Michigan Wildflowers Springing Up - April 10, 2015

Allegan County, Michigan

 Marie and I stopped at the park in Hamilton first, it was only 37 degrees and windy.  The snow is mostly gone but we did see a bit here and there.  The Rabbit River was the color of coffee with cream.

 Next stop our Happy Boots place, nice wet woods and Sand Creek.  Sand Creek was high but not over the banks.  

 
We found lots of Skunk Cabbage, 

and a few Marsh Marigold blooming.  We saw Golden Saxifrage blooming, with its tiny red-orange flowers.

We wandered for almost two hours through the swampy woods. That was fun! 

 It was still cold and cloudy so we didn't have much hope of seeing many wildflowers blooming.  We didn't even hear any frogs yet.  So we decided to go to Hepatica Hill along the Kalamazoo River.  Even if we don't find wildflowers we can have a good walk.

We got to the hill to find hepatica was blooming, sort of but it needed a little sunshine.

We walked on with plans to stop here on our way back.  We stood for awhile looking down at the river.  

Still cloudy but then the sun started to peek out.  Little bits of blue sky.  When we got back to the hepatica they were wide open reaching for the sun.  Some were white, some a deep purple.  Their stems were very hairy and they seemed so delicate.  But there they were blooming, with the snow barely gone and a cold wind blowing.

Marie sat with her books doing some research and enjoying the day, while I looked around - being amazed at the change in the little flowers since the sun came out.  Nice!
It was time to head home and on the way we stopped along 133rd Avenue, still in Allegan County.  We were surprised to find Trout Lily blooming.

 And some Spring Beauty!

Then we heard frogs. What a great spring day.

Van Zoeren Woods to Happy Boots

2012 03 27  Van Zoeren Woods, a  Zeeland township park (34 acres) was our destination for this very cold windy, morning.  To get to this park we traveled through some beautiful farmland, this barn picture was taken along the way.

We found the park with no problem, but where to park was a bit of a question.  We just parked near the sign.

It was 9 a.m. and 36 degrees with a brisk wind blowing.  We started to see wildflowers as soon as we got to the trail.

 Yellow Trout Lily

False Rue Anemone


Then a surprise!  Marie found Large-flowered Trillium blooming.  This is about 6 weeks earlier than average for this plant to bloom here in west Michigan.

Large-flowered Trilllium

Then she spotted this Jack-in-the-Pulpit fully open!  There were many, many, Wild Leek leaves everywhere.  The leaves show first on the Wild Leek then the leaves die back and the plant blooms later in the spring.

Wild Leek leaves

 Mayapple was up but not yet blooming.

Bloodroot done blooming.

 Blue Cohosh (Caulophyllum thalictroides)

Close up of the green flower of the Blue Cohosh plant.



 Dutchman's Breeches (Dicentra cucullaria) Fumitory Family.  Each flower is about 3/4 " long and has the form of a pair of pants upside down on a clothesline.

 Dutchman's Breeches

 Squirrel Corn (Dicentra Canadensis) Fumitory Family.  Squirrel Corn flowers are heart shaped.

Here I lifted my head up from the flowers and took a look around the woods.  It's a nice little woods, they are planning on making a paved trail, some paths were being worked on.

           Bug

      This I think is a fungus called Scarlet Cup.

We also saw Cut-leaved Toothwort blooming for the first time this year, lots of first here in Van Zoeren Woods.

We visited Van Zoeren Woods for about three hours then went down to Allegan County to Happy Boots Corner.  Oh the Marsh Marigold, beautiful.

Marsh Marigold like a burst of sunshine.

 More Marsh Marigold

Marsh Marigold is usually one of the early bloomers and they are so pretty.  Then we found a flower blooming that again surprised us, Golden Ragwort (Senecio aureus) Aster Family. 

 Golden Ragwort blooming

Golden Ragwort buds  The first year we came across this plant we couldn't figure it out because we would see these purplish buds, but out comes a golden flower!  

 We also saw violets, this one was a very soft purple color.

 Different kinds of buttercups.

            Ferns unfurling

This is Dwarf Ginseng (Panax trifolius).


Don't forget to look around at these fun and interesting woods.

Allegan Forest


After about an hour and a half at Happy Boots Corner we hopped in the car and drove along 133rd Avenue.

133rd Ave. Allegan County Michigan

 The patch of White Trout Lily was back.  Some Yellow Trout Lily too.

A nice bunch of violets...Then to home.  A wonderful day.