The MN wildflower blog

The bumblebees were out in force today, devouring the purple prairie clover. Notice the red-orange color of this guy’s pollen basket. You could hear the buzz from 10 yards away.

Twice in the past week a brilliant splash of orange in a sea of dark green has caught my eye, and it turned out to be Michigan Lily. It’s a great flower.

A fen is a fantastic habitat to find interesting moisture-loving plants. Over at Sucker Lake there is a little fen-like area on the west side of the park, between the trail and a cat-tail marsh. I spent some time exploring that today. (more…)

The camera often captures things I don’t see, like the little spider hiding under one of the flowers.

I went out specifically looking for orchids today, tubercled rein orchid in particular. I didn’t find it, but ragged fringed orchid is a pretty nice substitute.

Last Saturday I went on a field trip with a group of people to Crow Hassan Regional Park up in Rogers, about a half hour drive northwest of the Twin Cities. Nice place. They have about 800 acres of restored prairie, as well as a small amount of woods and wetlands. (more…)

I took about 10 pictures waiting for this critter to hold still long enough to get a clean shot. Anybody know what it is?