Growing in scattered, open glades throughout the hemlock forest are red alder and bigleaf maple . These two deciduous trees must have some scattered sunlight for their seedlings to grow. They appear along trails and streams and in openings created when a forest giant falls during a windstorm. Bigleaf maple is easy to identify with its giant five-lobed leaves spanning 16 inches or more. When walking along a forest trail, occasionally climbing over fallen trees and ducking under low-hanging branches, we see a spectrum of the many shades of green.
Huckleberries tantalize the hiker along the trail.
In drier locations, salal and Oregon grape, both evergreen shrubs, dominate the understory, while sword fern and its many relatives grow throughout the forest. In springtime the forest floor is thick with wildflowers. Trillium, bleedingheart, yellow violet, calypso orchid, twinflower and arrow-leaf balsam root display their delicate colors and brighten the forest shade. Mosses, lichens and fungi grow thickly over and under the ground and on exposed rocks and fallen trees. Only gradual changes in the physical environment and in the plant and animal communities distinguish river valleys from mountain forests.