~The Natural State~.......MICHIGAN

[olena]

State Floral Emblem

Apple Blossom

Apple blossoms have pink and white petals and green leaves. The apple tree is a native of Europe, naturalized in this country, and flowers from April to June. There are, probably, nearly 1000 varieties cultivated in the United States, and all of which are said to be derived from the Wild crab (Pyrus coronaria, Linné).
Lifespan: Perennial
Height: 9 m
Leaves: The leaves are from 2 to 3 inches long, about 2/3 as wide, ovate, or oblong-ovate, serrate, acute, or short-acuminate, pubescent above, tomentose beneath, and on petioles from 1/2 to 1 inch in length.
Flower Size: The flowers are large (4 cm) fragrant, expanding with the leaves, of pale-rose color, and borne in subumbellate corymbs. The calyx-tube is urn-shaped, with limb 5-cleft; the pedicels and calyx villose-tomentose. Petals 5, roundish, or obovate, with short claws. Stamens numerous; styles 5, united, and villose at base.
Bloom Season: April-May
Fruit: 2.5-3 cm in diameter; like a small apple; yellow-green, maturing in late summer
Conditions: Moist soils in openings and borders of forests


One hundred years ago, the scent of fresh apple blossoms filled the state Capitol. Legislators took notice. They named the apple blossom Michigan's state flower.
April 28, 1997, marked the 100th anniversary of this official designation.
Two citizens had eminent roles in the story behind this tribute. One was a northern Michigan legislator with pioneer roots in Michigan pre-dating statehood in 1837. The other was a distinguished 63-year-old woman who pushed a wheelbarrowful of apple blossoms down Lansing's Capitol Avenue and made the Capitol atmosphere fragrant.
The language of the 1897 resolution naming the state flower suggests that little has changed in 100 years. It pointed out that "our blossoming apple trees add much to the beauty of our landscape" --a still-true statement as 58,000 acres of commercial apple orchards and thousands of home-grown apple trees attest. The aroma and delicate beauty of pink and white apple blossoms help make springtime in Michigan a special experience.
The resolution also noted that "Michigan apples have gained a worldwide reputation." This long-running renown is as strong as ever. Michigan now produces around a billion pounds of apples each year, making the state not only a national, but a global leader.
The man who introduced this resolution was William Harris of Norwood, a shoreline community south of Charlevoix where Grand Traverse Bay merges into Lake Michigan.
Harris migrated from New York state with his parents as a four-year-old in 1836 and settled near Battle Creek in Michigan Territory. Thirty years later he moved north with his young family to open a boarding house for dock and sawmill workers in Norwood. Subsequently he was a postmaster and longtime township supervisor before being elected to the state House of Representatives. He became so inspired by the beauty of a large apple orchard across from his home that he decided such lovely blossoms should be adopted as the state flower.
His resolution, introduced February 9, 1897, meandered through the legislative process for a couple of months. The final vote still hadn't been taken when apple trees burst into bloom around mid-April, well ahead of normal, in the southern part of the state.
One colorful site during this early spring was the yard of Anna Eliza Woodcock, two blocks north of the Capitol. She later told a reporter she knew the vote on the state flower was due and was so taken by the beautiful new blossoms on her Snow apple trees that she decided to cut off a few and trundle them in a wheelbarrow to the Capitol. There she located House Speaker William Gordon's desk and chair and decorated them with her blossoms. Both the House and Senate agreed that naming the apple blossom as the state flower was a good idea. The process was completed April 28.
Harris acquired the nickname "Apple Blossom William" for his role. Mrs. Woodcock later learned how to make silk apple blossoms, enhancing her own reputation as "the apple blossom lady," and practiced her art into her 90s.
A century after passage of the 1897 resolution, Michigan residents can still be gratified that the state has such a flood of apple blossom beauty each year to signal a new growing season and a pending bountiful harvest of apples by the next autumn.

 

[olena]

State Tree

White Pine
Pinus strobus


Description The largest northeastern conifer, a magnificent evergreen tree with straight trunk and crown of horizontal branches, 1 row added a year, becoming broad and irregular.
Height: 100' (33 m), formerly 150' (46 m) or more.
Diameter: 3-4' (0.9-1.2 m) or more.
Needles: evergreen; 2 1/2-5" (6-13 cm) long, 5 in bundle; slender; blue-green.
Bark: gray; smooth becoming rough; thick and deeply furrowed into narrow scaly ridges.
Cones: 4-8" (10-20 cm) long; narrowly cylindrical; yellow-brown; long-stalked; cone-scales thin, rounded, flat.
Habitat Well-drained sandy soils; sometimes in pure stands.
Range SE. Manitoba east to Newfoundland, south to N. Georgia, and west to NE. Iowa; a variety in Mexico. From near sea level to 2000' (610 m); in the southern Appalachians to 5000' (1524 m).
Discussion The largest conifer and formerly the most valuable tree of the Northeast, Eastern White Pine is used for construction, millwork, trim, and pulpwood. Younger trees and plantations have replaced the once seemingly inexhaustible lumber supply of virgin forests. The tall straight trunks were prized for ship masts in the colonial period. It is the state tree of Maine, the Pine Tree State; the pine cone and tassel are the state's floral emblem. The seeds were introduced in England (where it is called Weymouth Pine) from Maine in 1605 by Captain George Weymouth of the British Navy.

 

[olena]

State Bird

American Robin
Turdus migratorius
Description 9-11" (23-28 cm). Gray above, brick red below. Head and tail black in males, dull gray in females. Young birds are spotted below.
Voice Song is a series of rich caroling notes, rising and falling in pitch: cheer-up, cheerily, cheer-up, cheerily.
Habitat Towns, gardens, open woodlands, and agricultural land.
Nesting 3-5 blue-green eggs in a well-made cup of mud reinforced with grass and twigs, lined with softer grasses, and placed in a tree or on a ledge or windowsill. Robins usually have 2 broods a season.
Range Breeds from Alaska east across continent to Newfoundland and south to California, Texas, Arkansas, and South Carolina. Winters north to British Columbia and Newfoundland.
Discussion Robins originally nested in forests; where they still do so they are much shyer than the robins of the dooryard. They breed only rarely in the Deep South, where they prefer large shade trees on lawns. Although considered a harbinger of spring, robins often winter in the northern states, where they frequent cedar bogs and swamps and are not usually noticed by a casual observer, except when they gather in large roosts, often containing thousands of birds. The mainstay of the American Robin is earthworms. It hunts on lawns, standing stock-still with head cocked to one side as though listening for its prey but actually discovering it by sight.

 

[olena]

State Fish

Brook Trout
Salvelinus fontinalis

Description To 21" (53 cm); 14 1/2 lbs (6.6 kg). Elongate, fusiform, depth about one-fifth length. Marine coloration: back bluish-green, becoming silvery on sides, belly white. Freshwater coloration: back and sides have red or yellowish tint with lighter wavy lines; sides have red spots within blue halos; belly ordinarily white, reddish in adult males; pectoral, pelvic, and anal fins light orange to red, leading edges white followed by dark, dorsal fin with dark, undulating lines. Maxilla extends well beyond eye. Fins relatively large; adipose fin present; caudal fin slightly forked.
Habitat Clear, cool, freshwater streams; tidal streams; rarely in salt water.
Range Native to E. Canada and NE. United States and Great Lakes region south to N. Georgia. Introduced in W. United States at higher elevations.
Discussion The Brook Trout, highly esteemed as food and game, is one of the most colorful freshwater fishes. It feeds on a variety of organisms, including other fishes, but primarily on aquatic insects. Spawning occurs in small headwater streams. The largest Brook Trout, weighing 14 1/2 pounds (6.6 kg), was caught in 1916 in the Nipigon River, Ontario. It is also known as the Squaretail or the Speck.

 

[olena]

State Game Mammal

White-tailed Deer
Odocoileus virginianus

Description Size varies greatly; a small to medium-size deer. Tan or reddish brown above in summer; grayish brown in winter. Belly, throat, nose band, eye ring, and inside of ears are white. Tail brown, edged with white above, often with dark stripe down center; white below. Black spots on sides of chin. Buck’s antlers have main beam forward, several unbranched tines behind, and a small brow tine; antler spread to 3' (90 cm). Doe rarely has antlers. Fawn spotted. Ht 27–45" (68–114 cm); L 6' 2"–7' (1.88–2.13 m); T 6–13" (15–33 cm); HF 19–20" (47.5–51.2 cm); Wt male 150–310 lb (68–141 kg), female 90–211 lb (41–96 kg).
Endangered Status Two subspecies of the White-tailed Deer are on the U.S. Endangered Species List. The Key Deer is classified as endangered in Florida, and the Columbian White-tailed Deer is classified as endangered in Washington and Oregon. The Key Deer declined in number as more and more of its habitat in the Florida Keys underwent development throughout the 20th century. Development continues to be a threat to the subspecies today. In 1961 the National Key Deer Refuge was established to protect the deer. The population has risen from a possible low of 25 animals in 1955 to about 250 to 300 today. The Columbian White-tailed Deer once ranged from Puget Sound to southern Oregon, where it lived in floodplain and riverside habitat. The conversion of much of its homeland to agriculture and unrestricted hunting reduced its numbers to a just a few hundred in the early 20th century. It now lives in a few scattered populations, and its numbers have climbed to over 6,000. Julia Butler Hansen Refuge for the Columbian Whitetail Deer provides critical habitat for these deer in southern Washington.

Similar Species Mule Deer has antlers with both main beams branching; tail tipped with black.
Breeding Reproductive season varies: first 2 weeks in November in north, January or February in south. 1–3 young born after gestation of about 6 1/2 months.
Habitat Farmlands, brushy areas, woods, and suburbs and gardens.
Range Southern half of southern tier of Canadian provinces; most of U.S., except far Southwest.
Discussion Although primarily nocturnal, the White-tailed Deer may be active at any time. It often moves to feeding areas along established trails, then spreads out to feed. The animal usually beds down near dawn, seeking concealing cover. This species is a good swimmer. The winter coat of the northern deer has hollow hair shafts, which fill with air, making the coat so buoyant that it would be difficult for the animal to sink should it become exhausted while swimming. The White-tailed Deer is also a graceful runner, with top speeds to 36 mph (58 km/h), although it flees to nearby cover rather than run great distances. This deer can make vertical leaps of 8 1/2 feet (2.6 m) and horizontal leaps of 30 feet (9 m). The White-tailed Deer grazes on green plants, including aquatic ones in the summer; eats acorns, beechnuts, and other nuts and corn in the fall; and in winter browses on woody vegetation, including the twigs and buds of viburnum, birch, maple, and many conifers. The four-part stomach allows the deer to feed on items that most other mammals cannot eat. It can obtain nutrients directly from the food, as well as nutrients synthesized by microbes in its digestive system. This deer eats 5 to 9 pounds (2.25–4 kg) of food per day and drinks water from rain, snow, dew, or a water source. When nervous, the White-tailed Deer snorts through its nose and stamps its hooves, a telegraphic signal that alerts other nearby deer to danger. If alarmed, the deer raises, or "flags," its tail, exhibiting a large, bright flash of white; this communicates danger to other deer and helps a fawn follow its mother in flight.There are two types of social grouping: the family group of a doe and her young, which remain together for nearly a year (and sometimes longer), and the buck group. The family group usually disbands just before the next birth, though occasionally two sets of offspring are present for short periods. Bucks are more social than does for most of the year, forming buck groups of three to five individuals; the buck group, which constantly changes and disbands shortly before the fall rut, is structured as a dominance hierarchy. Threat displays include stares, lowered ears, and head-up and head-down postures. Attacks involve kicking and, less commonly, rearing and flailing with the forefeet. Bucks and does herd separately most of the year, but in winter they may gather together, or "yard up." As many as 150 deer may herd in a yard. Yarding keeps the trails open through the movement of large groups of animals, and provides protection from predators. The leadership of the yards is matriarchal. Deer may occupy the same home range year after year, and may defend bedding sites, but otherwise are not territorial. The White-tailed Deer is less polygamous than other deer, and a few bucks mate with only one doe. The extended rutting season begins at about the time the male is losing his velvet, which varies with latitude. At this time, bucks are still in buck groups, and sparring for dominance increases. (Sparring consists of two deer trying to push each other backward.) The buck group then breaks up, and several bucks begin following a doe at a distance of 150 feet (50 m) or so. They follow the doe’s scent; the largest buck stays closest to the female. A buck attempts to dominate other bucks and may mate with several does over the breeding season. He produces "buck rubs" and also "scrapes," revisiting them regularly during the rut; glandular secretions are left on the rubs. Does visit the scrapes and urinate in them; bucks then follow the trails of the does. After the mating season, the doe returns to the subherd until spring (May or June in the North; January to March in the deep South). A young doe bred for the first time usually produces one fawn, but thereafter has twins and occasionally triplets if food is abundant. The female remains near the fawns, returning to feed them only once or twice a day. Twin fawns are separated, which serves to protect them. Weaning occurs between one and two and a half months. Fawns stay with the mother into the fall or winter, sometimes for up to two years, but the doe generally drives off her young of the previous year shortly before giving birth. The Whitetail’s first antlers are usually a single spike (the "spikehorn"). A three-year-old would be expected to have eight points, but there can be more or less, as the number of tines is influenced greatly by nutritional factors. A Whitetail’s age is determined not by the number of tines on its horns but by the wear on its teeth.
Once nearly exterminated in much of the Northeast and Midwest, this deer is now more abundant than ever, owing to hunting restrictions and the decline in number of its predators, wolves and the Mountain Lion. It has become the most plentiful game animal in eastern North America and is even something of a pest in many areas, eating garden plants and contributing to the spread of Lyme disease. Thinning the deer population is best done by hunting both does and bucks, as hunting bucks only alters the herd rather than reducing it.
There are two dwarf subspecies of White-tailed Deer: the Coues’ Deer, or Arizona Whitetail (O. v. couesi), of the Arizona desert, and the Key Deer (O. v. clavium) of the Big Pine Key area in the Florida Keys. The Coues’ Deer, which has somewhat enlarged ears and tail relative to the other Whitetails, reaches a maximum of about 100 pounds (45 kg). The tiny, dog-size Key Deer weighs 45-75 pounds (21-34 kg) or less. Some mammalogists classify the Key Deer as a separate species.

 

[olena]

State Reptile

Painted Turtle
Chrysemys picta

Description
4-9 7/8" (10.2-25.1 cm). Carapace olive or black; oval, smooth, flattened, and unkeeled; scute seams bordered with olive, yellow, or red. Red bars or crescents on marginal scutes. Plastron yellow, orange, or red, unpatterned or intricately marked. Yellow and red stripes on neck, legs, and tail. Notched upper jaw.
Subspecies
Eastern Painted Turtle ( C. p. picta), vertebral and costal scute seams aligned, plastron yellow, not patterned; se. Canada through New England and the Atlantic coastal states to n. Georgia and e. Alabama.
Midland Painted Turtle (C. p. marginata), vertebral and costal scutes not aligned, plastron yellow with dark blotch in center; s. Quebec and s. Ontario to Tennessee.
Southern Painted Turtle ( C. p. dorsalis), red or yellow stripe down carapace, plastron yellow, not patterned; s. Illinois to Gulf, se. Oklahoma to c. Alabama.
Western Painted Turtle (C. p. bellii), largest ssp., with light netlike lines on carapace, bars on marginals, and intricate branching pattern on plastron; sw. Ontario south to Missouri and west to Oregon and British Columbia, isolated populations in the Southwest.
Specimens from areas where ranges of subspecies overlap display an intergradation of characteristics.
Breeding
Nests May to July. In north lays 1-2 clutches a year, in south 2-4, of 2-20 elliptical eggs, 1 1/4" (32 mm) long. Flask-shaped nest cavity is 4" (10 cm) deep. Hatchlings in north may overwinter in the nest. Incubation averages 10-11 weeks. Males reach maturity in 2-5 years; females in 4-8.
Habitat
Slow-moving shallow streams, rivers, and lakes. Likes soft bottoms with vegetation and half-submerged logs.
Range
British Columbia to Nova Scotia, south to Georgia, west to Louisiana, north to Oklahoma, and northwest to Oregon. Isolated populations in the Southwest.
Discussion
The most widespread turtle in North America. It is fond of basking and often dozens can be observed on a single log. Young turtles are basically carnivorous, but become herbivorous as they mature.

 

[olena]

State Wildflower

Dwarf Lake Iris

Description
Though small in stature, this iris catches the eye of every passerby when it is in full bloom. Like a miniature blue flag iris, the deep blue to purple blossoms appear first in early May, and most flowers have faded by early June. The purple blossoms are enhanced by bright yellow crests that decorate the three main petals. Three-inch diameter flowers are held a mere three inches off the surface of the ground; the leaves, arranged in fans, grow up to six inches long. The observant naturalist will see that the leaves and flowers emerge from delicate brown rhizomes (horizontal stems) that creep along the soil surface. Even when not in flower, the iris can be recognized by its leaves and by the way it grows in dense colonies.
Growing Conditions
The dwarf lake iris occurs only near the northern shores of the Great Lakes. In a few sites, in openings in white cedar and birch forests allow just the right amount of sun to penetrate to the forest floor, the iris grows. It thrives in the cool air that flows off the lakes, and the thin, moist, sandy or rocky soil near the shores. Curiously enough, it also seems to grow well along the edges of some country roads in the same areas. One of the reasons that the dwarf lake iris is so rare is that it must have just the right combination of light, humidity, soil, moisture and temperature to live.
History
After the great glaciers retreated from the middle parts of North America, the dwarf lake iris appeared on lakeshores. Its nearest relative is the crested iris of the southern Appalachians. Perhaps a variety of the crested iris followed the retreating glacier northward, adapting to the slightly different conditions that it encountered and evolving into the species we know today.
Reproduction
A perennial, this native wildflower lives for many years. It seems to reproduce mostly vegetatively, established plants sending out new rhizomes - thus increasing the size of a colony. It rarely reproduces from seed. Those who observe these irises year after year seldom see a seed pod.
Range
Near the rocky and sandy northern shores of Lake Michigan and Lake Huron are the only places on the globe where this rare iris grows. It may be found in Ontario in Canada and in the United States only in Michigan and Wisconsin.
Discussion
The plant is very rare, indeed. This rarity is due both to a limited amount of habitat and to increasing human disturbance of shoreline areas. It is here that cottages and year-round homes are being built; it is here where condominiums are being erected and the roads and parking lots to serve them are covering the earth. The dwarf lake iris is listed both by the State of Wisconsin and by the United States government as "threatened". This means that it is a "species ... which is likely in the foreseeable future to become endangered throughout all or a significant portion of its range."

 

[olena]

State Grain

Wild Rice
Zizania aquatica
Indian Wild Rice

Description A robust annual grass usually growing in flooded sites and producing large flowering panicle bearing conspicuous male flowers below ythe female flowers, producing rice above.
Flowers: borne in panicle with scales that exclose stamens and pistil in separate spikelets; females about 1/2—3/4” (1.3—2 cm) long.
Leaves: 20—40” (50—100 cm) long.
Fruit: dark-colored, elongated grain, 1/2—3/4” (1.3—2 cm long.
Height: 3—10’ (90—300 cm).
Flower June—August
Habitat Marshes, ponds, lakes, borders of sluggish rivers.
Range Nova Scotia east to Manitoba, southwest to Minnesota, south to Nebraska and Texas.
Discussion American Indians harvest the rice in Minnesota. It is also grown commercially there and in California.

Previous Natural States
Alabama
Alaska
Arizona
Arkansas
California
Maine
Rhode Island
Utah
Vermont
Washington
West Virginia


Previous Natural Provinces
Manitoba

 

[Snowwark]

Is this the first State with a state grain, Olena?

I love the story about Mrs. Woodcock, the "apple blossom lady"!!

A state flower and wildflower? That's a first too, isn't it?

Thank you Heather, this was very interesting, as always!

 

[nativetxn]

Excellent, as always, Heather. Thank you.

 

[olena]

Thanks, y'all!

I think it's the first state with a grain. There may be others. I know there are other states with a flower and a wild flower.

I think I'll do a Province of Canada next. Canada has many spectacular emblems and I've collected some pictures that really show it.

Stay tuned!