Early spring along the southern shore of Lake Michigan can be cool and rainy well into June. Leaves typically don’t start appearing on trees, and early wildflowers remain dormant until mid April or so. Just a couple miles away from the lake however, it can be a completely different story with noticeably warmer temperatures and everything greening up much sooner. This effect was quite apparent last weekend when I hit the Heron Rookery trail (~3.5 miles from the lake) and the Miller Woods trail (right next to the lake) within a day of each other.
At the Heron Rookery there was fresh vibrant green everywhere you looked. The tree canopy will not completely fill in for another couple weeks, giving early spring ephemerals an opportunity to bloom.
By contrast, at Miller Woods most of the greenery was associated with early shrubs. Trees were just beginning to show their first leaves and the grasses and underbrush is still mostly dormant. In about 3 weeks this scene will look completely different.
The first ephemerals to appear are mostly white and yellow in color. Apparently this is because they are preferentially pollenated by flys which are colorblind and hence are attracted to flowers which stand out via their brightness. The more colorful blue and red flowers tend to be pollenated by bees which select based on color. Flys become active a few weeks before Bees, which influences which type of flower appears earliest. Bloodroot, Great White Trillium and False Rue Anemone pretty much carpeted the whole forrest floor at the Heron Rookery.
White flowers were also starting to make an appearance at Miller Woods, but they were still few and far between at this time.
At the Heron Rookery Common Blue Violets were just beginning to pop, adding a nice flash of color to the landscape.
Violets such as this Bird’s Foot Violet were making an appearance out at Miller Woods, but the surrounding vegetation was considerably more sparse.