June 24, 2025
Author: Phyllis Root
Photographer: Kelly Povo
Today is the official beginning of our Keweenaw Plant I.D. Workshop, and we’re eager to learn all we can. The workshop is packed with information on plants of the Keweenaw Peninsula as we hike through a coniferous forest, along a bog boardwalk, and down to a beaver pond. Many of the flowers we see along the trails are familiar to us from Minnesota’s woods and rocky shores– three-toothed cinquefoil, gaywings, twinflower more deeply pink than we’ve ever seen it –but there are surprises as well. We come across another population of giant rattlesnake plantain (the only one of the four species of rattlesnake plantain orchid that doesn’t grow in Minnesota), and we also spot spotted coralroot, bringing our total of orchids seen so far this trip to twelve.
The day’s workshop ends with a stop to see the bright yellow composite flowers and perfoliate leaves of heart-leaved arnica, a new-to-us species that doesn’t grow in Minnesota. The class ends for the day, but we aren’t quite ready yet to quit chasing flowers, and daylight lingers long this far north and so soon after solstice. So Kelly and I drive to an old mining site where she’s seen striped coralroot on a previous visit. Despite diligent searching in the oak woods next to the site we don’t find the coralroot. What we do find are the leaves and buds of numerous elliptical shinleaf plants and many, many parasitic American cancer- root plants spookily poking out of the ground like yellowish pine cones, another new-to-us plant.
After a long and flower-filled day we return to our motel. The lake lies silvery calm outside our window, and fall asleep wondering what amazing finds tomorrow might bring.
wow- these are so beautiful and amazing. i tried to find gaywings last week at a site where it was last year, but did not see it. enjoy the plant i/d workshop!