Portland Plants 7: Photos from the first day of Spring

It's raining and cold today, which is why I've been trying to take advantage of the sunlight every time the sun comes out. Our first day of Spring, in Portland, was glorious! I drove to a neighborhood that I hadn't photographed before and went out looking for plants.

The biggest stars of the outing were these awesome and funky white flowers. I must have seen 8 or 9 of these trees while I walked around. Does anyone know what their name is? I'm certain that I've seen these flowers before, but I don't know if I've ever really looked at them. From a distance, the trees look like shaggy Cherry Blossoms, but up close you can see how different the flowers are. I like that most of the flowers are deformed and misshapen. Not many of the flowers have identical shapes and postures. As corny as it sounds, to me it looks like the trees are in the middle of a dance party, all of the flowers doing their own thing.

Here are some of my photos from the first day of Spring in Portland, Oregon.

Most of the trees were massive, like this one.

I did spot a few small trees like this one.

The flower in the background looks like it's already dying. It doesn't look like these flowers last very long. With the young ones still blossoming, I wonder if new flowers will keep popping up. Or do these trees only flower for a short time?

We don't have many wild animals out here, but I did spot a squirrel that was slow enough to take a picture of.

OK, I think that's enough of that plant. On to other stuff!

This is my second favorite plant from the outing. I walked right by this bush without thinking about it, then the purple and blue caught my eye. The bush is ugly, but if you look close, there's some cool stuff going on here.

I can't make any sense out of this plant. It looks like the purple flowers are squeezing out of the red berry-looking things, but it also looks like the berries are morphing into the flowers?

This is what the bush looks like. Not very attractive, but I'm glad I stopped for a closer look.

I've already got some photos of this kind of plant, but they're so freaky that I had to take more photos.

This plant looks like something out of Little Shop of Horrors.

From a distance, they don't look like much. But up close they're like something from outer space.

This was just a pretty flower that I spotted.

In my last post, I posted some photos of this plant when it was closed up. Here's an opened version. I'm not sure what the green ball-things are going to do, but I'm looking forward to seeing what happens.

I love the shapes this kind of tree makes.

I could be mistaken, but I believe this tree is a Cherry Blossom type of tree with the pedals off.

This photo reminds me of New Years in Thailand. The background reminds me of all of the floating lanterns flying up into the sky.

I wanted to see what's inside, but they're not ready yet.

I think that's enough photos for one post. The weather isn't looking very good out here, so I need to save some photos so I'll have something to post in the next day or two.

I hope your first day of Spring was awesome where you live! And I hope the sun comes back so I can see what these plants are going to do next.