Skip to content
Wild10Basecamp

Plants of Alone · № 25

Northern Vancouver Island Plant Field Guide

Plants of the Quatsino / Northern Vancouver Island Alone filming region — trees, edibles, toxics and traditional-use species.

Back to plant guides
Northern Vancouver Island Plant Field Guide cover№ 25
Region
Northern Vancouver Island (S1–S2)
Country
Canada
Continent
North America
Season
Alone Season 1 & 2
File size
986 KB(1.0 MB)
Read onlineDownload PDF

About this region

Cool, wet temperate rainforest with mild winters and high year-round rainfall.

Northern Vancouver Island around Quatsino Sound is one of the wettest coastal temperate rainforests on Earth. Towering western redcedar, Sitka spruce and western hemlock form a dense, moss-draped canopy above an understory built around salal, ferns, and huckleberry.

For a bushcrafter, the region is generous with fibre (cedar), berries (salal, salmonberry, huckleberry), and marine-edge greens, but selective about starch and fat. Many traditional First Nations foods here come from the intertidal zone as much as the forest floor.

Habitats

  • Coastal temperate rainforest

    Old-growth cedar–hemlock forest with deep moss, nurse logs, and abundant epiphytes.

  • Forest edge and clearings

    Salmonberry, thimbleberry, and salal thickets on blowdowns and logging edges.

  • Bogs and muskeg pockets

    Sphagnum, Labrador tea, bog cranberry, and stunted shore pine on saturated peat.

  • Rocky shoreline and estuaries

    Sea asparagus, beach pea, and silverweed in the splash and tidal zones.

Notable species

  • Western redcedarThuja plicata

    Bark cordage, split roots, planks and shelter framing.

    Material

  • SalalGaultheria shallon

    Blue-black late-summer berries; also a durable weaving green.

    Edible

  • SalmonberryRubus spectabilis

    Edible

  • Red huckleberryVaccinium parvifolium

    Edible

  • Sea asparagusSalicornia pacifica

    Salty succulent from the upper intertidal.

    Edible

  • Devil's clubOplopanax horridus

    Handle with care — spined throughout.

    Medicinal

  • Water hemlockCicuta douglasii

    Deadly. Common in wet meadows and stream margins.

    Toxic

Cautions

  • Confusion between edible cow parsnip and lethal water hemlock is a well-documented cause of poisoning.

Topics

  • vancouver island
  • quatsino
  • coastal
  • temperate rainforest
  • salal
  • cedar
  • salmonberry

Other plant guides