Saturday, July 2, 2011

Up North

2011 06 10,11,12  A visit to the Manistee River Trail



Manistee River
                                   Slagle Creek Trail Bridge

Ferns
  
Indian Paintbrush (Castilleja coccinea)


         White Moth?  Look at the fringe on its wings.
                              Along the Manistee River Trail

The next two pictures are from somewhere deep in the Manistee National Forest



                


 Next we drove south on M 37 to Loda Lake National Wildflower Sanctuary.

 Loda Lake is the only Wildflower sanctuary in the National Forest System, a project supported both financially and botanically by the Federated Garden Clubs of Michigan for over seventy years.


Loda Lake is an area that includes a small spring-fed lake, a bog-like wetland area, a creek and riparian marshy areas, oak forest, pine plantations, and an old farm site.


Right off we found gorgeous Pitcher Plants!


 Nice group of Pitcher Plants at Loda Lake            
These are the leaves of the Pitcher Plant.  Insects fall into this pitcher then decompose and the plants absorb the nutrients of the insect.

This is the carnivorous sundew plant. All carnivorous sundew plants  have a gel like substance at the tips of the tentacles that cover the leaves. This gel is a sticky substance that captures the insects that fly too near the plant. The plant can then eat it.




We left Loda Lake going south on US 37 toward Newaygo stopping at Coolbough Natural Areas, their webite http://www.brookstownship.org/cool.html .


 The trails can be a bit confusing here but there are many things to see. 

Pond at the Coolbough Natural Areas

This is a Wood Sower Gall - home to a group of developing Cynipid Wasps.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Wow! Can I go with you next time? You see such special stuff in awesome places and take perfect photos. M :)

stratovolcano said...

I like the new blog design! Sounds like a cool adventure. Nice pics as usual. I need to do a lot of blogs, maybe do more photo-focused like you've done.

Debi said...

Those plants are amazing; so colorful and interesting!
-Debi

Plants Amaze Me said...

Debi, Thanks for taking the time to stop by, it is beautiful here in Michigan you should visit. :)

Stratovolcano, Thanks it is fun to play around with the design. Even just putting on pictures can be time absorbing, if you label them, there is always research to do, which can be fun if you have nothing else to do. :)

Yes Marie you can always come along with us! :)