Common St John's wort

These grow abundantly up north near swamps and at the edges of forests.

Purple Gerardia

I love the way these flowers look when they happen to lay right on top of one of the green spikes that protrude from the stalk.

Bladder Campion

Where I have most frequently seen bladder campions growing is by the side of a dusty road up north.   It is hard to imagine a less friendly environment - full sun and lots of dust.

Spotted Jewelweed

These cornucopia-shaped flowers are suspended on thin flexible stems.   The stems look so fragile, I am surprised that the ever-present winds don't blow all the flowers off.   When the plant has mature seed pods, a gentle squeeze will cause the pod to explode and shoot the seeds out (it's called dehiscence.)   Pretty cool.

Pickerelweed

At Seven Ponds there is a stairway bridge over the narrow water connecting two of the ponds.   Just off of the boardwalk leading to the bridge, these flowers were growing in the water.   The water was far too deep for wading, so to get close enough for a picture, I knelt at the edge of the dock, and had my sons sit on my legs - one on each leg.   Then I stretched straight out over the water and got my close-ups.   It was hard to straighten back up onto the dock.

Wild Basil

English Plantain

Ask anyone whose lawn is plagued with these ubiquitous plants and they will categorize them as weeds rather than wildflowers.

Fireweed

Photographed near the Bell Bay Natural Area in Presque Isle County.

Compass Plant

These are the tallest wildflowers I have photographed.   It was in the prairie at Seven Ponds.   The plant's leaves always align north-south, hence the name.

Bittersweet Nighshade

We go way back.   I can remember nightshade growing in the back yard when I was a child.   I also remember being warned that it was poisonous - probably because the berries, once they would turn orange and then red, looked so succulent and appealing.

Great Lobelia

Pitcher Plant

These grow by the hundreds in wet areas.   My picture is of the flower, but the water-holding tubular pitchers at the base of the flower stem are what give the plant its name.   The flower heads are sometimes green, and sometimes dark maroon in color.

Bull Thistle

Bees seem to love the flowers of these thistles.   On several occasions I have taken super close-up photos of said bees.

Evening Lychnis

Also known as White Campion, its flowers look like they are folded up.   Male and female flowers inhabit separate plants and are pollinated by moths.

Blue-Eyed Grass

Purple Loosestrife

This wildflower, AKA Lythrum, is so invasive that planting it is prohibited.   From a distance, it looks quite purple, but up close the flowers are washed-out pink.   Their tiny anthers are a startling shade of bright electric green - not reflected in the photo.

Columbine

Yellow Lady's Slipper

Musk Mallow

Photographed in the ditch by the stop sign at the northeast corner of Lynn Road and Clam Lake Road west of Lake Bellaire.   I have since seen it growing on the north side of Lynn Road west of Clam Lake Road.

Blue Vervain

Fringed Purple Orchid

Quite the impressive purple display - hard to miss.   Yet there was only one stalk to be seen anywhere around, and I have never seen it any other time.   It was along the railroad right-of-way at Skegemog.

Birdsfoot Trefoil

I had seen bright yellow patches of these tiny low-growing flowers in past years, but in 2011, I finally brought the wildflower book and identified them.   I have mainly noticed them in Detroit.

Bunchberry

Hard to say which is prettier - the berries or the flowers.   The pure white flower lays flat on top of the green leaves with four equally-spaced petals of a pleasing rounded shape and pointed tip.

Chicory

This wildflower is my nomination for the official wildflower of Detroit.   Chicory grows everywhwere and looks good in masses, especially combined with Queen Anne's lace.   It's blue-purple color looks best on cloudy days rather than in the sunlight.   In photographs, the color invariably looks washed-out

Everlasting Pea

This low-growing viny wildflower attaches itself to other plants with curly tendrils.   I see it up north on both sides of the state, and also in some fields in Detroit.   There are often white versions of the flower present along with the pink (which is the shade of Pepto Bismol.)

Field Bindweed

Some patches of this flower are huge.   It often will grow up a fence if there is one handy.   Comes in a pink version, too.

Silverweed

Silverweed grows abundantly on the shores of sandy lakes, always way back where the sand makes a ridge at its highest point.   The bright yellow flowers grow off the many red runners that lace the ground amidst the fern-like greenery.   Normally silveweed has a nice dark green color, but a slight reverse wind will turn the small flexible fronds over and reveal the silver colored back sides.   Then it's as though the plant has changed colors.

Starry False Solomon's Seal

There are several varieties of Solomons seal, all of which get small white flowers.   This version with the long narrow leaves is called "false" for some reason.   It's easy to spot this type of Solomon's Seal because the stems always arch.

Curled Dock

This wildflower undergoes some dramatic color changes as it matures.   It starts out an ordinary light green color, but close inspection reveals light pink and blue highlights on the flowers.   Then the whole plant grows darker and darker - passing through maroon on the way to a very dark brown, like the color of rusty iron.   It's that color that prompted me to call it rust weed for years, until I found out that it was known as curled dock.   It grows in fields all over Detroit.

Beach Pea

Typical pea plant grabbing onto other vegetaion with its twiny tendrils.   I found it growing on a sandy beach, of course.

Dune Lily

It's strange to find flowers growing in a sand dune, and these flowers are cute with their alternating red and purple heart-shaped anthers.

Goatsbeard

Like a shy dandelion, these only open in the morning, and only if it's sunny.   The leaves are more pointy than a dandelion, and the seeds form a feathery ball just like those of a dandelion, only larger.

Dwarf Lake Iris

Even though this is a protected wildflower, it can be found in great abundance in the spring in wet areas near Lake Huron.

Twinflower

This is one of the first wildflowers that I photographed.   I found it at the edge of the woods in two places on Lake Huron.

Sulphur Cinquefoil

Also known as Rough-Fruited Cinquefoil and Potentilla recta, this beauty has five heart-shaped leaves that are the most pleasant shade of yellow.   This is one of the many wildflowers that grow in the "weed" fields at the "farm" in Ann Arbor.

Thimbleberry

Rather than the flower, I took a picture of the raspberry-like fruit.   If I had to describe thimbleberry in one word it would be "delicious!"   When I have the good fortune to be up north at the right time of spring, it is pure delight to walk through the woods popping those tart little berries in my mouth by the dozens.   The plant has large leaves and grows at the edges of woods or along paths in the woods.   It evidently needs more light than the deep woods provides.   There are several places online where you can order thimbleberry jelly and jam.

Common Skullcap

From the look of its leaves and the square hairy stem, this is obviously a member of the mint family.   What I find amazing is that the longish flowers stick out so straight, seemingly defying gravity.

Canada Mayflower

I find Canada Mayflower growing in the filtered sunlight that makes its way through the large trees in the forest.   The charateristic zig-zag pattern of its stem is so pleasing.

Starflower

Orange Hawkweed

It's so nice to see the color orange in the middle of a field of green growth.   I usually see it up north in fields that are hardly grass, but still mowed. Then it will be blooming quite low to the ground, but still easy to notice for it's perky color.

Indian Tobacco

Culver's Root

Photographed in the prairie at Seven Ponds.

Common Milkweed

The seedpods are much more interesting than the flowers.  I love it when they leak little drops of milk right through their skin - as in the picture.  

Common Mullein

These nice little yellow flowers have the misfortune of inhabiting what I would probably consider to be the junkiest looking weed I've ever seen.  

WIld Strawberry

Photographed by the parking lot at the end of the very very very long one-lane entrance road to Thompson's Harbor Natural Area north of Alpena.

Lady's Thumb

Escept for these tiny colorful spikes of flowers, this plant would look like any other weed growing at the edge of the street.   Yes, Lady's thumb favors one of the most hostile environments imaginable to grow - from cracks between the street surface and the curb.   I see it all over Detroit in the late summer (if I happen to look at the curbs.)

Self-Heal

I would always find self-heal growing along paths deep in the woods.   The flowers grow on four sides of a square column which can vary a lot in height.

Deptford Pink

I first discovered these pretty little flowers at Seven Ponds Nature Center northeast of Oxford in Oakland County.   This natural area is expecially great because not only does it have the ponds, but there is also a large prairie with a whole different set of wildflowers.   That prairie is the only place I have ever seen compass plant or lead plant.

Last summer I spotted Deptford pink near my house, along the St. Aubin fence at the top of the Dequindre Cut.   I often wonder if some of the wildflowers that end up in the City are actually planted there.

Hairy Vetch

I have seen a lot of this vine-like wildflower in Detroit, as well as up north.   When I ride my bike to work, my usual route takes me across Watson Street to Woodward.   On the north side of Watson, I used to see hairy vetch growing in a vacant field.   Then came this market called Zaccaro's, and they paved the field for a parking lot.   The market didn't survive one year.   Now I get to look at unused asphalt instead of nature's beauty.   It reminds me of a Joni Mitchell song.

Fragrant Water Lily

Evening Primrose

The flowers open at night and close before midday.   I have seen it's flowers when I have been riding after dark in the Dequindre Cut.   At the top of the stems are reddish seed pods.

Canada Anemone

Photographed along the west edge of Lake Bellaire.

Horsemint

The only place I have ever encountered this mint was in a field on Alpena Island.   It took a while before I could figure out what it was.

Pipsissewa

With its dark green shiny leaves, this plant looks similar to wintergreen.   I have found it along the path through the woods at Bell Bay in Presque Isle.

Hedge Bindweed

Always pink with white stripes, this vine is similar to morning glory, attaching to other plants.   I have seen it in the woods on Belle Isle, along the Gratiot ramp of the Dequindre Cut, and up north, of course.

Pearly Everlasting

Obediant Plant

Tufted Loosestrife

British Soldiers

I put the macro lens through its paces with this shot.   I saw this super-tiny stuff growing between the boards of a dock at a lake up north.   I would never have noticed it were it not for the bright red tips which turn out to be spores.   British Soldiers is a lichen - the single plant that is formed when an algae and a fungus combine.

Cutleaf Toothwort

This grows at the edge of the woods on Belle Isle in the spring.   I have seen it up north, as well.   I have also seen similar broadleaf toothwort on Belle Isle.

Purslane

Rarely have I seen purslane blooming.   In lawns, including mine, however, this weed is far from rare.   Purslane probably ranks second only to crabgrass as a lawn nuisance.

Red Clover

It really looks more purple than red, and is widespread in fields everywhere.   The leaves of red clover have a distinctive V-shaped marking.

Viper's Bugloss

Every time I have seen these pretty blue and pink flowers, I have wished I had a hose with me to wash them off.   They always seem to be growing at the sides of dusty dirt roads up north.   It is also known as blueweed.

Daisy Fleabane

I photographed these aster-like flowers beside a path through the woods in Preque Isle.   There was filtered sunlight available to them.

Queen Anne's Lace

This ubiquitous wildflower is also known as wild carrot.   I love the way the thin bracts interlace below the flowers.   The flowers are usually all white, of course, so I had to include this picture.   It is one of only a couple that I have ever encountered with the ring of pink around the edge.

Saint Peterswort

Swamp Milkweed

Hoary Allysum

Even though it's just another white flower, hoary allysum is easy to recognize.   Its leaves clasp the stems in a way that makes the stems look twisted, and the color of the flowers is slightly chalky.   This picture was taken at the first place I found them in Detroit - along the fence on the parking lot of Old St. John's Church which is located on Russell south of Gratiot.

Sow Thistle

Sowthistle is one of several tall dandelion-like plants.   These, in particular, have a lovely southward view of Windsor.

Common Plantain

This weed shows up in fields and lawns all over.   Even without the "flower" stalks it can be recognized by the non-symetrical size and pattern of the leaves.

Skunk Cabbage

The flowers are the little yellow things on the inside.   I found this during our family trip across Baseline Road from Lake Saint Clair to Lake Michigan in '98.

Yellow Sweet Clover

Sweet clover, both yellow and white, grows in fields all over Detroit.   Where there is a bunch, you can smell its sweetness from a distance.

Prairie Coneflower

Common Nightshade

At times, I have found this growing in both my front and back yards.   Its berries are black and sort of oval.   There are several in this photo, but, alas, they are not in focus.

Mouse-ear Chickweed

One of the many odds and ends that grow in vacant fields.   You would have to look carefully to notice it, and then wonder why you did.

Beach Heath

This was growing along the sandy path at Bell Bay Natural Area in Presque Isle.

Common Winter Cress

I never paid attention to this stuff before, but now I see that it grows abundantly in the fields areoud Detroit.   It is the first highly noticeable wildflowers of the spring.

Dutchman's Breeches

This is one of the the first wildflowers I ever photographed.   Then I never saw it again for many years because I had stopped going up north in the spring.   I later discovered that DUtchman's Breeches grow like crazy at Pointe Pelee - the park is famous for that wildflower.   The flowers grow all along the road into the park, but just on the side away from Lake Erie.   In describing the quantity, "innumerable" comes to mind.   Sprawled out on the ground, taking photos, I lost one developed roll of film out of my pocket, but after searching for about twenty minutes, found it.   Whew!

Storksbill

Boneset

Ox-eye Daisy

Honesty

Spotted Knapweed

Staghorn Sumac

Crabgrass

Harebell

Canada Thistle

Common Cattail

Sneezeweed

Pine Hyacinth

Found these cuties along the Pere Marquette Rail Trail.   I only had my small Sony digital camera, but I like the picture anyway.

Prairie Blazing Star

Rattlesnake Master

Woodland Sunflower

Spotted Joe Pye Weed

False Solomon's Seal

This specimen was photographed in my own back yard!   It was several years ago when I first noticed Solomon's Seal growing in the common area behind my yard. Afraid the wildflower might get mowed down by our grounds crew who would take it for a weed, I transpanted a few stalks inside my back yard.   Next spring I will get a picture of the flowers.

Spreading Dogbane

Spotted by Kathy on the bike trail between Petosky and Charlevoix.

Chinese Lantern

People do plant these in their gardens, but the wildflower book includes it, so that's good enough for me.   It is a variety of the wildflower known as ground cherry.   These were growing along the designated bike trail in Charlevoix.

White Wood Aster

Pictured at Skegemog Swamp.   Some of the flowers have yellow centers, and some red - quite a pretty combination.   These little asters have become prominent in Detroit in recent years.   They bloom in late summer, and I have seen the flowers persisting after the first snowfall.

Tall Meadow Rue

Growing on the railroad right-of-way at Skegemog Swamp.

Musk Mallow in pink

There is a picture of the white version, as well.   These were on the trail between Petosky and Charlevoix.

Bloodroot

These were growing at the edge of the forest on Camille's farm in Washtenaw County, and I didn't know what they were until I looked them up.   The huge clasping leaf made it easy to ID them.   I transplanted some to my back yard.

Trillium

First time I've run into large-flowering trillium.   Again, in the woods at Camille's farm.   I transplanted three to my back yard, and I photographed these in my yard with my little digital camera.   I will try to get a better photo.

Jack-in-the-Pulpit

I photographed these elegant spring flowers in my own backyard (with digital camera).   I am not saying how they got there or where they came from.   Just call me the stealth gardener.

Virgin's Bower

These were abundant growing through other low greenery along the railroad path at Skegemog Swamp.   Lack of clarity due to the limitations of the little Sony digital camera.

Don't tread on me!

Actually, I almost did step on that Eastern Massasauga Rattlesnake (Michigan's only venomous snake).   It was basking in the sun on the Skegemog railroad right-of-way nor far from the sign which appears below.

Skinny dippin'

This snake skin is looking mighty lengthy as it sits in the Ocqueoc River at Ocqueoc falls - place where we always go swimming!   I am so glad that we encountered the skin rather than it's former contents in the waters there.

Spotted on the knapweed

This pretty little butterfly was kind enough to sit still on the spotted knapweed long enough for me to get real close with the camera.

This way to the Swamp

As that path nears the swamp it turns into a boardwalk that is barely above water in parts.   At the swamp end of the boardwalk there is platform with a stairway to an observation deck about 15 feet high overlooking the swamp.   Standing on that deck, I get the feeling that I am miles from anywhere (probably because it's the truth.) I've been to Skegemog quite a few times, and it's almost always deserted there.   One time, as I was photographing some flowers from the boardwalk I heard a funny noise.   After a minute, it dawned on me that I was hearing the rattle of a rattlesnake.   I high-tailed it out of there - leaping down the floating boardwalk trying to take as few steps on it as possible.   That was just a little too much nature for me.

A Big Question Mark

The New VW

Before . . .

This Monarch-to-be is all I need to identify the plant as common milkweed.

. . . and after

What a metamorphosis!

Praying Mantis

Hardly a summer goes by without some praying mantis camping out on my front screen door or one of the windows.

Deer

Spotted trailside while riding from Crooked Lake to Midland on the Pere Marquette Rail Trail.

White Admiral Butterfly

On the Petosky path, I kept getting closer and clicking until I finally scared that beautiful creature away.   Identified by Kathy, of course.

Skegemog Swamp Natural Area

This sign marks the extreme climate change that takes place when one leaves the old railroad bed - full sun, high and dry - and turns into the dark, damp woods leading to the swamp.   Skegemog is my all-time favorite natural area - no other site comes close.

Seven Ponds Natural Area

I thought that maybe I could wade over to some wildflowers for a picture, but the water was too deep.   I love going to Seven Ponds - it's always fun.   There are trails through the woods, boardwalks, and even a huge prairie!   The Nature Center and its store are nice, too.

Birding from the Bridge

This is the newly rebuilt bridge whose predecessor is pictured just above.   The new bridge is beautiful, and so is the refurbished Nature Center at Seven Ponds.

Where to eat in Metamora

If you come to Seven Ponds from Lapeer Road, as you drive across Dryden Road, you will encounter this wonderful tavern at the corner of Metamora (the only traffic light.)   Eat there - you will be glad that you did.   White Horse Inn

Sad Footnote:   After 162 years of operation, the Inn closed on November 14, 2012 due to structural problems that were too costly to repair.

Grass River Natural Area

Not letting water stop me, I waded right in to get a closer look at the unidentified blue wildflower.   It turned out to be forget-me-nots, and I should have known it by the habitat.   The water was pretty cold.

Seven Bridges Natural Area

This deligthful place is truly off the beaten path.   You would drive by the dusty inconspicuous parking lot never dreaming that just inside the woods water is splashing in every direction.   Bring a lunch, pick a bench, and watch the many little streams merge and split, water coming seemingly from all directions.   Seven Bridges is not to be missed!