Tour Highlights Plant Diversity Group Learns About Lincoln Park Flora During Guided Walk

The forest and meadows of Lincoln Park hold more than 50 different types of native plants and shrubs, a neighborhood botanist said last week.

At least 40 people from the Friends of Lincoln Park organization gathered Saturday for a picnic lunch and a nature walk through the park’s woodland to the pond atop the north-facing basalt bluff.

Tucked along the paved pathway were delicate fairy bells and a yellow lily that’s not commonly seen in the region’s forests but is scattered throughout Lincoln Park.

“I’m surprised to see so many of them here,” said botanist Lawton Fox, a community college instructor in Spokane.

Much of the shrubbery in the forest is composed of ninebark, a member of the rose family that produces creamy white flowers in the spring.

“This stuff forms dense thickets in the understory,” he said.

Ninebark takes its name from the peeling layers of bark on its woody stems.

“Most of these plant names are very descriptive,” Fox said.

Others with descriptive names were the dog-tooth violet, ocean spray, biscuit root and arrow-leaf balsam root.

Saturday’s walk through the park was part of a grass-roots effort to get the neighborhood organized.

The Friends of Lincoln Park formed in recent months and is planning other community events through the summer, including a performance by the Spokane Symphony in the park.

A campaign to raise several thousand dollars to put on a symphony concert is getting a boost next month.

On May 20 and 21, the Hutton House will be open for public tours with performances and refreshments part of the fun.

The tours will be from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. each day. Tickets for the event are $7.

On July 15, adults and kids from the neighborhood are planning to paint murals on a concrete picnic shelter in the lower part of the park. The murals will show the four seasons of the park.

Landscaping will be planted outside the shelter to help dress it up.

Julia Ross at 536-7980 is organizing the mural project and is seeking neighborhood help.