Pure MICHIGAN!

That is Michigan's tourism slogan.  It's pretty applicable to the west coast of Michigan.  Their commercials are very successful in making you think that Michigan is a problem-free paradise.  For the most part, that is what I experienced on my little 3-day jaunt to SW Michigan for some intense R&R.  They almost had me convinced that Michigan is not in dire financial straits and does not have a seriously scary right-wing militia up north.  Almost. 

The base camp was Elizabeth's parents' beach house in South Haven.  I think originally, the vacation was supposed to have a larger cast of characters than just the two of us and her parents, but it turned out great, because we could turn the entire trip into a botany outing without feeling like we were boring the bejeezus out of everyone else.  This beach house has the distinct advantage of being tucked in between the lake and a protected forested wetland area that makes up part of the rear dunes--a no-no for conservation purposes, obviously, but great for convenience purposes.  We spent a few hours exploring the sandy, acidic woods behind the house; in normal years, this place would be a boggy, buggy mess, but this summer nary a drop of surface water was to be seen.  Botanically, it was the best place I've ever seen that's not an official preserve of some kind.  It's just some random patch of woods that all the rich neighbors are probably too scared to set foot in.  Check out all this stuff we found:

 Bartonia virginica, screwstem!  You know when you find something as sparse and boring-looking as this, it has to be good.  Swink & Wilhelm give it a C=10 (very habitat-picky, for all you non-botanists [and congratulations for making it this far, if that applies to you], and even though we were one county away from the technical Chicago Region as defined by S&W, we're going to overlook that).

 Carex crinita!  Not terribly uncommon, but very handsome, no?  Look at those green awns!

 Carex debilis rudgei!  We only found a few individuals.

 Carex intumescens!  This is one of my favorites of the trip.  Like Carex grayi, but stretched out and more graceful.

 Carex lurida!  The aptly-named bottlebrush sedge.

 Carex swanii!  Finally got me a photo.  What a schizophrenic species.  It likes open wet prairies, and sandy boggy woods.  It's endearingly fuzzy and cute in both places. 

 We Chicago residents don't get to see this one a whole lot--American beech.  (Any readers from the East are yawning at this point.)

 The strangely named marsh purslane, Ludwigia palustris.  It ain't a purslane.  But just look at those handsome little four-sided flowers!

 Running club moss.  It's endangered in Illinois, but apparently not such a big deal in Michigan.  And it's a little blurry.  So sue me, it refused to situate itself in good lighting conditions.

 Trailing club moss.  If someone could tell me why it's trailing, I would appreciate it.

 We're pretty sure this is Lycopus rubellus.  The key for Lycopuses (Lycopi?) is unnecessarily difficult.  It was hanging out all around the bases of trees in the middle of the swampy woods...or again, what would be swampy in a normal year.

Rubus hispidus--swamp dewberry.  It's not out of focus; I'm trying to show you the hispid-ness of the stem.  Quit your whining.

And the grand finale--AMERICAN CHESTNUT!!!  For the uninformed, this tree used to be a major component of the Eastern forest canopy until the chestnut blight wiped it out early in the 1900s.  It now exists in a few isolated pockets, and as little shrubby stumps that are too small for the blight to infect.  We found TWO double-trunked adult trees (sadly, both of which looked like they are a little worse for the wear) hanging out nonchalantly at the crests of the rear dunes.  Who knows how they got there.

And they're producing seeds!!!

And we found a little seedling, so they're reproducing!

Pretty good for some random, non-named woods, eh?  Then we headed up to Saugatuck Dunes State Park.  The dunes were not as diverse as some I've seen, such as Miller Dunes or Indiana Dunes, but they did have some good stuff:

 Calamovilfa longifolia, sand reed grass, which I've seen many places, but it's pretty difficult to get a good shot of it.  The jack pines made a good dark background.

 Chimaphila maculata, or spotted wintergreen.  One of those boreal remnants.

 Partridgeberry.  Too bad it's too early for the bright red berry--they look pretty snazzy in the fall.

 

Polygonella articulata--jointweed.  This was the only individual we saw in the whole place.

 Also, some weird circus lichens!

 And a puffball mushroom that looks like an alien pod just biding its time until it swarms the planet!  The mushroom guide calls these "earthstars".  

And that was our trip!  Yes, it also involved floating in the Lake Michigan waves and mojitos, but who wants to hear about that?