips. Stamens and styles protrude from a central tuft. Each plant usually has 2-5 drooping flowers; primary color: red with yellow tinge.
	*Arctostaphylos uva-ursi* Kinnikinnick, Bearberry A mat-forming evergreen shrub producing lovely pink flowers that later turn into red berries. Height: Can grow up to 8 inches (20 cm) tall. Small pink bell-shaped flowers in few-flowered drooping terminal clusters; size: 5 mm long.
	*Armeria maritima* Sea-thrift. Round balls of pink flowers held on slender leafless stems above a cluster of grass-like leaves. Height: Up to 18 inches (45 cm). Sepals fused at base; petals fused at base with 5 long delicate lobes; in dense head-like clusters with papery bracts. Primary color: pink to lavender; size: 4-7 mm long.
	*Aster chilensis* Common California Aster A slender, sprawling perennial that produces light purple flowers. Height: Can grow up to 3 ft. (100 cm.) Each flower has 15-40 lavender to white ray flowers that range from 5-15 mm long with numerous small yellow disk flowers in the center. Each composite flower head is cupped by a green involucral of bracts that are 5-7 mm high and mostly blunt at the tip. The ray flowers of this plant are often mistaken for petals. The center of the flower contains tiny, tubular disk flowers.
	*Aster modestus* Great Northern Aster A tall, much-branched perennial with numerous heads of purplish flowers. Height: Grows up to 40 inches (100 cm). Each flowerhead contains 20-45 very narrow ray flowers surrounding a center of numerous disk flowers. Ray flowers are violet or purple; disk flowers are yellow to greenish. Beneath the flowers are the involucres - narrowly lance-shaped, spotted bracts that range between 7-11 mm high. Note: The bracts have small glands.
	*Castilleja miniata* Red Paintbrush An attractive wildflower with red brush-like flower clusters. Height: 8-32 inches (20-80 cm). Inconspicuous greenish flowers are concealed by several, showy bright red/scarlet bracts; bracts are sharp pointed, toothed, and hairy; calyx lobes are sharp pointed. Flower shape: tubular.
	*Clarkia amoena* Farewell to Spring A taprooted annual with large showy, usually pink flowers; often grown horticulturally. Height: 4 inches to 3 feet (10-100 cm). Few to many flowers in loose, leafy-bracted clusters. Each flower has four petals, dark spotted in the center, 1-4 cm long, and 8 stamens. Primary color: pink to rose-purple; size: 6 cm (2.5 in) across.
	*Corylus cornuta* Beaked Hazelnut Slender, multi-trunked deciduous shrub. Height: 3 feet - 13 feet (1 meter - 4 meters). Monoecious shrub, male catkins emerge before leaves in the spring, female catkins are much smaller with protruding red stigmas, male catkins hang freely while female are attached directly to branches; size: male catkins 4-7cm (1.5-2.75 in) long, female; shape: cylindrical.
	*Dicentra formosa* Bleeding Heart Hairless, soft stems and light green lacy leaves overtopped by small nodding clusters of pink heart-shaped flowers. Height: Up to 1.5 feet (50 cm). Pink to purplish heart shaped at base with 4 petals, outer 2 petals with short sac-like spur and spreading tip. 5-15 in drooping clusters atop stem.
	*Dodecatheon hendersonii* Henderson's Shooting Star Leafless stems topped with nodding star-shaped pink flowers. This is our only shooting star with oval leaves. Height: Up to 1.5 feet (50 cm). Distinctive with the 5 pink petals swept backwards, united at base in yellow collar with a wavy purple ring; 5 stamens, the stalks united into a maroon tube 1.5-3 mm long; yellow to reddish anthers 4-7mm long; flower size: 10-20 mm long.
	*Epilobium angustifolium* Fireweed Tall perennial from rhizome like roots with unbranched stem and terminal spikes of large red to pink flowers. Height: Up to 10 feet (3 meters), but usually shorter than 6 feet (2 meters). Stalked, sepals 4, petals 4, stigma 4 lobed; several to many (15+) in long cluster atop stem; primary color: pink to red/purple; size: 2-4 cm (0.8-1.5 in) wide.
	*Epilobium brachycarpum* Tall Annual Willowherb Taprooted annual of dry, gravelly or disturbed sites. Height: 1-4 feet (30-120 cm) tall. Open panicles of flowers; primary color: pink or white; size: 0.25-0.5 in (3-12 mm).
	*Epilobium watsonii* Watson's Willowherb Erect herbaceous perennial with opposite leaves. Height: Up to 5 feet (150 cm). White pink or rose purple, small; few to numerous in erect, leafy-bracted clusters atop stem. Primary color: white to pink to purple.
	*Erythronium revolutum* Pink fawn lily Large nodding pink flowers grow from a thick and segmented corm. Height: Up to 14 inches (35 cm). Tepals bent back, single, terminal, nodding; primary color: bright rose-pink.
	*Kalmia microphylla ssp. occidentalis* Bog Laurel Small, slender-branched shrub with dark green waxy leaves and clusters of bright pink flowers. Height: Up to 3 feet (1 meter). Several in loose, terminal clusters; 10 stamens, the tip of each tucked into a small pouch in a petal, and held under tension like a bow; the stamens pop out when stimulated by touch; primary color: pink to rose; size: 2 cm (.8 in) across; shape: saucer-shaped.
	*Linnaea borealis* Twinflower Trailing, slender, semi-woody, with short erect leafy stems and dainty bell-shaped flowers. Height: 4 inches (10 cm). Fragrant trumpet-shaped nodding flowers born in pairs on a thin Y-shaped stalk; size: 2-5 mm.
	*Lonicera hispidula* Hairy Honeysuckle Clamboring vine with clusters of light purple tubular flowers. Height: Up to 33 feet (10 meters) in trees. Tubular flowers 1-2 cm long, pinkish-purple or rarely almost white.
	*Lotus purshiana* Spanish-clover Flower color: white,pink.
	*Malus fusca* Pacific Crabapple Small tree, slender in form, appears thorny; bushy in the open. Height: 16.5-40 feet (5-12 meters). fragrant white to pink apple blossoms in small clusters; pretty in bloom, but small; size: 9-14 mm long; shape: petals oblong-oval to obovate.
	*Mimulus lewisii* Pink Monkey-flower A clump forming perennial with large pinkish-red flowers. Flower color: red,pink.
	*Nothochelone nemorosa* Woodland Penstemon Flower color: pink,purple.
	*Olsynium douglasii* Satin Flower, Grass Widow Showy tufted perennial resembling a miniature iris topped with large pink to purple flowers. Height: Up to 12 inches (30 cm). Satiny in appearance, usually 2 terminal flowers above leaf-like bracts; primary color: pinkish-purple; size: 4 cm (1.5 in); shape: 6 large oval petals.
	*Oxalis oregana* Wood Sorrel A delicate herb with clover-like leaves and white to pink flowers, forming carpets in forested areas. Flower color: white,pink.
	*Phlox diffusa* Spreading Phlox Mat forming perennial with showy white to pink flowers. Height: Up to 4 inches (10 cm). Showy; 5 sepals fused into whitened, long-hairy tube with sharp lobes; petals fused into tube 9-17 mm long, spreading flat into 5-9 mm long lobes, solitary and stalkless at ends of stems and branches; primary color: pink to lavender or whitish; size: 1.3 cm across.
	*Plectritis congesta* Sea Blush Delicate annual herb with large dense clusters of small pink flowers. Height: Up to 2 feet (60 cm). Pink or rarely white, small (2-8 mm long), petals 5, fused in two lips, with a thick spur; several to many in head-like or spike-like, terminal clusters.
	*Pyrola asarifolia* Pink Wintergreen A small woodland herb with a basal clump of glossy green leaves and slender spikes of pink flowers. Flower color: pink.
	*Rhododendron macrophyllum* Pacific Rhododendron Showy shrub that can grow very large, with clusters of large pink flowers. Height: Up to 26 feet (8 meters) if grown in shade; shorter and bushier in sunlight. Pink to rose-purple, bell-shaped, 5-lobed (the lobes have wavy edges), 2-4 cm long; few to many in showy terminal clusters.
	*Ribes lacustre* Black Gooseberry Erect to spreading shrub with spiny stems. Height: Up to 6.5 feet (2 meters). Small, saucer-shaped, reddish to maroon, in drooping clusters of 7-15 flowers. Ovary is glandular-hairy.
	*Ribes sanguineum* Red Flowering Currant Erect, multi-stemmed shrub with showy clusters of deep pink flowers in early spring. Height: 3-10 feet (1-3 meters). In erect or drooping clusters of 10-20 flowers; pale pink to deep red; size: 3-10 mm long; shape: tubular. Flowers appear just prior to leaf emergence.
	*Rosa gymnocarpa* Baldhip Rose Spindly shrub with brittle weak straight spines and small pink rose flowers. Height: Up to 5 feet (1.5 meters). 5 petals, numerous stamens; flowers borne singly at the end of branches; primary color: pale pink; size: 1-2 cm across; shape: saucer-shaped.
	*Rosa nutkana* Nootka Rose Spindly shrub with a pair of prickles at the base of each leaf and large pink rose flowers. Height: Up to 10 feet (3 meters). Large flower borne singly or in pairs of 2-3 at the branch tips; primary color: pink; size: 4-8 cm across; shape: saucer-shaped.
	*Rosa pisocarpa* Swamp Rose Thicket forming shrub with spiny stems and clusters of pink rose flowers. Flower color: pink.
	*Rubus spectabilis* Salmonberry Erect and branching shrub with early spring pink flowers and reddish-orange raspberry-like fruits. Height: Up to 13 feet (4 meters). 1-2 or even 4 on short branches; primary color: pink to red to reddish-purple (magenta); size: 2-4 cm; shape: circular, 5 petaled.
	*Spiraea densiflora* Subalpine Spirea Low mound-forming shrub with rounded clusters of intense pink tiny flowers. Height: Up to 3 feet (1 meter) tall. Tiny delicate pink flowers are in rounded clusters 1-2 inches across at tips of stems.
	*Spiraea douglasii* Douglas' Spirea Flower color: pink.
	*Stachys cooleyae* Cooley's Hedge Nettle Perennial from rhizomes. Height: Up to 5 feet (1.5 meters). Several to many in open terminal cluster; hairy, stalkless; sepals united in a tube with 5 spine-tipped lobes; petals fused into a two-lipped tube, the lower lip is 3-lobed; 4 stamens; 4-lobed ovary; primary color: deep red to purple; size: 23-40 mm long; shape: tubular.
	*Symphoricarpos albus* Snowberry Erect shrub with attractive white berries that persist through the winter. Height: Up to 6.5 feet (2 meters). Flowers are arranged in small, dense clusters along a raceme or spike; primary color: pink to white; size: 5-7 mm long; shape: bell-shaped.
	*Tellima grandiflora* Fringecup Flower color: white,pink.
	*Trientalis latifolia* Broad-leaved Starflower A small delicate herb with a single whorl of leaves topped by several small, pink, star-shaped flowers. Flower color: pink.
	*Vaccinium ovatum* Evergreen huckleberry Bushy shrub with small shiny green evergreen leaves and small clusters of pink bell-shaped flowers. Height: Up to 4 meters (13 ft) tall. In small clusters along branches; flowers are bell-shaped, pink, to 8 mm long.
	*Vaccinium oxycoccus* Bog Cranberry Creeping perennial of peat bogs, producing pink flowers and dark red cranberries. Flower color: pink.
	*Vaccinium parvifolium* Red Huckleberry Delicately branched shrub with small red huckleberries, suitable for shady areas on decaying wood. Height: 4-10 feet (1.5-3 meters). Small bell-shaped greenish-pink flowers about 4 mm long hanging individually along lower sides of stems; length:

The landscaping and restoration information provided on this page is taken from Starflower Foundation Image Herbarium. All photographs © Starflower Foundation unless otherwise noted.