Dowagiac Woods Nature Sanctuary - April 22 2025

 

My sister, Marie kindly took me to Dowagiac Woods on Tuesday April 22, 2025.  We saw wildflowers, thousands of wildflowers!  In March of this year, Dowagiac Woods suffered a major wind event.  Most trails have been made passable, which I’m sure was a lot of work.  Luckily, we were able to wander for some 3 1/2 hours on a beautiful spring day around this nature sanctuary.

Blue-eyed Mary

Dowagiac Woods Cass County Michigan April 30 2018

 Michigan had a cool, snowy, and mostly dry April this year.  Many spring wildflowers are affected by the temperature, amount of sunlight and moisture, and we saw the effect of this weather at Dowagiac Woods. When we arrived at this 384 acre Michigan Nature Association Sanctuary, it was 37 degrees at 10 a.m. on April 30 2018.

We know not to arrive too early, we now give the plants time to "wake up".  At 37 degrees some plants were still snoozing.  And I noticed a lack of wildflowers on the first part of our walk, most likely the result of the weather.

When we got to the parking area we met a young woman from Sarett Nature Center.  She walked along with us for awhile and we told her pretty much all we knew about the plants we were seeing.  She seemed grateful for the information we had and it was fun to share part of our day with her.

The first plants we see blooming are violets, right at the parking area.  Then it was Spring Beauty but they were closed up tight with their heads down.  Most of the green in the photo below is Wild Leek leaves.

 As the day went on and the sun warmed things up, the Spring Beauty poked up their pretty heads.

  We found Harbinger of Spring still blooming.

 The woods were tinged with yellow from the native deciduous shrub, Spicebush.

 

We started seeing trillium but just buds, as we walked on we saw a few blooming.

Mayapple had popped up.

 Dutchman's Breeches

 

                                Hepatica!

 Marsh Marigold were blooming in the swampy areas.   
 Bright sunshine flowers!


We passed the Blue-Eyed Mary corner, we found a few in bud. But none were blooming, not even one.  So many wildflowers were blooming so it was okay, the weather was perfect.  The gnats were not perfect, they were biting! 

We spent about 3 1/2 hours walking around the main trail, then back to the car.  Dowagiac Woods has another area to the west of the main parking area, so we decided to check that section out. 

At the west end we found many Blue-Eyed Mary blooming!

We also found many of the same wildflowers blooming that we had been seeing all day.  They are so beautiful!  We saw more Large-Flowered Trillium, Marsh Marigold, Harbinger of Spring, Trout Lily, Hepatica, Buttercup, Blue Cohosh, Dutchman's Breeches, Greek Valerian ...

 


     Ohio Buckeye 
Also at the west end of Dowagiac Woods we saw this tree with a sign to assure our identification of it.   Its name comes from the 'buckeyes,' a small, dark brown nut with a light patch resembling the eye of a deer.   We saw this tree throughout the day in various stages of progression.  It has a beautiful cluster of yellow flowers, it should be blooming soon.

 

   Ohio Buckeye

Another great day to be outside!  Marie and I realize how fortunate we are to be able to enjoy these days.  We both enjoy them very much.