Blooming Before the Weekend

 Here are plants that are newly in full bloom. Some of them probably won't be as pretty in just a few days, and I'm going out of town for Thursday-Saturday, so we need a good look at them today.

This is the Bronze Ajuga (Bugleweed). Most of them like shade but the bronze one seems to thrive in the full sun. The dark leaves are great all season, but when it blooms, wow! This patch is too big, but until I have other plants to replace some of it, this is fine.

We are also at the peak of the Moss Phlox. This is everywhere, but this is the largest patch. I used to have four distinct colors, but they seem to all be reverting to near a magenta/pink. It does make lovely mats of color.

This is another of my rock garden favorites. It decided to have two blossoms right on top of each other. There was a third bud, but it got broken somehow. Not sure if there will be any additional blooms. This is 'Jewel Baby' iris. It's a regular bearded iris, but it grows only about 6 inches tall.

Only a couple of plants did not survive the winter. Of my three ice plants, one died. I was able to get a replacement, so this is 'Ocean Sunset.' The ones that overwintered have leaves, but are just starting to think about blossoms. So, you could say this bloom is a greenhouse cheater. But here it is.

Moving out of the rock garden, umpteen years ago I rescued a couple of trillium from a construction site. It took them quite a few years to settle in, but here they are. That dead grapevine is trying to change the habitat, and I might need to do something about that. It may be getting too much sun now.

We had some nice rain today, 0.2 inches. That kept me doing mostly inside work, but it meant I didn't have to water the gardens. The two plants I had ordered came and I planted them. You'll see them later. I was quite happy with their size and the packaging.

The rain made it humid. I'll have to have a few days to get used to that again.

Tomorrow I am headed for Gaylord- activity to be shared tomorrow. Then Friday and Saturday I'll be attending the Michigan Outdoor Writers Association Conference. Should be some fun stuff to share.

See What's in Full Bloom

Alert!

 By the time I could get in place to take a picture, this bunny rabbit was on full alert. Watching it through the window, it was scratching its ears and being cute. But the camera wouldn't focus through the screen. This furry "friend" hasn't started eating my plants yet, but they are going in prison soon, so it won't be able to. Some of the things it and its friends munched on last year are recovering, but they did some serious damage.

While I'm not showing you rock garden pictures, here's a success story that isn't in any "garden." About 30 years ago, I transplanted one trillium into our overgrown hedge. They reproduce very slowly, but now there are a number of plants, and I counted at least 10 blossoms I could see last week.

Only worked in the rock garden 15 minutes today. Just busy! Volunteer stuff, laundry, errands, bell choir. And I've only got 80 miles of campsites done. I need to get 20 more for the day. But the end of the research is in sight. Then it will be full-on editing. Maybe I'll go do 15 more minutes in the garden while there is plenty of light.

See I Spy

Winner, Winner, Chicken Dinner

The first winning item of the day was to discover that some trillium I planted under our lilacs years ago are not dead! These live up to the name "grandifolium," large-flowered.

The second winner actually is the chicken dinner. I found a really easy recipe for chicken salad, and I made it even easier by cheating and buying chicken that was already cooked. There isn't even really a recipe. Just combine cooked chicken pieces with chopped celery, chopped apple, quartered red grapes, pecan pieces and mayo/salad dressing in whatever proportions you like. I used half yogurt and half Miracle whip. It is delicious!

I did some work, blah, blah. I should have done more than I did, blah, blah.

See Little Manistee

Flowers from Yesterday

There are no unusual flowers or plants in this post. These are all finds from yesterday. However, there are a couple of interesting notes.

Most of these finds are from one particular location on the trail. In general, the Spirit of the Woods section of the NCT (the northern 2/3 of the Manistee National Forest) does not support a lot of wildflowers. Most of the forest through which the trail passes is xeric (dry) mixed woods with sandy soil. Wildflowers like to have a little bit richer earth from which to sip their nutrients.

However, Just west (trail east) of Highbridge Road there is a section of trail along lower ground by the Manistee River. This location is rich in spring wildflowers. The soil is probably enriched by seasonal flooding.

Here are common toothwort leaves, Dentaria diphylla or Cardamine diphylla. When I see toothwort in our area, I think it's about 50/50 as to whether it's common or cut-leaved. The "di" in diphylla is because there are two sets of three leaves, opposite each other. For those people who have trouble telling any three-leaved plant from poison ivy, you can look for those two sets.

This is a trick picture. Don't think that even somewhat experienced people don't get fooled by stuff like this. The flowers are NOT those of the toothwort! Toothwort is a member of the mustard family, Brassicaceae, and the flowers have 4 petals. When I saw that these had 5 petals, I did a double take. What? Then I looked more closely at the picture, and underneath the toothwort, Virginia spring beauty, Claytonia virginica, is growing with the flowers reaching through the toothwort leaves to get to the sun!

Here's a patch of the familiar trout lily (aka dogtooth violet, adders' tongue), Erythronium americanum. This is slightly unusual because of the number of plants that are blooming. Most often, you'll find a huge patch of the leaves, but only a very few of the plants will have a blossom.

Next up with another slight surprise is bloodroot, Sanguinaria canadensis. For one thing, bloodroot is usually one of the very earliest spring flowers, and it's usually finished blooming before the other flowers open. These have to be close to dropping their petals because the other unusual thing is that the leaves are open and the flowers are still present. Usually, when you see the flowers, the leaves will be wrapped tightly around the stems. Later the leaves will open to create lush green carpets.

I know lots of you love the trilliums. There's nothing unusual here, and it's not even a particularly wonderful patch of them. They made the pictures because they are the first ones I've seen open this year. Trillium grandiflorum.

Next up isn't a flower at all. This is a horsetail. In fact, meadow horsetail, Equisetum praetense. I'm trying to learn these guys, because there aren't too many. I should be able to remember them. The fertile stalks are flesh-colored and have no leaves.

We did find this flower in a dryer area of the forest. It's not open yet, so I'm breaking my "rule" to not share pictures this spring until the flowers are open, but I like these a lot, so I get to break the rule. This is gaywings buds, Polygala paucifolia. When open, it looks like a tiny orchid, but it's not at all. It belongs to the milkwort family which has wildly varying plants if one goes by appearance alone. Genetics will sort out a lot of the confusion. A lot of plants were thrown into Polygala because they had similar flowers but not much else in common. It was kind of a junk drawer of genera.

Finally for today, I bring you shadbush (aka serviceberry, Juneberry, shadblow, and more), probably Amelanchier laevis, as it is the most common species in our area. It seems to me that these are blooming very late this year. This is usually the very earliest flowering tree you will see in the edges of the woods. Indeed, looking back in my blog, I've often posted finding it in bloom in mid-April.

Now that I've shown you some nice plants, I'll counter that with telling you that I spent a fair amount of time today chopping, digging, and trying to kill more autumn olive- A VERY BAD PLANT- around our house. It's so serious, it really needs a bulldozer. All I can hope to do is keep it from overtaking the yard.

See A New Direction

Spring Arrives at Hodenpyl

  Marie and I drove to do the piece of North Country Trail along Hodenpyl Dam Pond today. We waited for a blue-sky day so the water would be beautiful. It was chilly, but the sun was perfect.

And the real surprise? This is north of me, and yet the wildflowers seem to be ahead of what I see right near home. Well, we are not going to complain!

Dutchman's Breeches

Cuckoo Flower

Common Blue Violet (but a very pale one)

Marsh Marigold

Shadbush looking like sparkles against the blue water.

Trout Lily

And the trilliums are just beginning. This one was the most open that we saw.

But soon, there will be a white carpet- lots of buds!

The shadows were starting to fall as we finished. See link below for this same view in winter. We also saw Toothwort in bud and a couple other sedges, but pictures aren't very good.

We went to Porcupine Junction (a trail crossing) and turned around, for a total of 6 miles.

What a great hike! This route never disappoints, but so much nicer with blue sky and water.

North Country Trail miles so far in 2021 is 226.

North Country Trail, Wexford County, MI, Hodenpyl Dam east along the pond and back for a total of 6 miles

In other news: We totally goofed off. We played our game, and did a little sightseeing on the way home from the hike.

See Hodenpyl Dam Pond in Winter

The Usual Spring Lineup

 
Today, I'll just share the wildflowers I saw last weekend. There is not a single unusual suspect in the lineup. But they are always welcome to see.

I was a little surprised to find some Bloodroot still blooming. It's often all done before the others come out. Actually, this is a little unusual because the leaves were open and the blossoms were still fresh. Generally, the flowers fade before the leaves unroll.



There were lots and lots of the Trout Lilies in bloom, also known as dogtooth violet or adder's tongue. I call them trout lily because it's easy to remember the spotted leaves look like a trout.



Dutchman's Breeches. The leaf look-alike is Squirrel Corn, and You really can't tell the difference in the plants until they bloom. I haven't see Squirrel Corn in several years.



Spring beauty in both pink and white. This is Carolina Spring Beauty. The Virginia variety has narrower leaves.



The triliums aren't blooming yet. But I did find some red ones in bud. They are a bit more rare than the white ones.



And now for some leaves for reference- First we have hepatica. You usually don't find leaves with the flowers. The new leaves will grow after the flower fades. But here are some of last year's leaves, revealing that this one is Sharp Lobed Hepatica, Hepatica acutiloba.



And, maybe you remember that I showed you maroon baby leaves of the Lousewort or Wood Betony, but said they also come in green. Here are the green ones.



That's certainly enough pictures for one post.

In other news: I finished my cleaning project. Hooray! One tiny space in the house is clean. I did two loads of laundry. Despite all the gloomy weather forecasts, today was gorgeous. Sun, breezy, 60 degrees. Perfect. And I finished another puzzle. It was quite easy, and I really, really like the picture. I'll show you tomorrow. I'm wasting a lot of time doing puzzles, but I'm beginning to get a tiny bit frustrated at the cancellation of normal life. Puzzles are an easy way to combat that.

See Wildflowers Everywhere

Red Trillium- Color Variant

 
This is hands-down the most phenomenal plant sighting of my recent trip to Ohio and Alabama. It took me a long time to figure it out, but I did accomplish the deed. I was waiting to share with you until I had my suspicions confirmed by someone with professional plant knowledge. I sent my question off to a couple of people, and Tony Reznicek (University of Michigan) was the first to respond. He verified that I had correctly identified this flower.

First of all, look at this forest opening full of trillium. Do you see anything odd about it? Probably not, it's too long a shot.



But the trilliums aren't all the same kind! If you were there you would see how some of them look yellowish or even yellow-green. The large-flowered trilliums fade to pink as they age, so I suspected a different species. As far as I knew there is only one yellow trillium, but I wasn't sure of exactly what key features to look for. I tried to take enough photos to help me later.



Got home and looked it up. Definitely not yellow trillium! What the heck is it? So I got out my serious guide to plant identification, Britton and Brown Illustrated Guide to Plants of the Northern States and Canada in three volumes.

When I was still at Cantwell Cliffs where we found these, this was the biggest thing that convinced me it was not the large-flowered trillium. See how the flower on the left is much shallower, and snuggles into the sepals instead of having a deep cup of petals like the one on the right?

Then there are the business parts of the flower. Here is large-flowered on the left and the mystery trillium on the right. See how the stamens are different? See how the ovary of the one on the right is sitting right out in plain view? And it's pink.

Sometimes that ovary is deep maroon.

That was the aha moment. And Britton and Brown said that red trillium can occasionally be found with yellow, green or white petals. And there you have it. This is a red trillium! How awesome is that? That's one problem with flowers named for their usual color. Anyway, this is Trillium erectum, as in erect... the flowers are above the leaves and not curved downward below the leaves.

In that same patch there were a few red trilliums that actually were red!

Color variants occur more often than you might think. I also have a picture (a very poor one) of a white pink lady slipper orchid that I saw a number of years ago.

In other news: It was a very productive day although no actual writing occurred. I spent the morning getting yet more typos fixed in the first three Dubois Files books and uploaded to all the different platforms. Hopefully that will be the last of those edits- good grief! Then I mowed lawn and dug up some autumn olive. Went to the bank and to get mower gas. Took a 5-mile walk. The weather was absolutely gorgeous. Tomorrow is supposed to be more of the same. Maybe I'll be able to justify driving a bit to hike an actual trail. Maybe I'll just finish the mowing. Stay tuned. And I'm sitting here breathing in the scent and sight of a jar full of lilac. Wonderful day!

	See Cantwell Cliffs See Almost Doubling My Trillium Life List
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Toadshade

 
Back to Ohio for another trillium. This one is sessile trillium, or toadshade, Trillium sessile. I suppose one might find a little toad hiding from the sun beneath the broad leaves. Or maybe the mottled leaves are supposed to look like a toad. But that doesn't help much when you discover many mottle species as I did in Alabama. Sure glad we had a local wildflower enthusiast with us to help with names on that trip.



Until my trip to Alabama in the spring a couple of years ago, I did not appreciate how many similar trilliums there are with mottled leaves and dark red flowers. I think I would remember the differences next time I find some in the woods.

The similar ones I'm likely to find in the north are toadshade and prairie trillium. I've seen both, but don't have a picture of the prairie one. The big difference is that toadshade has broad leaves that don't narrow to the attachment point. That's easy to remember- they make better shade for that toad! The sepals on toadshade often remain upright with the petals (just not on this particular one), but on prairie trillium they curve strongly downward- between the leaves even, so that they sort of hug the stem. That's distinctive.

Now I want to go find more trilliums!

But not tonight. I slept poorly last night (no reason I can think of), and work was long and hard. Headed to bed really soon because Friday is... well... longer and harder.

	See similar trilliums in Alabama
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