Yes, there are millions of Virginia bluebells at Carley State Park.
What they don’t mention is that there are at least as many false rue anemones:
side-by-side:
This one tree contained an entire spring wildflower ecosystem:
bluebells, of course, and also bellworts:
little-leaf buttercups:
wild ginger:
early meadow rue:
violets:
Dutchman’s breeches:
more false rue anemones:
and soon, trilliums:
Early spring is when all of my favorite wildflowers bloom. My garden has a few – hepatica, spring beauty, trillium – but the best place to see nearly every Minnesota ephemeral is the Eloise Butler Wildflower Garden. I visited on a sunny afternoon three weeks ago.
White trout lily:
and yellow trout lily:
Wild ginger’s shy flower:
Hepatica rising out of the carpet of oak leaves:
False rue anemone:
Bloodroot is my absolute favorite, possibly because they’re so delicate and so short-lived. This time I decided to take video of flowers blowing in the wind, with birds singing and bees buzzing in and out:
There was even a turkey roaming around, not at all concerned that I was watching:
Earlier this week, I returned to see what’s happening now. There are many more varieties, and the brown groundcover is quickly being replaced by new, green growth.
The bloodroot I filmed is long gone, the leaves growing large but being overtaken by invasive periwinkle:
Many varieties of violets:
Two-leaved toothwort:
I was wondering whether there are any jack-in-the-pulpits and literally before I finished that thought, I found one hiding among the leaves:
Marsh marigolds:
Several kinds of trilliums:
And coming soon: lots of wild geraniums.
I spent three days and two nights camping with friends at Tettegouche State Park north of Duluth a week and a half ago.
We went on a long hike each day – one through the woods to High Falls, and one along Lake Superior to Shovel Point.
As is my habit, every hike turns into a wildflower hunt.
It felt like every other minute I was stopping to photograph yet another specimen.
Most were at ground level, but some were at eye level.
The bush honeysuckle above is not a wildflower, but there were so many blooming that I had to include them. There were many other flowering shrubs, berries, and ferns that I’m not including.
Many of the wildflowers we saw are natives, but of course there were also many non-natives…
…including several on the Minnesota Wildflowers Invasive – ERADICATE! list.
Back to the natives! Fortunately for me, the park’s visitors center compiled a list of the flowers that were blooming, so I had a head start on identifying those I didn’t already know:
A new Instagram friend saw spotted coralroot a week earlier, an orchid I was disappointed to miss! I settled for a few black-eyed susans that were starting to bloom.
Quite a fun weekend for discovering wildflowers.
Long-overdue posting of showy lady’s slippers from a late-June drive through the countryside looking for wildflowers.
This is an enormous clump of at least 50 of these pretty orchids on the side of a quiet road in Mahnomen County in northwest Minnesota:
Showy lady’s slipper is Minnesota’s state flower and is on my car’s license plate, a Critical Habitat specialty plate that supports the state Department of Natural Resources.
I didn’t notice until looking at the pictures after returning home, but some of the photos make it look like the flowers have faces — yellow eyes over a wide-open mouth:
What a treat to see this beautiful flower in the wild.
crystallofolia 