Spring Wildflowers in Aman Park, Ottawa County Michigan

May 6, 2013  It was a perfect spring day, sunshine, warm temperatures, few bugs, and lots of wildflowers!  Aman Park is in Ottawa County Michigan, it has steep hillsides to Sand Creek far below.
This time we walked to the southern bridge in the park and followed along the creekside trail.  There were many oohs and ahs from my wildflowering buddy - my sister Marie, and me.  We spent 5 hours at Aman admiring everything.

 Sand Creek at Aman Park

 Large-flowered Trillium

One of the many hillsides covered with trillium.

We saw several different types of violets, all so pretty in their own way.

Virginia Bluebells

 

The Virginia Bluebells were just starting to open, soon these will cover Aman Park near the creek.

Many trees were flowering, below is the creamy white flower of Flowering Dogwood.

The Paw Paw trees had fuzzy buds...there are numerous Paw Paw trees at this park.

 Buttercups have shiny yellow flower petals...

 



 For the first time this year, we saw Wild Geranium blooming...



 Just a few Dicentra,

                                            Squirrel-corn

                                            Dutchman's Breeches

I know dandelions are known as nasty little invaders but how can you not think they are pretty?

 Common Dandelion


A lovely group of Large-flowered Bellwort, these are at the northern bridge in Aman. 

 Sand Creek

Spring Beauty were everywhere, at times making the forest floor look pinkish-white.

Spring Beauty

We saw a few trillium that had various abnormalities...

 



 We found many other wildflowers blooming but after 5 hours at Aman we moved on to Grand River Park.

 

Hayes Pond at Grand River Park in Ottawa County, Michigan

 Some trails were still totally flooded near the Grand River.

In a field 500 feet from the Grand River we saw signs of how high the flood waters had been.  See the red arrows pointing at the debris caught in the trees, the debris was more than 4 feet off the ground!   

 

 Jack-in-the-Pulpit

Marsh Marigold 

 

We saw some wildflowers and had another enjoyable walk. 

Six Parks in Twelve Hours in Michigan - Part 2

2013 04 29  After Riverfront Park, McCoy's Creek Park, Bakertown Fen Perserve, and Mud Lake Bog we drove from Buchanan east just over the highway.  Along the way we had to drive around a huge Snapping Turtle in the road.

Just a few miles and now we are at Trillium Ravine Plant Preserve.  Even before we got out of the car we could see wildflowers! 

Here is some of what we saw...

 All that white and green are trillium!

Trillium grandiflorum - White Trillium or Large-flowered Trillium

There are also Trillium sessile, common name Toadshade Trillium

Those are not to be confused with Trillium recurvatum, common name Prairie Trillium. 

Which I do confuse!  I really just like to have fun looking at the wildflowers and figuring all this out sometimes isn't so fun for me. 

The biggest difference between the two, from what I understand is how the leaves are attached to the stem.  Trillium sessile has leaves that are sessile, attached to the stem without a stalk, whereas Trillium recurvatum leaves are strongly petioled, attached to the stem with a stalk.  Just let it go...

Another plant that is easier to tell apart when they are right next to each other are Dutchman's Breeches (on the left) and Squirrel Corn (on the right).

 We saw so many wildflowers... Trout Lily and Spring Beauty.

Blue Cohosh

Unique types of fungi...and we were having a great time rediscovering all of our old friends. 
Even after all this fun we still decided to go to Dowagiac Woods! 

This photo was taken in 2008, this sign is gone now.
We were at Dowagiac Woods just two weeks ago.  Now the hepatica were waning, but the Spring Beauty were out in full force. 
Here is Dowagiac Woods...

                          Wild Ginger

                                              Dwarf Ginseng

There were many more Marsh Marigold.

I was hoping the Blue-eyed Mary would be blooming, and it was!

Many more insects were here compared to two weeks earlier.  Nice to see all the bees.

We were at Dowagiac Woods for almost two hours, and we were going fast, for us.  So we phoned our families to let them know we would be late.  Oh, and we did see hepatica.

 Sharp-lobed Hepatica