It is nearing the end of my summer internship with Rare Care, stationed at Mount Rainier National Park, and I am excited to share what we found! The internship opportunity sprung from a collaboration between Rare Care and the National Park Service to confirm and improve the accuracy of rare plant records within Mount Rainier National Park’s boundaries. For the Park Service, this work will provide vital spatial information about rare plants to inform management decisions. It’s also a special chance to document plants of one of the state’s most unique habitats—the most prominent mountain in the Lower 48.

In June, I and my partner for the summer, Park Service intern Alison Munayalla-Bohorquez, started with a list of 34 species of varying ecosystems and levels of rarity. By September, we visited 17 of those species across 35 sites in every corner of the park. Of those 17 species, we confirmed 14 to be species of conservation concern and three to be misidentified common species. We synthesized these data into a map dataset, so the park knows where not to build new campgrounds, trails, or fire lines and which habitats are especially valuable to preserve. It was not only a productive summer scientifically, but it also included tremendous personal development as a botanist and student of these landscapes.

In lieu of in-depth findings from our season on Tahoma, here are some highlights that encapsulate the joys of our season:

• Yellow coralroot (Corallorhiza trifida) was our first find of the season. Joined by project supervisors, Wendy Gibble and Beth Fallon, we located this parasitic orchid of mature forest edges in a roadside ditch!
• Howell’s violet (Viola howellii) is a small violet native to PNW lowland meadows and rocky outcroppings. Before we identified it from a characteristic spur pouch and tuft of hair on its stigma, the violet hadn’t been recorded in the park since 1935.
• King’s crown (Rhodiola integrifolia) is a charismatic, dioecious succulent that has been frequently documented by recreational botanists along one of the more popular subalpine trails in the park. By recording its presence, we hope our data serve as one more reason for park officials to discourage off-trail use as the species has only two other recently observed populations statewide.
• Strickland’s umbrella-wort (Tauschia stricklandii) became a frequent sight for us despite being a near-endemic to the park. One of my favorite excursions was to Grand Park, an eerily-flat field that stretched for miles with thousands of Tauschia.
• Vanillagrass (Hierochloe odorata) is a personal favorite of mine, being the titular species of one of my favorite books, Braiding Sweetgrass, by Robin Wall Kimmerer. Finding this species was great practice in grass ID, a gorgeous trip into the wet meadow it inhabits, and a good reminder of the Indigenous histories of stewardship on this mountain that must be defended today.
• Alpine whitlow-grass (Draba aureola) is an enigmatic plant that can survive at the brink of a plant’s tolerance to high elevations and is globally quite rare, only found in these extreme conditions on high Cascade mountains. We found it at 8,600’ tucked under a rock on Mount Ruth, but it was observed last year as high as 11,800’ on Disappointment Cleaver. Our discovery was very satisfying and exactly 110 years after it was first recorded there!

I will carry this summer’s botanical adventures long into my career, and I hope our work will help sustain these rare plants long after my career. More will come from Mount Rainier National Park’s partnership with Rare Care, so stay tuned!