Discovery by Sketch
Fireweed Lóol
Fireweed Lóol is most famous for its showy flowers. It carpets open areas disturbed by natural processes (think: fires or glaciers) as well as human activity like logging. However, its young shoots make a nutritious spring edible and its mature leaves — harvested before flowers emerge — are a potent medicinal. When the flowers go to seed, the plants become a swirl of cotton that heralds the end of summer.
This watercolor and pen image is part of a collaborative project with Tlingit artist and traditional plant expert Yak x waan tláa Lisa Andersson. My goal was to show all seasons of the plant, including the experience of capturing it amid a riot of roadside summer vegetation. Nature journaling this experience was part of my stewardship project for my Nature Journal Educator Certificate through the Wild Wonder Foundation.
