Thursday, October 4, 2018

Mid September 2018 - Beauties of the Meadow, Gentians and Ladies' Tresses and more!

September 07  Port Sheldon Natural Area  Ottawa County

Port Sheldon Natural Area has 440 acres including gently rolling terrain, swampy woods, several ponds and Ten Hagen Creek, and wildflowers.

   Virginia Meadow Beauty
This was the main reason I took a walk here in September, to see the beauties of the meadow!  There were hundreds of these plants in various stages of bloom.  I had the whole park to myself, never saw another person.

The Meadow Beauty ring this pond with hundreds of plants.
No blue sky on that day, but the plants were very impressive.











September 10  Black Lake Park   Norton Shores  Muskegon County

Black Lake Park is a 58 acre parcel, located near the southern boundary of Norton Shores, between Wood Road and the eastern shoreline of Little Black Lake. The park provides passive recreation opportunities for nature lovers with a number of bird, animal and plant species to observe.





 Little Black Lake


 First time I have come across a Stinkhorn, and no I didn't give it a sniff.




Bass River Recreation Area - Ottawa County, Michigan - September 11, 2018
 Bass is high on my list of favorite places to explore in Ottawa County.

Bass River Recreation Area, a 1,665-acre site in central Ottawa County, consists of open meadows, open brush land, mature hardwoods, small ponds and 300-acre Max Lake. It has approximately three miles of frontage on the Grand River. The park is used primarily for boating, hiking, mountain biking and horse back riding, as well as hunting.

         Bottle Gentian   
     I think it should be named Stunningly Beautiful Gentian!


    Here at Bass we also find the white variety of the Stunningly Beautiful Gentian





Also in this awesome place we see orchids!  Nodding Ladies' Tresses








We saw a Monarch chrysalis, caterpillar, and adult butterfly.



We even saw two Monarch cocoons on one plant, and nearby two caterpillars on one plant.  I tried to capture it in a photo, it isn't very clear so I circled each in red.  Caterpillars on the left, cocoons on the right.  There were aphids covering the plant stems.






 Mike and I have been keeping up our evening walks, usually at Connor Bayou, occasionally we head to Hofma Park and Preserve.  September 15 we walked at Hofma Preserve, again, no blue sky but some of the trees were showing just a bit of color. 

Next time I will finish up the month of September, and soon we should be seeing the fall colors!  Thanks for stopping by.
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4 comments:

  1. AnonymousOctober 5, 2018 at 8:21 AM

    I can't get enough of your Stunningly Beautiful photos!
    From the Meadow Beauty to the Cardinal Flower, they are always a treat.
    Not only wildflowers but fungi, butterflies in all their stages, and stunning vistas.
    The close-up of the orchid, Nodding Ladies' Tresses, stopped me in my tracks.
    Gentians are my favorite and you have preserved them forever.
    You have a legacy that will never die.
    I'm so proud of you, sister!
    M :)

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  2. Allen NorcrossOctober 5, 2018 at 5:58 PM

    I've never seen the meadow beauties. They're a pretty flower that I wish we had here.
    You're so lucky to see orchids everywhere you go. I've got to get out more!
    I've never seen gentians or turtleheads flower like that. They're obviously very happy there. I've never seen a white gentian either. It's odd but still beautiful.
    I've never smelled a stink horn either so I don't know if they really do stink or not.
    Thanks for a whole bunch of beauty!

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  3. Plants Amaze MeOctober 6, 2018 at 11:15 AM

    Thanks M :)
    It is fun each year to see the gentian, and all the other flowers. Fall has special plants blooming almost like spring its own special plants. Now it will be walks to see the pretty fall leaves!
    :)

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  4. Plants Amaze MeOctober 6, 2018 at 11:28 AM

    Thanks Allen. We found one Virginia Meadow Beauty plant blooming several years ago at a Coastal Plain Marsh. Now we know of this place in Ottawa County, and were amazed at the number of these plants the first time we saw them.

    I only saw a few Turtlehead this year. As for the white gentian, we found those a few years ago at Bass. I saw them one other time north of here along the Manistee River Trail. At first I thought they were Turtlehead, as I looked closer I realized it was gentian! I haven't found the blue-purple gentian blooming near the white gentian?
    :)

    ReplyDelete