Minnesota at the Canadian Border

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Plant Travels and Excursions

I was at my sister's near Ely, Minnesota and 7 miles south of Canada.
Nothing that special, but pretty typical for the area:

Much of the habitat is basalt outcrops, sometimes with a complete canopy, sometimes not. Somehow this White pine escaped the clear cut logging that swept through the area about 90 years ago.

Typical fracturing of the lichen civered basalt

Cladonia sp. (Reindeer moss) and Aquilegia canadensis spent seed pod

Antennaria parlinii subsp. fallax and another Antennaria sp. only 10 ft. away.

Campanula rotundifolia (Harebell) and habitat. In the center of the second photo is a white one. The first wild one I have ever seen.

Comments

Richard T. Rodich's picture

Richard T. Rodich

Fri, 07/20/2012 - 11:29pm

Large Leaf aster (Eurybia (Aster) macrophylla) almost never blooms here, so the flowers were actually a treat. Then I came across the area shown in the third photo, and I was flabbergasted!  Has anyone else had such a proliferation in your part of the country?
         
               

Dianthus armeria (Deptford pink), introduced from Eurasia, has made its way here, too.  With Bracken fern and more Large Leaf aster:
       

Trond Hoy's picture

Trond Hoy

Sat, 07/21/2012 - 1:34pm

This place look somewhat familiar but alien at the same time! Very interesting.

I have the large leaf aster in my garden and it is a shy bloomer too. Do you think it is different clones with more flowers?
Although albino harebells are rare I have seen a few. The colour normally is very variable  - from light to dark blue.

cohan's picture

cohan (not verified)

Sat, 07/21/2012 - 7:17pm

Interesting to see this place, Rick; First off, I'm always jealous of anywhere with exposed rock..lol
No Eurybia macrophylla here; our largest aster is (without looking it up) E conspicua, which can form large colonies here, as do many of our other asters, though really no plant here grows as exclusively as your patch there, and blooms quite generously..
Googling macrophylla, there are some shots of heavily blooming clumps..

I've heard of white C rotundifolia, but for all our bazillion plants around here, never seen a white one... there is some variation, but it is very subtle- slightly paler or darker or pinker, and some nice shape variations, but nothing you'd really notice until you were looking closely..

Richard T. Rodich's picture

Richard T. Rodich

Sat, 07/21/2012 - 7:23pm
Hoy wrote:

I have the large leaf aster in my garden and it is a shy bloomer too. Do you think it is different clones with more flowers?

I don't know.  I hadn't time to check out other areas, as the purpose of this trip was not botanical  :'(