Fireweed is a tall native wildflower whose spikes of rose-purple blossoms rise over burned ground, clearcuts, avalanche paths and roadsides. The name fits. It is among the first plants to come back after a forest fire, because its shallow underground stems survive all but the hottest burns and send up fresh shoots. At the same time, a single plant can release tens of thousands of tiny seeds a year, each carried on a tuft of silky hair to bare soil far away.
A patch usually thickens for several years after a fire, then thins out as young trees close the canopy and shade it. In the meantime it feeds a lot of wildlife. Elk, deer and mountain goats browse the leafy stems, pikas and chipmunks eat the seeds, and bumblebees, other bees, moths and hummingbirds visit the flowers. Its moist leaves and quick-rotting litter even make it a poor fuel for the next fire.
Around Mt. Hood, look for fireweed in summer in old burns, trailside openings and along forest roads, from low valleys up into the subalpine. Late in the season the long, slender pods release their seeds, and the silky hairs carry them off on the wind.
How to identify it
A tall, usually unbranched stem 3 to 9 feet high with narrow, willow-like leaves arranged alternately. The top of the stem carries a long spike of four-petaled, rose-purple flowers, and the style sticks out past the eight stamens and ends in a four-lobed stigma. Seed pods are slender, 2 to 3 inches long, and release seeds with tufts of silky hair.
Habitat
Open and disturbed ground: burns, clearcuts, avalanche paths, riverbars, roadsides and forest openings, from low elevations into the subalpine and above. It needs sun and fades as a forest canopy closes.
Sightings in the forest
1,040 research-grade sightings in Mt. Hood National Forest on iNaturalist, most recently on October 24, 2026. See them on iNaturalist →