The Bruce Peninsula Part IV: Roadside Plants & Critters

 *Part I* *Part II* *Part III* *Part IV* *Part V* *Part VI* *Part VII*

I'm back and ready to march on with my seven part series on the wild and wonderful Bruce peninsula. However, this time around I'd like to do something a bit different. Instead of focusing on a specific place and exploring its depth, I'd like to share the plethora of plant and animal life one can come across by sticking to the roads. As I've mentioned in previous posts, the Bruce is largely an untamed wilderness that's comprised of national park land and nature reserves, and thus quite conducive to high diversity. Roadside botanizing can produce great results and many times one doesn't have to walk much further than a few meters to see dozens and dozens of wildflowers in the spring time.

So with that being said, I'd like to start things off and share some of my favorite wildflowers and critters my group and I came across during our week there in early June. Each photo will be accompanied by a little information but the pictures will definitely do most of the talking!

Incredible wildflower display at Cabot Head

The rule is usually to save the best for last but I thought I'd try and grab everyone's attentions right away with the phenomenal wildflower display at Cabot Head. The open meadows are completely covered in a primary color explosion come early June. Scarlet paintbrush (Castilleja coccinea), balsam squaw-weed (Packera paupercula), and northern blue-eyed grass (Sisyrinchium montanum) all pop off the landscape unlike anything I'd seen before or since.

Starflower (Trientalis borealis)

Canada Mayflower (Maianthemum canadense)

Two common spring-blooming flowers that occur throughout the Bruce's cool, shaded coniferous forests are the starflower (Trientalis borealis) and Canada mayflower (Maianthemum candense). Both occur in Ohio, too, but they are done flowering by the time they get going this far north. Botanizing up here is like a literal time machine in the spring!

Wild Prickly Rose (Rosa acicularis) 

Some wildflowers only look attractive; others are better suited to be enjoyed with your olfactories. Then there's the ones that are a two-for-one and treat both senses well like the wild prickly rose (Rosa acicularis). This northern species can often be smelled before it's seen, although it would be pretty difficult to not immediately see their bright pink blossoms.

Male Fern (Dryopteris filix-mas)

Male Fern (Dryopteris filix-mas)

An intriguing member of the Bruce's roadside flora is the rare male fern (Dryopteris filix-mas). Like many other odd species in the Great Lakes region, the male fern is a disjunct occurrence this far east. It's much more widespread and common out West but only grows in a few scattered locations this far east. Male fern was one of the dozens of life plants I had the pleasure of making acquaintances with while up there and was a surprise find!

Wood Lily (Lilium philadelphicum)

If ferns aren't exactly your thing and not aesthetically appealing enough to make you want to visit the Bruce then I think I have you covered with the gorgeous wood lily (Lilium philadelphicum). Come mid-June the dry, gravelly roadsides and other open areas explode in fire orange as the lilies open their tepal (petals and sepals that look identical) perfection. Wood lilies are excruciatingly rare in Ohio and I easily saw more along a mile of roadside on the Bruce than still exists in the entire state. That's a sight I never, ever got tired of!

Showy Lady's Slipper (Cypripedium reginae) 

Yet another stunning wildflower to be found in select spots along the Bruce's roadsides is the stately showy or queen's lady's slipper (Cypripedium reginae). They bloom in the second half of June and weren't ready to show off during our 2015 visit but we did find several spots getting ready to bloom. The photo here was from my 2011 trip. 

Large Yellow Lady's Slippers (Cypripedium pubescens)

Northern Small Yellow Lady's Slippers (Cypripedium parviflorum var. makasin)

The Bruce is an orchid wonderland and not a single post during this long series will be bereft of their beauty. I wish I had a photo to really show off exactly how common and dense the yellow lady's slippers are along the roadsides in many spots but even then it wouldn't do much to beat seeing them in person. Both the large and northern small yellow lady's slippers (Cypripedium pubescens & C. parviflorum var. makasin) occur and can often times form extensive hybrid swarms of integrating plants, making true identification one way or the other nigh on impossible.

Female Ruffed Grouse with her chicks, sadly not seen in photo

One of my favorite roadside happenings was seeing a gorgeous female ruffed grouse perched on a log not more than ten feet off the road. She stayed completely still for a long while and allowed for some photos to be taken. It was easily the best, and really only time I've seen this bird up close. Most times they're exploding at/near my feet and about giving me a heart attack. My friends, Paul Marcum and his wife Jean Mengelkoch were in the car behind mine and later informed me she had a line of chicks with her! A shame I didn't have the angle to see them...

Fire Cherry (Prunus pensylvanica)

Prickly Currant (Ribes lacustre)

A couple neat woody plants exhibiting their pretty flowers during our stay were the fire cherry (Prunus pensylvanica) and prickly currant (Ribes lacustre). I'd seen fire cherry a handful of times before when botanizing up north but the prickly currant was a new life plant for me and curiously growing literally right beside our cabin. Nice to find a lifer without much effort!

Limber Honeysuckle (Lonicera dioica)

One of the best parts of the Bruce is the fact that invasive species, while present are fewer and farther between and not nearly the issue they are down home's way. While honeysuckle is largely heard as an evil name in Ohio, the Bruce is home to a handful of indigenous honeysuckle vines/shrubs like the limber honeysuckle (Lonicera dioica) featured here. It occurs all over the place in large, dense tangles and was in picture perfect flower.

American Fly Honeysuckle (Lonicera canadensis)

Swamp Fly Honeysuckle (Lonicera oblongifolia)

A couple more native honeysuckles I was fortunate enough to see while on the Bruce was swamp fly honeysuckle (L. oblongifolia) and American fly honeysuckle (L. canadensis). Both are more shrubby in form and have exquisite blossoms. Interestingly, the American fly honeysuckle (odd it's commonly called American with the epithet meaning 'of Canada') was just barely still in flower at the beginning of my trip; the the swamp fly honeysuckle just barely starting to bloom on my last day. It felt like I timed it just right to get both on my list!

Black bear out foraging in a meadow

One of the best critter sightings of the trip was a large black bear foraging in a meadow off the road. Black bears are a common occurrence throughout the Bruce but I'd yet to lay eyes on one in the flesh. This fella was a few hundred yards away and my zoom lens was able to get a decent shot or two. Hilariously, my friend Rob decided to do his best moose call impression and got the bear to stand up on its back legs and look back our way a few times!

Federally Threatened Dwarf Lake Iris (Iris lacustris)

Federally Threatened Dwarf Lake Iris (Iris lacustris)

No tribute to the region's best roadside botany would be complete without mention of the federally threatened dwarf lake iris (Iris lacustris). I went into more detail about this globally rare wonder in my earlier post on the Singing Sands but its splendor was more than worth sharing again! I tossed in an iPhone photo with my hand in the frame to give you a grasp on just how dainty these irises are.

A splendid wetland complex full of awesome flora

Wetlands dot the landscape throughout the northern half of the peninsula and just about every one of them is worth taking the time to explore. One particular boggy pond near our cabin was full of exciting plants, including a mass of one in perfect flower I almost never get to see.

Bog Buckbean (Menyanthes trifoliata)

Bog Buckbean (Menyanthes trifoliata)

The bog buckbean (Menyanthes trifoliata) isn't a rare plant to come across while up in the northern Great Lakes by any stretch but finding it blooming en masse can be a fickle task. One edge of the pond was covered in the stuff and a wonderful chance to enjoy their unique flowers adorned with hair-like fringing. The pseudo-bottom of the pond was covered in a thick mat of dead, sunken vegetation that could just barely hold my weight and keep the waterline below my boots. One wrong step could, and did a time or two send my leg plunging deeper down and soaking me thoroughly. Well worth it to see such a wonderful wildflower!

Bunchberry (Cornus canadensis)

Perhaps my favorite plant of all to be found in the northern woods is the bunchberry (Cornus canadensis). This member of the dogwood genus is a small trailing vine/shrub that produces stunning flowering dogwood-like bracts and flower clusters each spring but at your feet instead of above your head. The Bruce is covered with the stuff and I never, ever got tired of seeing it.

Flat-leaved Bladderwort (Utricularis intermedia)

Northern Pitcher Plant (Sarracenia purpurea var. purpurea)

Even the roadside wet ditches can be a botanical treasure trove up on the Bruce. In the more secluded back roads it wasn't uncommon to see long stretches of ditch covered in a medley of carnivorous plants such as the northern pitcher plant (Sarracenia purpurea var. purpurea) and flat-leaved bladderwort (Utricularia intermedia). If only home's roadside ditches could be this cool, eh?

Wild Columbine (Aquilegia canadensis)

The large patches of wild columbine (Aquilegia canadensis) were impossible to miss with their ruby red flowers quivering in the cool breezes. Not too shabby a place when your roadside 'weeds' are gobs of columbines!

Blanding's Turtle!

Blanding's Turtle!

Hands down my favorite wildlife sighting during our Bruce trip was also our most serendipitous find. While cruising over to the Cabot Head region along the Georgian Bay we happened across this Blanding's turtle trying to cross the road. I'd never seen one before but instantly recognized it by its distinct yellow markings. As it turns out, Blanding's turtles are quite rare in Ontario, as they are in Ohio and listed as a threatened species. Rob turned in an electronic record for our sighting in the Ontario database and was shocked to see this was only the second or third recorded sighting of a Blanding's turtle on the Bruce in the last 20 years! Hopefully that's just folks being lazy and not turning in their data and they're more common than that. Regardless, it was so awesome to spend time with this increasingly rare but always beautiful reptilian critter.

Red Thimbleweed (Anenome multifida)

Yet another example of the Great Lakes playing home to disjunct western plants is the red thimbleweed (Anenome multifida). I had hopes to find some and managed to luck out on a single flowering plant along the road. The sun was bright and the wind constantly blowing so I only managed a quick iPhone photo and figured I'd come back with my camera for a better chance later in the day...only to come back to the petals fallen! Quite the ephemeral flower, I'd say. Even so, it was another check next to a life plant on my list! The magic of the Bruce continues.

Rough-leaved Ricegrass (Oryzopsis asperifolia)

Sweet Grass (Hierochloe odorata)

I'll cap off this long blog of Bruce roadside botany with a pair of grasses to please my inner grami-nerd'ness. The rough-leaved ricegrass (Oryzopsis asperifolia) won't win any awards for its looks but as a critically endangered species back home in Ohio and a life plant, I was ecstatic to find some! On the other hand, sweet grass (Hierochloe odorata) isn't nearly as rare in Ohio but is restricted to higher-quality fens and wet meadows. Always nice to see and get a whiff of its sweet aroma!

I hope everyone enjoyed this look at but a small sampling of the pretty, rare, unusual, exciting etc. plants one might find along the Bruce's roadsides in spring. I also hope you're enjoying this series as it hits its mid point! I have three more posts to go and think the best is yet to come. So check back soon for more on the wild and wonderful Bruce peninsula!

- ALG -

Adams County's Not So Barren Barrens

There's few other habitats in our state that can make a botanist's ears perk up at their very mentioning quite like the barrens of Adams county.  These prairies and their intricate plant assemblages sit atop some of Ohio's oldest exposed bedrock and predate any of our state's other grassland habitats by a huge margin thanks to lying just beyond the reach of the last two glacial maximums.  This combined effort of the glacier's northern influence, the expansion of the West's tall grass prairies and the migration of southern flora from across the Ohio River collided into a melting pot of diversity and globally rare habitat.

Hanging prairie in Adams County

These specialized barrens also go by the name of cedar glades for their open, rocky, bare-soiled conditions accompanied by a scattering of stunted trees, typically red cedar (Juniperus virginiana).  Adams county's glades come in all shapes, sizes, and plant compositions with many shared attributes between them but no two exactly the same.  Even wandering a hundred yards through the woods between openings can result in two distinctly different flavors and communities if one is savvy in the local flora and has an eye for all things botanical.

Rattlesnake master growing in a xeric barrens opening of Adams county

Despite such a presumptuous title, these barrens are anything but when summer's warmer temperatures and long bouts of sunlight arrive and result in a spectacular explosion of wildflowers.  Many of the plants you're likely to make acquaintances with during a hike are not to be found many, if any other places in the entire state and combine to make Adams county have more rare species than just about any other county.  I believe only Lucas county in the Oak Openings region near Toledo can claim more.

Wood Lily (Lilium philadelphicum)

Wood Lily (Lilium philadelphicum)

One of the most rare of summer's wildflowers to be found in the barrens of Adams county is the enchanting wood lily (Lilium philadelphicum var. andinum).  The fire orange/red glow of these state endangered June blooming beauties are only known to inhabit a select few prairie openings anymore and with proper management will hopefully continue to light up their shade dappled margins for years to come.

Famed Lynx Prairie in mid July

Walking through these islands of rock and dirt with the crunch of desiccating vegetation and dolomite limestone gravel under boot, one can't help but wonder how such a lush array of vegetation can thrive, let alone survive in such a harsh environment.  Countless millennia of evolution and adaptation to this specific habitat niche has assuredly been the key but it's still hard to grasp just how resilient and tenacious life is in all its forms.

Short Green Milkweed (Asclepias viridiflora)

Scaly Blazing Star (Liatris squarrosa)

Resiliency truly is the name of the game for these prairie plants.  They have to endure harsh heat, drought, and sun exposure all while expending an immense portion of their energy reserves to flower and (hopefully) set to seed. Many prairie obligate species have come to battle such intense conditions by having coriaceous (rough, leathery) leaves like the short green milkweed (Asclepias viridiflora) or very hairy leaves/stems like the scaly blazing star (Liatris squarrosa) which help prevent water loss.

American Bluehearts in situ

American Blueheart (Buchnera americana)

Of the nearly one hundred rare plants to call Adams county home, the delicate American bluehearts (Buchnera americana) may be my favorite of them all.  Years ago when I was just beginning to get into botany and dissect these barrens, I came across their purplish-blue flowers and for one reason or another was overly impressed by them and the charm has yet to wear off even after numerous meetings.

Juniper Hairstreak on Rattlesnake Master

Ohio has over 130 native species of butterfly in the state and much like the aforementioned bluehearts wildflower, you'd be hard pressed to find me a more captivating taxon than the juniper hairstreak (Callophrys gryneus).  They are tiny, skittish, and absolutely adorable when you can get a good look at the undersides of their wings.  As you may have guessed their host plant is the locally abundant red cedar and as such are a common sight out in the glades and barrens.

Lynx Prairie 

Profusion of Prairie Orange Coneflower

It's widely accepted that these precious ecosystem's current day existence is due to the burning regimes of the indigenous cultures as well as the geology and bedrock of the area.  This landscape has had eons of weathering and erosion occur without the replenishing effect of the glacier's till and sediment load.  Additionally, the region sits on the edge of the Appalachian Escarpment, bringing about a steep step in the land which helped create the region's exciting geologic formations.  All these factors have helped the prairies and barrens remain open and intact for tens of thousands of years.  The large expanses of exposed bedrock and thin soils take a forest a lot more time to encroach and envelope than Ohio's more traditional tall grass prairies over deep, rich till.

Carolina Buckthorn (Frangula caroliniana)

Fragrant Sumac (Rhus aromatica)

It's not just the wildflowers that set summer ablaze in color but the early-ripening fruits as well.  Locally common small trees and shrubs such as the Carolina buckthorn (Frangula caroliniana), a native and welcome buckthorn, and fragrant sumac (Rhus aromatica) are hard to miss when their branches are laden with their scarlet fruit.

Crested Coralroot (Hexalectris spicata)

On the less conspicuous side is perhaps the Bluegrass region's most peculiar summer wildflower in the crested coralroot (Hexalectris spicata).  This saprophytic orchid lives almost its entire life cycle underground and only surfaces to send up its flowering stalk maybe a few times per decade.  The crested coralroot relies entirely upon mycorrhizal fungi in the soil for nourishment as it completely lacks any chlorophyll and cannot photosynthesize, hence the lack of any green color or leaves.

Great Spangled Fritillary on Purple Coneflower

Black Swallowtail

In addition to the previously shown juniper hairstreak, dozens upon dozens of other butterflies occur in excellent numbers with such a wide variety of host plants available.  The slower you walk and the more vigilant your eyes are, the more you're likely to encounter.  Even when out hiking people seem to be in too big a hurry to slow down and enjoy the simple pleasures and complex cycles nature is exhibiting right under their noses.

Adams Lake Prairie State Nature Preserve

Gazing out across the larger xeric dolomite barrens of Adams county, it can be hard to appreciate just how much differentiation and specific organization there is in each one.  Even subtle changes in the topography result in different drainage patterns and moisture gradients which allow for a diversification of plant species assemblages.

massive Allegheny mound ant mounds with clipboard for scale

Adams county's barrens and cedar glade's most unmistakable non-botanical residents are hands down the Allegheny mound ants.  These prolific builders create some of the largest earthen mound ant nests on the continent, which can reach upwards of four feet tall.  I have no idea how old or how long it took for the nests photographed to reach such a size but needless to say the phrase "Rome wasn't built in a day" applies here!  It seems to be a bit of a crap shoot which barrens or cedar glades has these ants and which ones don't, as I've yet to notice or catch on to any pattern.

Post Oak (Quercus stellata)

Blackjack Oak (Quercus marilandica)

Some prairies might be better described as oak barrens for the prevalence of species such as post oak (Quercus stellata) and the rare blackjack oak (Q. marilandica) rather than red cedars.  Unlike the bur, white, and post oaks out on the prairies of the till plains, the post and blackjacks of the barrens never get very big no matter their age; undoubtedly due to the harsh and restrictive growing conditions.

Climbing Milkweed (Matelea obliqua)

Downy Milk Pea (Galactia volubilis)

Weird and unusual plants are in no short supply with species like the climbing milkweed (Matelea obliqua).  Its flowers are reminiscent of the true milkweeds (Asclepias spp.) but with a strong dose of gamma radiation thrown in for mutative purposes.  The rare downy milk pea (Galactia volubilis) isn't particularly unusual as it is obscure. Its tiny pink flowers appear later in the summer on its trailing vine-like stems.

State-threatened wall-rue fern (Asplenium ruta-muraria)

Adams county's specialized geology and exposed dolomite limestone bedrock has a great deal to do with the plant life that occurs within the region.  Many calcareous and lime-loving epilithic species such as the state-threatened wall rue fern (Asplenium ruta-muraria) grow on suitable rock faces and boulders.

Tall Larkspur (Delphinium exaltatum)

I could easily go on forever sharing the floral wonders of these richly diverse natural treasures and have probably already gabbed for too long so I'll end it with one more of my favorite summer barrens bloomers.  Tall larkspur (Delphinium exaltatum) is one of the region's most regal prairie bloomer during summer's peak.  It's quite rare throughout the entirety of its largely Appalachian range and despite being arguably almost a weed in some select sites just a wee bit north of the Ohio River, tall larkspur has never been known or recorded from Kentucky.  Hard to believe it hasn't popped up somewhere in Kentucky's river county's similar limestone barrens and woods.

I unfortunately had very little time this past summer to get down and immerse myself is these beloved places and missed out on a lot of my favorite and most anxiously anticipated wildflower events.  That being said it was fun to reminisce and vicariously experience a whole summer of bloomers on this post from summers past to pass for the experience this season.  There's always next year right?