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Scouler’s Corydalis

Jul 7 2023/in Educational

Beautiful and extremely rare in Canada, the Scouler’s corydalis is found only on southwest Vancouver Island around the Nitinat, Carmanah, and Klanawa valleys in Ditidaht and Huu-ay-aht territories. With delicate pink-purple flowers and bright feathery leaves that look like stylized green flames when first emerging, this relative of the bleeding-heart flourishes in the rich soils along the banks of the rivers as well as disturbed areas.

Scouler’s corydalis has some interesting strategies for distributing its seeds. When jarred, the elastic seedpods will hurl the seeds up to 2 metres away from the parent. Fascinatingly, the seeds of the corydalis are sheathed in a lipid-rich layer (called an eliaosome) that contain proteins, sugar, and vitamins, which is not believed to be for feeding the baby plant, but for ants!

Ants are thought to harvest these seeds and take them back to their nests, where they strip off the fatty, nutritious coating to feed to their offspring and toss the seed onto their rubbish heap. This nutrient-rich substrate provides the infant seed with ideal growing conditions and the new colony of corydalis gets a headstart in the ant colony’s waste management site. That same seed coating that is so delectable for ants is believed to taste repulsive to deer mice, a handy way to deter these rodents which might otherwise eat the seeds.

Scouler’s corydalis is provincially blue-listed with only 24 known occurrences in Canada. Not only are they rare, they’re also ephemeral, with the plant dying back in the summer after seeding. The beauty of this unusual plant is present for only a few short months in spring, one of the countless wonders of our incredible coastal rainforest. If you see it, savour the experience!

False Hellebore

Jun 30 2023/in Educational

One of the most violently poisonous plants of the coastal rainforest is false hellebore (also known as Indian hellebore). This tall but unassuming plant grows in wet areas and is lethal if consumed. Even drinking water from where it grows has been known to cause stomach cramps.

In Chinook jargon, the historical trade language of the west coast, this plant was referred to as ‘skookum’ root, with ‘skookum’ meaning powerful or brave. Despite its toxic nature, this plant has enormous medicinal value for First Nations cultures, though practitioners would have to be extremely careful about consumption — something we do NOT recommend.

Totem Pole Ceremony – Opitsaht, Meares Island

Jun 21 2023/in Photo Gallery

Last summer, members of the House of Ewos from the Tla-o-qui-aht Nation, and many invited guests, raised a totem pole at the ancient village of Opitsaht on Meares Island for the first time since 1993. Prior to colonization, each house in the village, located just across from Tofino, would have had up to four totem poles in front of them. Today, with the addition of this new pole, three now stand in total in the village.

The pole was created by Tla-o-qui-aht master carver Joe Martin and a team of helpers. The top crest is a female thunderbird, representing female ancestry & connection to the supernatural. Eagle down was placed in the talons and could be seen blowing in the breeze.

The totem also bears four ominous skulls representing the multiple pandemics and losses the Nation has faced. These include COVID-19, tuberculosis & smallpox, Missing and Murdered Indigenous Peoples, and the Residential School System and the children who never came home from them.

The population of Tla-o-qui-aht Nation was about 10,000 strong when the first Europeans arrived. In the year 1900, there were only 122 survivors. Without their consent, colonial governments used this to take control of the wealth of natural resources on their unceded territory.

Today, the logging industry has destroyed well over 90% of the old-growth forests with the biggest trees in BC and continues to aggressively target old-growth cedar in particular. Without monumental cedars, it’s impossible to make canoes and totem poles, resulting in a loss of Indigenous culture.

Known as the ‘Tree of Life’, there are thousands of ways cedar plays a role in the lives and culture of First Nations people. Trees would never be felled during spring or summer months as great respect was paid to any nesting birds or denning animals in the area.

Ensuring that old-growth forests are protected, while still allowing for select trees to be used for cultural purposes, will help preserve the diversity of life — both human and non-human — that depend on them.

TJ Watt with support from the Trebek Initiative