Pacific Northwest Roadtrip -3

Summer 2026
Native Flora Images

The images are best experienced on a computer monitor.

Floating-Leaved Pondweed (Potamogeton natans)

Ecological relationships in every ecosystem are fascinating and often obscure to most of us. 

Each species has its place, its role, its purpose. They depend on each other to keep the cycle of life moving. This set of images explores a few plants that live in slow-moving freshwater- streams, ponds and lakes. 

Yellow Pond Lily (Nuphar polysepala)

The beautiful yellow pond lily often shares a home with the fascinating bladderwort and together they help each other and the rest of the species around them. In my previous blog post I shared a black and white and color image of these two companions. 

Lilies in general are important for maintaining water quality and helping to maintain a healthy ecological balance. They provide food and shelter for many animals and plants. In particular, they are central to the success of many tiny water creatures like mosquito larva and protozoan.  

Amazingly, the bladderwort is a carnivorous plant and eats the tiny creatures. This happens when the small, hollow, bladders, attached to the floating plant, are triggered and are able to instantly suck in the animals. The lily and the bladderwort occupy different niches in the water and do not compete for food.

In the next post, I will highlight another carnivorous plant from the Pacific Northwest- a sundew (Drosera.) This will require using a color image. Black and white just can’t capture this one.

Arrowhead (Sagittaria latifolia)

When I saw the Latin name for this plant, commonly known as arrowhead or wapato, was Sagittaria latifolia I was intrigued, partly because my sign is Sagittarius, and partly because I didn’t know the word has two t’s. The root sagittaria means armed with bow and arrows. You can see how some botanist made this connection. I have noticed that many plants have the word latifolia as part of their nomenclature. It simply means wide or broad. 

Additional Content- Color and Context Images