The MN wildflower blog

I took a couple hours off yesterday to take advantage of the good weather and trekked around part of Battle Creek Park, mostly to get photos of skunk cabbage while I still could, and to see how far along the kittentails were.

Not much is blooming yet. Lots of bloodroot scattered around the woods, and wild ginger is just starting to flower. The kittentails are budding, but not yet in bloom.

This afternoon I took a quick look around the prairie at Long Lake Regional Park and found the prairie smoke already blooming. Pussytoes aren’t quite there yet, but should be blooming next week. The stalks are only about an inch or so tall now, but there are buds on them.

It was a beautiful day today and I took a quick tour around Long Lake Regional Park. In the woods by Rush Lake, I saw the kidney-shaped leaves of little-leaf buttercup coming up. They are one of the early bloomers. The first leaves are coming out on a variety of shrubs, too, mostly gooseberry and elderberry.

On the prairie, prairie smoke is starting to sprout but it will be a few weeks yet before anything blooms. Pussytoes should be leafing up as well, though I didn’t see them.

The skunk cabbage is starting to bloom down at Battle Creek Park. Spring must be here… at last.

Railroads have been a sanctuary for prairie remnants. The right-of-way along the tracks goes largely undisturbed, allowing patches of native plant communities to survive amidst urban development and expanding agriculture.

At Long Lake Regional Park in New Brighton, one of my favorite places to be, the railroad runs the length of the park, forking at the north end near the old train depot. There are prairie remnants scattered along the tracks, with 2 especially nice spots: one near the fork and another near the swimming beach.

This week I discovered what is most likely the death of one of those remnants.

As part of the Northwest Quadrant Redevelopment project, sections of the railroad tracks are being dismantled. The rails and ties are being piled up next to the tracks near the swimming beach and construction workers and equipment have heavily disturbed the surrounding soil. Last year Nuttall’s evening primrose, wild licorice, Virginia ground cherry, prairie coneflower, butterfly-weed, and a number of native grasses had been found growing there. I have little hope they will survive this and expect to see more sweet clover and spotted knapweed take over in their place.

It makes me very sad.

I really wish I had time to do regular field reports, but sadly I don’t. If anyone else is interested in contributing to this, please let me know. Thanks, and hope you enjoy the rest of the site.

Yesterday was an exhausting day. The first stop was Long Lake Regional Park early in the morning, to see if the Nuttall’s evening primrose was still blooming. I only saw 2 shrivelled blooms, so I guess it’s petering out for the season. (more…)

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…)

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’ve had myself spread pretty thin this year, so decided to cut back on the number of locations I visit, or at least reduce the frequency. (more…)

Lots of new things blooming at Wild River State Park since the last trip there 2 weeks ago: blue cohosh, early meadow rue, wild blue phlox, carrion flowers, miterwort, buttercups, prairie blue-eyed grass, racemed milkwort, smooth Solomon’s seal, hoary puccoon, and the first prairie phlox of the season. (more…)