Milkweed season

I have three types of milkweed blooming in my yard.  I've let a big patch of Common Milkweed (Asclepias syriaca) turn into a jungle near my mailbox. 

Butterfly Milkweed (Asclepias tuberosa) with its bright orange flowers is more attractive.  I have some blooming in a prairie garden in my backyard.

Swamp Milkweed (Asclepias incarnata) with its brilliant pink flowers is a close contender for showiest milkweed.  It grows naturally near our pond.

All three are great host plants for Monarch butterflies and their caterpillars.

Purple Fringed Orchid

 

The Purple Loosestrife, blooming along Portage Creek, caught my eye first.  While its flowers are pretty, it's an invasive exotic that easily dominates wet habitats.  Continuing along the trail at Bicentennial Park, I noticed many other purple flowers: Red Clover, Swamp Milkweed, Chicory, Bergamot, and Blue Vervain.  All the purple blossoms primed me to see a native flower I'd never noticed before: Purple Fringed Orchid.

Purple Fringed Orchids  (Platanthera psycodes) grow in moist soil, scattered throughout the eastern US and Canada.  They are protected species in parts of their range.  (It's possible this plant was the very similar, and closely related, Platanthera grandiflora.)  I was surprised to see such a beautiful wildflower in such an ordinary place.
   

Lichen

A late fall walk in the woods provides fewer distractions: no wildflowers, no colorful leaves, no snakes, no turtles, no frogs.  Birds can be easier to see, since they can't hide in the foliage, and squirrels are very visible as they build their winter nests and harvest seeds and nuts.  My attention was also drawn to some lower-profile flora-- the lichens.

On a recent walk at the Sarett Nature Center,  I noticed a group of trees with interesting displays of lichen on their branches.  I snapped a few pictures and figured I could identify them when I got home.  One branch was covered with the cup-topped stems of the lichen's fruiting body, which I thought would make it simple to classify.

Lichens are composite, symbiotic organisms that combine a fungus and an algae (or a blue-green algae).  The fungus provides the physical structure and the algae provides the ability to photosynthesize.  They can grow where regular plants can not survive and they take many different forms.

My problem came when I tried to identify the lichen; Michigan has over 800 kinds of lichen and I quickly got overwhelmed.  At first, I thought the fruiting bodies matched a picture of Pixie Cup lichen but then I found that many other lichens have similar structures.  Then I realized that in some photos I had multiple different lichen growing alongside each other.   A Harvard webpage on identifying lichens provided this advice: "By far the best way to start identifying lichens is by attending one or more workshop, course, or field trip led by an experienced lichenologist. It is hard to pick up identification skills on one's own and easy to get onto the wrong track, so beginners should seek help in getting started."

See thousands of lichen photos on Steve Sharnoff's webpage.

Spicebush berries

Fall is the season of many nuts and berries including the eye-catching fruits of the Spicebush (Lindera benzoin)  This shrub grows in partly-shady areas with moist soils.  It's widely distributed in the eastern United States and found throughout southern Michigan.

It blooms in early Spring (mid-March, this year) before the forest leaves have opened.  The flowers, while tiny, are bright enough to make an eye-catching display of yellow among the bare branches.  Later in the year, it's a host plant for the Spicebush Swallowtail butterfly.

The colorful berries (or drupes) are eaten by many different animals and a mixed flock of birds were feeding on them when I saw these.  Apparently people also consume these fruits, using them as a replacement for allspice.  People also make tea from the twigs.  In 2011, the Herb Society named Spicebush the Native Herb of the Year.

Black-eyed Susan

Black-eyed Susan (Rudbeckia hirta) is, perhaps, our best-known prairie flower.  Native to North America, its bright yellow flowers bloom early in the summer and can continue throughout the season.

A related species of Black-eyed Susan, Rudbeckia fulgida, is also native to our area (and much of the eastern US).  It became a popular garden flower through an interesting path.  Rather than being directly adopted from the wild, the most popular horticultural variety "Goldsturm" crossed the Atlantic twice.   A German horticulturalist found an attractive variant in a Czech garden and developed it for commercial purposes in Germany.  From Europe, it returned to US gardens.

I'm not absolutely sure which Black-eyed Susan is in the photo.

Swamp Milkweed

Swamp Milkweed (Asclepias incarnata) is blooming in Kalamazoo.  Its eye-catching clusters of flowers are more vivid than the blossoms of Common Milkweed.  Like other milkweeds, it is an attractive source of nectar for butterflies.  The leaves are eaten by butterfly caterpillars, including Monarchs.  As its name suggests, this tall milkweed grows in wet soils.

Marram Grass

Marram Grass (Ammophila breviligulata), also called American Beachgrass, is a characteristic plant of Michigan's sand dunes. This pioneer species survives on Lake Michigan beaches by outgrowing the blowing sand. Its roots stabilize the sand, forming dunes. Prairie grasses, like Little Bluestem and Switchgrass, can grow on the stabilized sand behind the Marram Grass. Eventually, woody plants and trees grow on the stable dunes, ultimately forming a maple-beech climax community. Observations of these plant communities along Lake Michigan were important for the development of the theory of plant succession.

When the protective beach grasses are disturbed, wind erosion can cause a blow-out where whole dunes move rapidly, burying forests, and creating parabolic dunes.

Marram grass also grows on beaches along the Atlantic coast.

Virginia Creeper

Virginia Creeper (Parthenocissus quinquefolia) is a common vine in the Kalamazoo area and it is widely distributed throughout the Eastern US and Canada. It grows in shade or sun and will climb bushes, trees, fences, and phone poles.

Sometimes it is confused with Poison Ivy since it has a similar form and grows in similar habitats. The leaflet count is the easy way to distinguish the plants: Virginia Creeper's leaves are groups of five, while Poison Ivy has groups of three. (In Spring, young Virginia Creeper plants may show only three leaves at the tip of the vine, making them harder to distinguish; usually, there are 5-leaflet clusters farther down the vine.)

Its leaves can turn a spectacular red in the Fall.

Pretty Poison Too

Poison Sumac (Toxicodendron vernix) is a relative of poison ivy and poison oak and like those plants it contains urushiol, the chemical that causes painful, itchy rashes. While it acts like its cousins, Poison Sumac doesn't look like them. Poison Sumac is a small tree, with compound leaves, rather than a vine or shrub with "leaves of three." It grows in really wet areas-- bogs, swamps-- throughout the eastern US and Canada.

Poison Sumac's green leaves turn red in the Fall (like Poison Ivy.) Poison Sumac is not related to our common Staghorn Sumac (Rhus typhina) which also turns red in Autumn.

Poison Sumac bears white berries (or drupes) in the Fall.

Goldenrod

Goldenrods (Solidago sp.) are among the last flowers to bloom in Kalamazoo, which makes them an important nectar source after many summer flowers have gone to seed. Earlier this week, the goldenrod flowers at the Kalamazoo Nature Center drew honeybees, bumble bees, yellow jackets, wasps, and other insects.

There are a large number of goldenrod species in Michigan and throughout the US. These identification guides may be useful: Wisconsin goldenrods, Ontario goldenrods, US goldenrods.

Great Blue Lobelia

Great Blue Lobelia (Lobelia siphilitica) are now in flower in Kalamazoo. Like their showier relatives the Cardinal Flower, these perennial wildflowers need moist soil and tolerate partial shade. The flower spike grows about three feet high and they are often found along streams and rivers. They're a widely distributed plant, found throughout Michigan and most Eastern, Midwestern, and Great Plains states.

Milkweed

Common Milkweed (Asclepias syriaca) doesn't have the show-stopping flowers of the Butterfly Milkweed but the pale pink flowers are attractive enough. They're particularly attractive to butterflies, most famously the Monarch.

Milkweed is named for its thick white sap, which protects the plant from many herbivores since it contains bitter cardiac glycosides that are toxic in large doses. Certain insects, like the Monarch Butterfly, have adapted to tolerate this poison and, in fact, are able to incorporate it as their own chemical defense against predators.

The USDA has an informative pdf on the Common Milkweed.

Wild blueberry

Wild blueberries (Vaccinium corymbosum) are ripening now. These are highbush blueberries, closely related to the commercially-farmed berries grown near Kalamazoo. Michigan also has two species of lowbush blueberries that only grow a few inches high, while the highbush blueberry grows several feet tall. The sweet fruits are popular with birds, animals, and people.

Blue Flag Iris

Blue Flag Iris (Iris virginica) is one of the showiest flowers of early summer. These native wildflowers grow in wet areas-- at the edge of ponds and rivers, in marshes, bogs, floodplains and wet prairies. It can be found across much of the Eastern United States. They've been in bloom in Kalamazoo for a couple of weeks.

Wild cranberry

Wild cranberries (Vaccinium oxycoccos) are blooming now. I didn't recognize the tiny flowers but they were easy to find in a guidebook. Michigan has a similar species, the large cranberry, (Vaccinium macrocarpon) but based on the leaves I think the flowers pictured are the small cranberry. Both plants are native to bogs and grow throughout the northern US and in Canada.
Cranberries are in the blueberry family, but the plants only grow a few inches tall. Wild blueberries grow in the same bog but the plants are much taller. The blueberry bushes have already set fruit.

Other nearby plants included Lady's Slipper, whose flowers were mostly gone, and Snake's Mouth orchid which are just starting to bloom.

Yellow Pond Lily

Yellow Pond Lilies (Nuphar lutea) bloom earlier in Michigan than our White Water Lilies. Both native plants grow in ponds and slow moving streams throughout the United States and Canada. Yellow Pond Lilies are also known as Spadderdock.

Emerging wildflowers

April 15 marks the end of the tax season and the beginning of Kalamazoo's wildflower season. It's a good time to look for the early woodland wildflowers: Hepatica, Dutchman's Breeches, Marsh Marigold, and Spring Beauty. Of course, like many things in nature, there is year-to-year variation. In 2010, these flowers were at their peak by April 15. This Spring has been colder (as illustrated by yesterday's snow) and the wildflowers are later. Only a few plants were in bloom at the Kalamazoo Nature Center, but lots more had buds bringing the promise of more flowers next week.

Bloodroot bud (Sanguinaria canadensis)


Trout Lily bud (Erythronium americanum)


Spring Beauty (Claytonia virginica) in bloom.

Mutant Trilliums

Trilliums, as their name implies, are plants with three petals and three leaves. On occasion, a genetic mutation creates a trillium flower with multiple petals. These are known as "double blooms" and are prized by some gardeners. I saw the one pictured above growing in the wild at the Kalamazoo Nature Center in May 2010.


Growing a few feet away was this four-petaled trillium, with four leaves-- another genetic rarity. Some people call this a "quadrillium." I don't know if these mutations had a common cause, perhaps coming from the same parent plant.

While these individual plants have unusual appearances, they are still Trillium Grandiflorium (Large Flowered Trillium). I'm curious to see if they bloom again this Spring.

Red Osier Dogwood

Red Osier Dogwood (Cornus sericea) or Red Twig Dogwood brings a touch of bright color to the late winter landscape. Its small fruits provide food for wildlife and birds. Native Americans used the twigs to make baskets and the bark for dyes.

See a USDA plant guide (pdf) for more information.

Little Bluestem

Little Bluestem (Schizachyrium scoparium) is an interesting prairie grass. At only 3 feet tall, it's much shorter than Indian Grass, Big Bluestem or Switch grass. In Fall, clumps of Little Bluestem can be striking, as the fluffy seedheads catch the light, drawing your eye to the orange-colored stems.