Wildflower Walk

Wild Geranium

I was in Stillwater for the Memorial Day weekend and so had the opportunity to hike the Brown's Creek Trail.  Saturday I went with a DNR Naturalist on a wildflower walk.  We were a fairly small group, but even so we didn't walk very far because there were so many plants to identify along the trail.  The rain didn't help either but it kept the bicyclists to a minimum so that part was great.

White Campion

There were some plants that I know I will remember because they look so odd.  I have started seeing this one everywhere.

Poison Ivy

There are some plants you don't notice but you should!  If there's three let it be.  The thing about the Poison Ivy plant is that the middle stem is longer and the leaves are not symmetrical.  This plant is all along the trail. We don't have Poison Oak in Minnesota so we don't have to worry about that one.

Jewelweed

If you got into some Poison Ivy, wash your skin with cold water and then take the leaves and the juice from the stems of the Jewelweed to treat the rash. And good luck because I don't know if that actually works. Little droplets of water that look like jewels shine on the waxy leaves after a rain, thus giving it its name.

Leafy Spurge

Some plants are actually on the noxious weed list and can be pulled.  I think these little yellow flowers are interesting looking though.

Bittersweet Nightshade

Some plants will make you sick if you eat the berries or any part of the plant.  Good to know.

Bedstraw

You could make a mattress out of this plant and I guess people did that once upon a time.

Fake Solomon's Seal

This plant was all over the trail too.  Up close the blooms have tons of little star shaped flowers.

Real Solomon's Seal

There's the Real Solomon's Seal hiding only to be found by the expert!  I prefer the Fake Solomon's Seal.

Blood Root

Here's an odd shaped little plant with just the one leaf.  I would not have noticed it.  The flower which only blooms for a day or two is long gone.  It could have bloomed as early as March.  The juice from the stems can be used to make natural red and orange dyes.

Our group only got about a half mile up the trail and so I went out the following day to the 2 mile marker.  There is plenty of Colombine along the trail  I don't know why, but I get this flower confused with the state flower, the Lady Slipper, which is nearly impossible to find and looks like a little orchid.

Yellow Goat's Beard

I spotted these along the trail too. Up close, the flower is very distinctive with little green spikes that shoot out from the underside of the yellow petals.

Spittlebugs

Spittlebug Nymphs were making their frothy hiding spots in some of the plants.

Unidentified

We looked at a variety of other plants over the course of the weekend; Fleabane, Jack in the Pulpit, Sweet Cicely, Burdock, Curly Dock, Creeping Charlie, Mint, Phlox, Alyssum, and  a variety of Mustard Weeds.  I want to be able to identify plants as I take my walks but I wonder just how much information I can retain in my head. The Minnesota wildflowers website is a good place to help identify what you see out there on the trails.  There are about 400 varieties of white wildflowers listed on their site so it could take me a while to identify this one.

 https://www.minnesotawildflowers.info/