Before heading back to Ann Arbor, and between rain days we spent the day at the eastern end of Pictured Rocks looking for interesting plants. Needless to say, it’s hard to beat rams-head orchids. We managed to find hundreds of them.
We even found a plant with several white ones.
Scattered among the rams-heads were a nice number of striped coralroot, another orchid.
For the one orchid site we headed off in search of moonworts which are primitive ferns. But I had to stop for some stunning twinflowers. Linnaeus was so taken with this plant that he named the genus after himself. This is Linnaea borealis.
We were not disappointed in the number of moonworts that we found. It appeared that there were many more than in past years.
While most quite small (under 2 inches), there were a few giant 4-5 inch plants.
This shows the characters of a moonwort quite well. There is a single non-reproductive leaf, and a taller one (typically) that has the reproductive spores.
After these two sites we went down to look at Grand Sable Falls before heading off to the orchid trail.
The main target on the orchid trail was Hooker’s orchid. We were not disappointed as we found some 20 or more in near peak bloom.
We also found Menzies rattlesnake-plantain, another orchid sending up flower stalks.
We took Jess the WPBO hawk counter with us so he could see his first Hooker’s.
Susan photographing a Hooker’s orchid.
A close-up of the her and the orchid.
We ended the long day having dinner at the Lake Superior Brewing Company. Before the long ride home.
Tonight, back in Ann Arbor we are doing a moth night for Natural Areas Preservation and the Washtenaw Audubon Society. More on this tomorrow.
Michael's Place 