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