Camping in July - Flowers in Michigan

The last few days of June, and leading into July, I took a short camping trip to Allegan Michigan. This is something that my family and I do every year, but the last two we missed. It was exceptionally nice to get to take a break from the house after all of this time.

Jewelweed - Touch Me Not

These are always cool to see, and grow in the campground every year. Their seed pods explode on contact, and can launch the seeds feet away. The flowers are also beautiful.

Mushroom Group

I don't know the exact species of these, but there were a couple groups of them. All of the different groups may have been linked underground, and just have been different fruiting bodies. This would result in something like the "fairy rings" that people see sometimes.

Ponds

The campsite has two private ponds, and connects to Dumont Lake. There are quite a few aquatic plants growing in this pond. This gave it a much more natural look than the first pond.

Aquatic Plants - Spatterdock

Spatterdock - Nuphar advena

I am thinking that the species for these are Nuphar advena, but it could be something slightly different. The leafs are heart shaped, and flowers closed instead of the round leafs and open flowers of a water lily. It was very cool to see all of these about to bloom. Wish I could have been there a couple more days to see the progression of the flowers.

Bittersweet Nightshade

Sadly, this plant is invasive to the Great Lakes. It was very pretty, and probably my favorite flower that I saw on this trip. Guess the pretty flowers try to mask the poisonous and invasiveness of this plant.

Duck (Mallard)

I don't know an incredible amount about birds, but I am thinking that this is a mallard duck. He ran around the two ponds throughout the days we were camping, and provided a couple chances for photographs.

Hope you enjoyed the images :)

All images taken with a Nikon D3200 in Allegan, Michigan USA