North Shore Naturalist

You never know what you might find when you get tired of driving and need to meander for a little bit. On the drive up to Duluth, after filling up with gas that’s just what I had to do. The area I found was rich in blackberries with a great variety of species. Not surprising with the patchy aspen forest opening up to some peaty wetlands and slightly drier grassy areas. What was surprising is the species growing in this habitat. Big horseshoe lake bristleberry is a state endangered, globally imperiled species. It is endemic to the upper Midwest; Minnesota, Iowa, and Wisconsin specifically. Minnesota is the stronghold of its population where it is only known from a handful of counties, mostly in the Anoka sandplain. It was likely always quite rare, but development in this highly urbanized area has been and continues to be the main threat to this species. Along with the draining of wetlands and introduction of invasive species that often is associated with urbanization. Around the cities ...

For a little over a year lichens have been a predominant focus while I’m out exploring. This is largely based on the landscape. That’s just the thing to do on the North Shore. Between cliffs and talus, rivers, cedar/black ash swamps, shore line, pine forests, maple forests, etc. there is a tremendous amount of high quality habitat home to a great diversity of species. While there certainly are some fascinating species in the cities and surrounding area, it just isn’t the same.  So if not lichens what next? The brambles (blackberries and raspberries) in the genus Rubus are the top candidate for a new focus for now. Just as the North Shore is the place to lichenize, the Anoka Sandplain is  the place to brambulate? Rubus has 33 species and 2 hybrids native in Minnesota, by far the most diverse woody plant genus. Compare that to the willows which only has about 18 species and a handful of nonnative species (they readily hybridize so who could say how many of those are sitting arou...

Another contender for the coveted title of Minnesota’s rarest plant is northern paintbrush. It is a rare, disjunct alpine species. Its documented history is similar to other rare species of the area. First noted in 1891 at one location, it was then “lost” for nearly 100 years, until botanical surveys in the 1990s located two more small populations. To date that’s it, three extremely small locations. Unlike similar rare species which prefer crevices in the bedrock, this species favors cobble beaches. At least at this location. The nearby island The beach habitat of northern paintbrush Northern paintbrush (Castilleja septentrionalis) State Endangered Species They grow in decent sized clumps The shrubs and forbs do a good job of hiding them I first observed this species back on May 18. At the time it was just starting to emerge. Distinguishing features when not in flower include a square stem and slightly hair leaves. The photos below convinced me my ID was correct, but coming back and se...