This early-flowering yellow annual looks like it belongs in the dill or carrot family, which it does. It flowers before most others in open Garry Oak meadows, and other sunny seepage areas. The seeds when ripening, smell and look like dill.

Spring Gold varies in size depending upon the nutrients present in the soil, from only 10 cm tall to over 50 cm tall. It thrives in full sun. It is ideal for use in Pacific Northwest rock gardens, sunny garden edges and sunny wet spots near ponds. It is an ideal xeriscaping plant that needs no watering. The habitat it typically grows in, Garry Oak Meadows, are considered the most endandered habitat in Canada. These meadows are found mostly on the eastern side of Vancouver Island and on the Olympic Peninsula in Washington State and southwards. These areas are ideal for human use, such as housing developments, and they are rapidly disappearing.

Check out the Garry Oak Ecosystem Recovery Team's (GOERT) web-site at www.goert.ca for information.

Growth begins in the spring when tiny carrot-like leaves appear, soon followed by clusters of bright yellow flowers, a pleasant surprise of color dotting the meadow after a long dreary winter on the coast.

With time, the flowers and leaves enlarge, sometimes reaching upto 50 cm tall and several flower clusters growing together.

By late June, the green seeds are ready to start the cycle again and disappear back into long grasses that tend to overgrow it. Once mature, the seeds have tiny wings and dark lines on them. They are blown away by the wind.

Spring Gold taproots grow much like a carrot and may have been one of the wild carrots that local First Nations ate.

If you find this lovely plant in the wild, do not dig it up because of its rare habitat status.

by Donna Hill B.Sc. B.Ed. 2003