Bass River Recreation Area Wildflower Hunt
2013 08 13 We went to some of our favorite places at Bass River Rec. Area, looking for Nodding Ladies' Tresses or any other Michigan wildflowers. Here are a few of the flowers we found...
Sleepy Catchfly (Silene antirrhina) Pink family
This native annual plant is about ½–2' tall and unbranched, except near the apex where the inflorescence occurs. A typical flower has 5 spreading petals that are notched at their tips. The leaves are opposite. Most varieties have sticky patches on the stem, which provides this species with its common name.
Here is one of the super secret areas Marie and I explore.
Horsemint was still blooming in mid August.
Swamp Milkweed
Wild Mint (Mentha arvensis) The plant can often be detected by its minty scent before it is seen. The stems are erect and square, as most mint do have a square stem.
We also found Water Horehound and Bugleweed.
Beautiful Wood Nymph, (Eudryas grata) A moth with a distinctive pattern of white, yellow and dark brown. This moth’s coloration and resting posture mimic a bird dropping. The Beautiful Wood Nymph is a moth of forests, we found them on cattail leaves.
At Bass we find Fringe-tip Closed Gentian (Gentiana andrewsii), which usually blooms in early September. We didn't find them blooming but we definitely saw the plant.
Here is a photo from 2011 of this gentian blooming.
We did find Russian Thistle, also known as tumbleweed, it is in the goosefoot family.
The water was gone here in this pond area...
We did see Frogfruit, Cardinal Flower, Monkeyflower, and we were rained on just a bit.
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6 comments:
You found some beautiful flowers. I've only seen one gentian in my life and that was a fringed gentian. I love their color.
Kind of strange that the entire pond dried up. Has it been that dry there?
We did find many flowers, I thought we would have seen the Nodding Ladies' Tresses since we had seen them the week before in a nearby county. Last week we saw two fringed Gentians blooming but in that same area we don't find the Bottled (or Closed) Gentian ever?
It has been a strange summer with on/off rain and cool/hot weather. We did have a dry spell before we went to Bass but in another area there was plenty of water? We will check this place again soon.
Thanks, Allen
:)
Ah, I so look forward to these days hunting wildflowers.
M :)
Oh! I recently discovered some gentian (haven't identified it further -- I will when it blooms) at Hemlock Crossing in the 1-2-3 loop that goes through the meadow. Also, on the note of the bottle gentian, I purchased a plug from WildType Nursery in Mason and it is nearing blossom-time in my garden. I'll take some photos of it when it blooms for comparison with the fringe tipped closed gentian.
Me Too!
:)
Cool I haven't seen the gentian at Hemlock Crossing, and how exciting that you have one ready to bloom!
:)
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