Spring in the Forest

 Always a wildflower enthusiast and indentifier, my joy in this hobby is intensified in the Pacific Northwest forest country. As I ride my little golf cart around I am delighted to find more and more wildflowers showing their colorful faces. This trillium is one of my favorites and is also one of the first to come forth. It is sometimes called an Easter lily, or, by others a wake-robin, because it blooms close to the time that robins return from their winter home.

 Another favorite, the wild current bush, blooms about the same time the trillium does. These smell good! They like to bloom in the more open areas where the sun gets in between the trees.

 So delicate, so sweet, yellow violets carpet the mossy areas.

 Here's a flower that is new to me. I found it in one of my iPad wildflower apps. It is a Nuttall's Bittercress. I picked a vase-full and to my surprise they had a wonderful fragrance, like hyacinths. They seem quite common all around the resort.

 This strange looking mushroom is not a flower, but I included it because I'd never found one before. It's a False Morel. I call it a "brain" mushroom, for obvious reasons. While the true Morel is greatly desired for eating, the false Morel is a poisonous variety.

This shrub, found all over the Lost Lake complex and in all the forests of the northwest, defied my powers to identify. None of my wildflower apps or books helped, and I didn't find it on the internet, either. How can such a prolific flowering shrub be left out? Does anyone know what this is?