Plants are unexpected. No one knows when they first appeared on earth.
Green algae, the simplest plant, is believed to be the first plant to
arrive. Flowers, a higher level plant, are known as spermatophta. Spermatophta
means seed bearers.
Yet researchers have uncovered fossils which are believed to date back
480 million years ago. "Recently, scientists at Pennsylvania State
University have suggested that land plants began 700 million years ago
because of a molecular clock which provides for land fungi arriving 1.3
billion years ago." according to Hillary Mayell with National
Geographic News. When the plants arrived, they changed the earth's
climate. The earth became cooler.
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| Before Archibald Menzies, the naturalist, spied proliferations of
colorful wild flowers dotting the shore of Discovery Bay, the first people,
"Native Americans from Siberia ventured onto the Olympic Peninsula
approximately 12,000 years ago. The Native Americans traveled via the
Bering Sea land bridge," states Historylink.org. Their plank houses
were buried in a mudslide around in time of Columbus.
Western Washington was evolving from lodgepole pine to alder and to Douglas
fir. Later, western hemlock flourished. The Olympics, Puget Sound, and
San Juans had oak and madrona. Eastern Washington saw spruce and pine
forests with an increase in grasses and sagebrush.
More European explorers came to adventure. Peter Puget skirted fir clad
inlets around the Tacoma area. There were bound to be settlers, curious,
coming for opportunity of new life. When their sojourn entered into the
plains of the Nisqually, they must have been amazed of the wafts of violets,
strawberries and buttercups that donned the fields. In the wake of the
plains was a tiny blue flower, camas that the Native Americans tended.
They would mash up the bulb for food.
In 1847 Edmund Sylvester established the township of Olympia. Men from
the Oregon Trail pushed up further along the inlets to find the adventure
of Washington's treasures. Before 1857, round the lowlands of Mt. Rainier
adventurers would travel stumbling upon trillium, Indian pipe, bishop's
cup, lilies, anemones, Indian paint brush, heather, hellebore, lyall's
lupine, and aster etched blazing echoes bursting of pinks, oranges, reds,
and purples across the hills.
There were soldier outposts in Washington too in the 1850s. Captain Archer
is reported in Bugles in the Valley Garnett's Fort Simcoe by
H. Dean Guie that by "mid-April in that soft spring the oak grove
was almost in full leaf and wild flowers of every hue decorated the country
around. Riding on horseback, said Archer was "like riding through
an immense flower garden." in south central Washington.
But many settlers would set up homes on the Puget Sound region. Seattle.
In the summer of 1850, the two first white settlers, John Holgate and
William Latimer would camp on Elliot Bay. Later, they would return with
their families. Eventually, the buttercups would become concrete.
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As in Washington, Oregon had wild forests, tousled plains and curved
shores that Native Americans cultivated. With the use of fire, they preserved
and managed the prairies of camas, garry oaks, and blackberries in the
Willamette Valley.
1781brought the first European, Captain James Strange. Much later Lewis
and Clark would venture into Oregon to attach names to foliage, explore,
and bring samples back for President Jefferson and everyone of the earth
to learn about the specimens. Meriwether Lewis, William Clark, David Douglas,
and James Strange discovered the first of many unexpected gardens under
evergreen trees which later became known as Douglas fir. The Douglas fir
was named after David Douglas. Around 1806, Lewis brought Frederic Pursh,
a German American botanist, common beberis. Frederic Pursh would turn
the specifications in. The Native American's called common beberis, "mountain
holly". They would boil it's bark. It would become a bright yellow
dye.
Sometimes gardens are formed in unusual ways. "Wife of Reverend
Alvin F. Walker was preparing dried apples for cooking. She tossed the
seeds into her garden.
From the garden sprung, the first apple trees in Oregon, which grew in
Oregon City." which is explained in americangardenmuseum.com/states/oregon/state_history.html.

Over the years, many plants not originating in Oregon have found a home.
Such as Japanese maple. Now people grow them in Canby and Swan Island.
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Sometimes early explored forests contain the markings of humans."Alarcon
reached this place." was scralled into a tree when Melchor Di’az
trudged through the California forest a little beyond Yuma which is chronicled
in www.greencity.org/discovery.htm. It was to his surprise because most
of the historians had thought Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo had discovered California.The
Hernando De Alarco’n expedition of 1540 was two years before Juan
Rodriguez Cabrillo arrived in California. Yet historians today feel, that
the note at the tree is not strong enough evidence to confirm, that Hernando
De Alarco’n discovered California.
But on the west coast, Spanish voyagers would sail to see flowers off
the coast.The California poppy, which became the state flower was first
spotted from a vessel in 1815. There is a Native American tale of the
California poppy that the earth was cold. The Native Americans were dying
except a brave and his wife. They would pray for food. God sent a fire
flower, the golden poppy to drive away the evil spirits, cold, and frost.
The flower brought them warmth and plenty.
Scotchman, David Douglas who also explored Oregon, searched the thick
foliage for California specimens too. He introduced the sugar pine, noble
fir, California poppy, salal, and lupin. He was looking for a Northwest
Passage. After David Douglas, settlers came for gold in 1848.
"Today the oldest living thing is the bristlecone pine, which is
4,600 years old in White Mountains, California" according to www.bitofun.com/fun_facts/20plants.htm.
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