Fall Wildflower Tour in the Eastern Upper Peninsula

I am always on the watch for wildflowers, and when I find a patch of something rare or unusual, it is a good day! We started off down the road to Kenneth, MI., about a 15 minute drive from Birch Lodge, to check on the Purple Coneflowers (Echinacea purpurea) at the Michigan Nature Association's Fred Dye Sanctuary. This open field was once an area where the railroad would bring hay in from the prairies to feed the horses used by the loggers in the late 1800's. I believe the seeds for these plants came in with the hay, and managed to maintain a population to the present day.

Purple Coneflowers at Fred Dye Sanctuary

Although mid-August was late in the season, we found a few plants still in bloom, and plump seed heads bouncing in the wind.An additional surprise were the Ladies-Tress Orchids (Spiranthese cernua) blooming on the edge of the field.

Ladies-Tress Orchids

This made me think of another location I know a few miles away, and we set off to see what might be blooming there....

Fringed Gentian and Grass-of-Parnassus

The soils are limey and shallow, and not only did we find lots of orchids, but we found Fringed Gentian (Gentiana procera) blooming with the much more common Grass-of-Parnassus (Parnassia glauca) as well!
Not quite as rare a find here, but still interesting was the wild Clematis (Clematis virginiana) making a show of it's own in the trees along one side of the two-track trail. It's bloom was gone, but the feathery seeds were hard too miss

I will re-check these areas in the spring, I remember Blue-eyed Grass, and Yellow Lady's Slipper Orchids--check for a wildflower posting in the spring!