This report is written by Lorraine Anderson (lorraine@bwca.cc). She is part of a group of three seniors that have been looking at wildflowers in Cook County, Minnesota. They have gone out almost every Wednesday for over 20 years and love it, even in the winter. But of course there aren't any flowers in the winter!!

It was a beautiful day. Marsh Marigolds were the flower of the day. They are so bright and cheerful. We went up the Sugar Loaf Road. to "The Sanctuary". We were a bit early this year but enjoyed what we saw. From there we went to the Cramer Road. and hiked a bit on the Superior Hiking Trail. Not too many flowers so we turned back and ate lunch sitting on big rocks in the parking lot. From there we went to the Two Island rd. which was mostly a maple woods, in fact most of the flowers we saw today were in maple woods. We saw the beginnings of Trout Lilies and many patches of Bloodroot. Then to #166 (600 rd.) - Sawbill Trail - Honeymoon Trail - Caribou Trail.
We saw our first Juneberry bush blooming. We just learned an easy way to tell the difference between the Juneberry and Pin Cherry is that the petals on the Juneberry are longer than they are wide and the Pin Cherry is the same length and width.

Flowers we found Blooming:

Anemone, Wood - Anemone quinquefolia
Bellwort, Large-flowered - Uvularia grandiflora
Bloodroot - Sanguinaria canadensis
Coltsfoot, Early - Petasites palmatus
Dandelion, Common - Taraxacum officinale
Dutchman's-breeches - Dicentra cucullaria
Lily, Trout - Erythroniym americanum
Marigold, Marsh - Cowslip - Caltha palustris
Mertensia ( Bluebells ) - Mertensia paniculata
Spring Beauty - Clatonia caroliniana
Strawberry, Common - Fragaria virginiana
Violet, Purple - Yellow - White

Trees & Shrubs we found Blooming:

Currant, Skunk - Ribes glandulosum
Gooseberry - Ribes
Juneberry - Amelanchier
Maple, Red - Acer rubrum