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To go directly to a particular locale shown in this gallery, click on its name below:
7. A colony of lizard's tail (Saururus cernuus) in full bloom. Taken in a swamp along the Trail 2 boardwalk. Besides the fact it's a very striking wetlands plant, lizard's tail is interesting to students of plant evolution because it is a "paleoherb" -- a member of a group of primitive flowering plants that gave rise to the more advanced flowering plants known as the eudicots and monocots.
3. If you close your eyes and think of cactus, you probably won't visualize it living in the Midwest. But this species (Opuntia humifusa) is one of the prickly pears that does quite well in the sandy soil of southern Great Lakes shores. This plant was photographed in mid-June on a high, sundrenched dune behind the park's swimming beach.
1. A cluster of pitcher plants (Sarracenia purpurea) at the National Lakeshore's Pinhook Bog, south of Michigan City. These strange and intriguing carnivores grow on a floating mat of sphagnum moss. Some other members of their species nearby are tinted a dark wine-red. Bogs have acid substrates, and the low pH often prevents plants from taking up nutrients, even if those nutrients are actually present in the soil. It's believed that pitcher plants and other carnivorous species trap insects and other small creatures to counteract that deficiency.
2. Another resident of Pinhook Bog, and my personal favorite. It looks like a tuft of fluff glued to a wiry stem. This is the fall fruiting phase of tawny cotton grass (Eriophorum virginicum). Cotton grasses are actually not members of the grass family, but of the related sedge family instead. They are one of the characteristic genera found in peat-lands and other wetland habitats.
INDIANA DUNES NATIONAL LAKESHORE
(LAKE, LAPORTE, & PORTER COUNTIES)
INDIANA DUNES STATE PARK (PORTER COUNTY)
PIONEER MOTHERS MEMORIAL FOREST (ORANGE COUNTY)
MCCORMICK'S CREEK STATE PARK (OWEN COUNTY)
SHADES STATE PARK (FOUNTAIN, MONTGOMERY, & PARKE COUNTIES)
SPRING MILL STATE PARK (LAWRENCE COUNTY)
TURKEY RUN STATE PARK (PARKE COUNTY)
4. Many modern grasses are plants of open spaces, but this striking species, bottlebrush grass (Elymus hystrix) is well adapted to the gloom of forest settings. It's a frequent sight along the original-growth woods traversed by the park's Trail 2.
5. On the fringe of the large marsh, next to the birdwatching overlook, is a group of one of eastern North America's characteristic wetland shrubs, buttonbush (Cephalanthus occidentalis). Its common name refers to the globular inflorescences, borne in July, that comprise many small white flowers exuding a most pleasant, honeylike scent.
6. Another marsh, this one dominated in the foreground by the emergent aquatic plant spatterdock (Nuphar advena). It isn't blooming in this shot, but the spatterdock's broadly heart-shaped leaves, many of which stick up rather than floating on the surface in typical water-lily style, make it a striking plant even when it isn't flowering.
8. A closeup of the foliage and drooping inflorescences of the lizard's tail. In this locale, the species flowers in early to mid-July.
27. A spring ephemeral honoring the illustrious third president of the United States. Twinleaf, Jeffersonia diphylla, has the most unusual leaf form of any woodland wildflower. Here it grows among snow trilliums and other early bloomers at the Old Capitol Quarry site, not far from the park's namesake creek. Note that the two "leaves" at the top of each petiole are actually paired leaflets that together make up one leaf blade.
28. Southern Indiana is a place that seems to have been specifically designed to addict both the botanist and the geologist. This awe-inspiring, original-growth stand of great trees just south of Paoli is part of the much larger Hoosier National Forest. Here, in early spring, dwarf larkspur (Delphinium tricorne) adorns the forest floor .
29. Another eye-catching sight among the leaf litter is Viola pubescens, the downy yellow violet. As with the other spring-ephemeral wildflowers found in deciduous forests, it is specially adapted to flower and set seed before the leafy canopy above fills in and drastically reduces the amount of light available at ground level.
30. Perched on the canyon cliff above the park's Devil's Punchbowl, this evergreen refugee from a colder climate is Canada yew, Taxus canadensis. In modern times it is most widely distributed in the upper Great Lakes area and points northeast. Its representatives here constitute an isolated relict population that ekes out a living in the coolest spots this secluded locale can provide.
31. Ancients among us. This robust colony of the liverwort Marchantia polymorpha grows on a limestone bank on the approach to the park's Donaldson's Cave. What incon-clusive evidence we have suggests that primitive nonvascular plants such as these were among the earliest colonizers of the land, some 500 million years ago. Lacking upright stems, leaves, and true roots, liverworts are most often found where moisture is abundant
32. Another mossy-bank dweller of ancient affinities. Of all the ferns that grace Turkey Run's botanical paradise, none is more curious in aspect than the walking fern, Asplenium rhizophyllum. Its picturesque common name points to the fact that the plant "walks" or spreads by producing exact genetic replicas of itself at the tips of ts slender, pointed fronds. While we members of the Animal Kingdom struggle to learn how to clone ourselves -- whatever the good or bad consequences of that might be -- plants have been doing exactly that for untold millions of years.
9. This botanical curiosity is visible from the Trail 2 boardwalk much earlier in the year. Here a shoot that will be the inflorescence of a skunk cabbage (Symplocarpus foetidus) has melted its way through the ice of the swamp. Field studies indicate that plants of this early-blooming species actually give off heat to help them penetrate their frozen winter mantle.
10. By late spring, the large leaves of the skunk cabbage are one of the most conspicuous features of the swamp. Here, the flowering and fruiting heads of golden ragwort
(Senecio aureus) rise above them.
11. A wetland wildflower of lethal beauty. Water hemlock (Cicuta maculata), one of North America's most poisonous native plants, is quite common in wooded wetland habitats of the Midwest. This species produces the powerful alcohol compound cicutoxin, which produces fatal convulsions in anyone who is foolhardy enough to sample it.
12. In more open areas -- this is the same marsh shown in Photo 6 -- bur reed (Sparangiumandrocladum) grows among the cattails.
13. While the introduced European nettle (Urtica dioica) is a familiar sight in bottomlands and weedy thickets in the eastern U.S., there ia also a native nettle -- Laportea canadensis. This example of the latter can be distinguished from the Old World look-alike by its alternately arranged leaves. However, it has the same nasty armament of leaf-borne hairs, shaped like tiny hypodermic needles, that inject formic acid into the skin of the unwary passerby.
14. A riot of vines on the edge of the Trail 2 swamp. Among them, the woody-stemmed wild grape (Vitis sp.) and the less aggressive herbaceous vine Clematis virginiana, or virgin's bower. They may be less showy than highly hybridized garden clematis selections, but the blooms of virgin's bower add a cheerful note to a mass of dark green summer foliage.
15. This lily-family member is one of the less frequently encountered woodland wildflowers of this region. Known as Indian cucumber root (Medeola virginiana), it grows in the old-growth forest along Trail 2.
16. A closeup of the intricate if delicate flower structure of the Indian cucmber root.
17. Wild leek (Allium tricoccum) is a forest-floor plant with an unusual growth cycle. In early spring, its leaves sprout before the tree canopy above fills in, and by early summer they've wilted away. Then, in midsummer, the leafless inflorescences (flower-bearing structures) sprout and bloom separately.
18. But even more unusual is this parasitic, nonphoto-synthetic plant, shown here in full bloom. It's squawroot, Conopholis americana, which flowers and sets seed without the need for leaves in any season. Oak-tree roots are its host and source of nutrition.
19. Moisture from a passing early-morning shower makes the fronds of these broad beech ferns (Phegopteris hexagonoptera) glisten on the forest floor by Trail 2.
20. In the same locale, another fern, and one thought to have especially ancient affinities. This is the rattlesnake fern, Botrychium virginianum. Note the fertile (spore-bearing) frond rising above the sterile fronds -- which, in this species, are all joined to a common stem.
21. Though the number of their species in temperate woodlands is considerably less than the tally of their herbaceous counterparts,woody plants are just as facinating. Here, in black-oak woodland along Trail 10 is a colony of sassafras (Sassafras albidum). This small tree or shrub has a long history of herbal and medicinal use, however its battery of secondary chemical compounds includes safrole, a substance said to be carcinogenic.
22. A closer look at the trimorphic foliage of sassafras: look for three-lobed, two-lobed, and unlobed leaves.
23. Another characteristic woody plant of the woodland understory in the Indiana Dunes area is pawpaw (Asimina triloba). Its large leaves with entire margins and drip tips is one indication that this species belongs to a family that is mostly tropical in its affinities.
24. It's not a plant, of course, but it's just as fascinating -- and it's a colorful resident of the mossy surface of the swamp bisected by the Park's Trail 2 boardwalk. This species is most likely Russula silvicola. Its close relative, R. emetica, prefers sphagnum bogs and is nicknamed "the sickener" because, as its taxonomic name indicates, it is a powerful emetic that triggers vomiting.
25. One of the most immediately noticeable mushrooms in the park's black-oak woodland: the cinnabar chanterelle, Cantharellus cinnabarinus.
26. It may not look appetizing to the uninitiated, but Grifola frondosa, or hen of the woods, is sought after as a edible fungus by mushroom collectors. This specimen may be a little too venerable, however, to be considered "choice." The pen provides scale.
Would you like to learn more about the plant communities and ecology of this diverse and fascinating state? Check out my Courses, Tours, and Lectures Pages for educational events focused on the botany of Indiana.
