natemartineau's Favorites

Blue version
A blue to white, 5-7-parted, 1" to 2" wide, cup-shaped flower.
Plant height is 4" to 16" tall.
Native.

Like a dry to moderate moisture habitat in sandy soil, in part shade to sun.
Blooms Mar - May

Edit: This appears to be Huperzia ×buttersii [lucidula × selago]. The H. selago sensu stricto is scattered among the much more common hybrids.

Microphylls ascending and widest at the base. Weak annual restrictions, and gemme in whorls. 65 stomates on the adaxial surface of microphyll. Stomata are present on both adaxial and abaxial surfaces. Microphylls are hollow at the base.

Photos 1-8 in situ
Photo 9 abaxial side of microphyll
Photo 10 adaxial side of microphyll
Photo 11 microphylla in profile
Photo 12 sporangia

Very disjunct. Comments welcome.

Amazing. I was looking back through my photos for things I'd never submitted and came across this from dolomite cliffs in Marquette County. I had very little idea what I was doing 5 years ago so I'm glad I saw fit to photograph this random fern. ID is a little tentative due to picture quality but I feel pretty good about it. This would make this site the only place with all four of Michigan's Woodsia species!

I wondered if the last two photos might be Cystopteris, but they were taken within 6 seconds of the first - and a little bit of detective work (comparing dead pinnules) shows that the fern in the first pic is the frond in the center closest to my hand in the second pic. Most Cystopteris are a little more beat up by the end of August, at least on relatively exposed south-facing cliffs like this one.

Some other ID features: Looks like a Cystopteris but has conspicuous glandular hairs on the rachis and a rather toothier look. Far larger than typical Woodsia oregana, or any other Woodsia for that matter, and much more glandular than the W. oregana at this site. Plus, the first picture shows wide scales near the base and what appear to be small multicellular scales on the rachis about 2/3 up the blade. Hairs shorter and whiter than Woodsia ilvensis; it's hard to tell but it seems to also lack the cluster of snapped-off stalks at the base and instead has old dead fronds hanging around.

Observed scattered individuals between two sites around large lawn area around Devil's Island lighthouse. Sporophore consistently had compound branching and ranged from 1-3" tall; pale green tropophore was stalked and stem below point of attachment on trophophore stalk was short (~1cm). Pinnae varied from 1 pair + terminal lobe to 4 pair + terminal lobe. Botrychium simplex collected here in 1991 by Emmet Judziewicz. I've added multiple photos to show variation in individuals.

Unknown from Illinois, but the habitat (exposed limestone cliff edge) matches where it occurs in Tennessee. Further investigation to commence when it's actively growing. The awns are widely spaced, but the awns not as long as Elymus hystrix, and most awns are somewhat bent.

This could just be Elymus histrix though, so I'll definitely have to double check it in June.

I think this is the new westernmost record (after finding it in Baraga County last season)
Only noted on one hummock, C. trisperma otherwise occupying the same microhabitat elsewhere
specimen for U of M

specimen 0094, MICH

This is a population of Parnassia palustris that I have been watching for several years. Population seems to be increasing slightly and I found another small population in a nearby abandoned barrow pit.

There is NO WAY I have seen two Small-billed Elaenia in NE IL already... no way, WAY. Last photo was from original social media post made by Susan, who found the bird Saturday morning.

https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/4277518

FIELD MARKS FAVORING SMALL-BILLED: Rounded head, grayish overall coloration, messy string of white wing bars, lesser covert wing bar extremely faint and at most times invisible, white bases of secondaries, very few white crown feathers visible when fluffed up and preening, white reaching from the primary fringes to the lower wing bar. Alvaro Jaramillo's video differentiating Small-billed v.s. Chilean was incredibly helpful both in the field and at home while writing up description. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B5SAAu5iNi0)

Old township cemetery in the middle of ag country with hundreds of these orchids blooming. Absolutely incredible. Tons of Sceptridium dissectum var. obliquum (and rarely var. dissectum) intermixed with the orchids as well.

Continuing hybrid Clay-coloured x Field Sparrow. More details found here: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/86905201

It was singing a song reminiscent of the first half of a FISP song, and it was also singing a CCSP. At times it sang a song with started like FISP and finished with low buzzes like CCSP.

First collection of Corispermum hookeri for Michigan and the Lower 48. In mostly bare sand with Ammophila breviligulata, Cirsium pitcheri, Tanacetum bipinnatum subsp. huronensis, Salix cordata, Salix interior, and Artemisia campestris. Locally common and probably more widespread immediately to the east. Specimens at University of Michigan Herbarium.

Rare; only 7 individuals seen. Growing on a degraded sloped sand prairie above a coastal plain marsh in a topographical depression. Evidently a new population for this state-endangered plant. Centaurea stoebe, Mollugo verticillata, Berteroa incana, Elymus repens, Panicum spp., Dichanthelium spp, Andropogon virginicus, Tephrosia virginiana, Ambrosia artemisiifolia. Habitat heavily disturbed by ORV use.