~The Natural State~......MINNESOTA

[olena]

State Bird

Common Loon
Gavia immer


Description 28-36" (71-91 cm). A large, heavy-bodied loon with a thick, pointed, usually black or dark gray bill held horizontally. In breeding plumage, head and neck black with white bands on neck; back black with white spots. In winter, crown, hindneck, and upperparts dark grayish; throat and underparts white.
Voice Best-known call a loud, wailing laugh, also a mournful yodeled oo-AH-ho with middle note higher, and a loud ringing kee-a-ree, kee-a-ree with middle note lower. Often calls at night and sometimes on migration.
Habitat Nests on forested lakes and rivers; winters mainly on coastal bays and ocean.
Nesting 2 olive-brown or greenish, lightly spotted eggs in a bulky mass of vegetation near water's edge, usually on an island.
Range Breeds from Aleutian Islands, Alaska, and northern Canada south to California, Montana, and Massachusetts. Winters along Great Lakes, Gulf Coast, Atlantic and Pacific coasts. Also breeds in Greenland and Iceland.
Discussion The naturalist John Muir, who knew the Common Loon during his early years in Wisconsin, described its call as "one of the wildest and most striking of all the wilderness sounds, a strange, sad, mournful, unearthly cry, half laughing, half wailing." Expert divers, loons have eyes that can focus both in air and under water and nearly solid bones that make them heavier than many other birds; they are able to concentrate oxygen in their leg muscles to sustain them during the strenuous paddling that can take them as far as 200 feet (60 meters) below the surface. Their principal food is fish, but they also eat shellfish, frogs, and aquatic insects. In recent decades, acid rain has sterilized many lakes where these birds formerly bred, and their numbers are declining.

 

[olena]

State Insect

Monarch
Danaus plexippus


Description 3 1/2-4" (89-102 mm). Very large, with FW long and drawn out. Above, bright, burnt-orange with black veins and black margins sprinkled with white dots; FW tip broadly black interrupted by larger white and orange spots. Below, paler, duskier orange. 1 black spot appears between HW cell and margin on male above and below. Female darker with black veins smudged.
Similar Species Viceroy smaller, has shorter wings and black line across HW. Queen and Tropic Queen are browner and smaller. Female Mimic has large white patch across black FW tips.
Life Cycle Egg, 3/64" h x 9/256" w(1.2 x 0.9 mm), pale green, ribbed, and pitted, is shaped like lemon with flat base. Caterpillar, to 2" (51 mm), is off-white with black and yellow stripes; 1 pair of fine black filaments extends from front and rear. Chrysalis, to 7/8" (28 mm), pale jade-green, studded with glistening gold; plump, rounded, appears lidded, with lid opening along abdominal suture. Host plants are milkweeds (Asclepias) and dogbane (Apocynum).
Flight Successive broods; April-June migrating northward, July-August resident in North, September-October migrating southward, rest of year in overwintering locales. Year-round resident in S. California and Hawaii.
Habitat On migration, anywhere from alpine summits to cities; when breeding, habitats with milkweeds, especially meadows, weedy fields and watercourses. Overwinters in coastal Monterey pine, Monterey cypress, eucalyptus groves in California, and fir forests in Mexican mountains.
Range Nearly all of North America from south of Hudson Bay through South America; absent from Alaska and Pacific Northwest Coast. Established in the Hawaiian Islands and Australia.
Discussion One of the best known butterflies, the Monarch is the only butterfly that annually migrates both north and south as birds do, on a regular basis. But no single individual makes the entire round-trip journey. In the fall, Monarchs in the North begin to congregate and to move southward. Midwestern and eastern Monarchs continue south all the way to the Sierra Madre of middle Mexico, where they spend the winter among fir forests at high altitudes. Far western and Sierra Nevada Monarchs fly to the central and southern coast of California, where they cluster in groves of pine, cypress, and eucalyptus in Pacific Grove and elsewhere. Winter butterflies are sluggish and do not reproduce; they venture out to take nectar on warm days. In spring they head north, breed along the way, and their offspring return to the starting point. Both Mexican and international efforts are underway to protect the millions of Monarchs that come to Mexico. In California, nearly all of the roosting sites face threatening development.

 

[olena]

State Mushroom

Morel

Description Morels have an unusual appearance, because they produce ascospores, which means the spores are enclosed within the tissue, and a force propels them out. The spores must therefore be near the surface, and a lot of surface area is needed. So there are ridges on the surface resulting in morels sometimes being called "sponge mushrooms."
Morels, however, are nothing like sponges. They are hollow, rubbery and brittle—much more brittle than other mushrooms. In fact, mushrooms usually have a tough skin over the surface and a fibrous stem. This prevents pieces of mushroom tissue from breaking off. By contrast, morels crumble easy and are often broken—an inadequacy stemming from recent evolution from a yeast.
The cap of the morel has many inadequacies which other mushrooms overcame. A typical mushroom cap protects spores from being washed away by rain. The morel cap does not. The gills of mushrooms have aerodynamic properties for exploiting wind. Morels cannot use wind nearly as effectively.
In other words, the use of ascospores by the morel was not a result of advantageous evolution but a disadvantageous carry-over from a yeast.
Evolution Major steps in evolution are obscure, because they occur rapidly leaving evidence only of the before and after. The morel mushroom is in a transitional stage of evolution allowing the process to be visible. The result is stunning biology which shows unheard of effects including phenotypic variations, regional genotypic variations, pigmented mycelium and a reversion anomaly.
The morel began evolving from a yeast during the last ice age, about 100 thousand years ago, which is a very short time in evolution. It is still undergoing rapid and dramatic change as a result.

 

[olena]

State Flower

Pink Lady's Slipper
Cypripedium acaule
Pink Moccasin Flower

Description A leafless stalk bears 1 flower (rarely 2) with a distinctive pink, inflated, slipper-like lip petal, veined with red and with a fissure down the front.
Flowers: lip about 2 1/2" (6.3 cm) long; sepals and side petals greenish-brown, spreading; petals lanceolate, narrower than sepals.
Leaves: to 8" (20 cm) long, in twos, basal, oval, ribbed, dark green above, silvery-hairy beneath.
Fruit: erect capsule, to 1 3/4" (4.5 cm) long.
Height: 6-15" (15-37.5 cm).
Flower April-July.
Habitat Dry forests, especially pine woods; often in humus mats covering rock outcrops; occasionally in moist woods.
Range Saskatchewan to Newfoundland and Nova Scotia; south to South Carolina and Georgia; west to Alabama and Tennessee; north to Minnesota.
Discussion This is one of the largest native Orchids and is found both in low, sandy woods and in higher, rocky woods of mountains. At times several hundred of these striking flowers can be counted within a small area. Nevertheless, like other woodland wildflowers it should not be picked. These Orchids propagate poorly and are very difficult to grow in wildflower gardens. The genus name derives from the Latin for "Venus' slipper."

 

[olena]

State Tree

Red Pine
Pinus resinosa
Norway Pine

Description A common, large tree with small cones and broad, irregular or rounded crown of spreading branches, 1 row added a year.
Height: 70-80' (21-24 m).
Diameter: 1-3' (0.3-0.9 m), often larger.
Needles: evergreen; 4 1/4-6 1/2" (11-16.5 cm) long; 2 in bundle; slender; dark green.
Bark: reddish-brown or gray; with broad, flat, scaly plates; becoming thick.
Cones: 1 1/2-2 1/4" (4-6 cm) long; egg-shaped; shiny light brown; almost stalkless; opening and shedding soon after maturity; cone-scales slightly thickened, keeled, without prickle.
Habitat Well-drained soils; particularly sand plains; usually in mixed forests.
Range SE. Manitoba east to Nova Scotia, south to Pennsylvania and west to Minnesota. Local in Newfoundland, N. Illinois and E. West Virginia. at 700-1400' (213-427 m) northward; to 2700' (823 m) in Adirondacks; and at 3800-4300' (1158-1311 m) in West Virginia.
Discussion The misleading alternate name "Norway Pine" for this New World species may be traced to confusion with Norway Spruce by early English explorers. Another explanation is that the name comes from the tree's occurrence near Norway, Maine, founded in 1797. Because the name was in usage before this time, the former explanation is more likely. Red Pine is an ornamental and shade tree; the wood is used for general construction, planing-mill products, millwork, and pulpwood.

 

[olena]

State Fish

Walleye
Stizostedion vitreum


Description
To 3'5" (1 m); 25 lbs (11.3 kg). Elongate, slightly compressed; olive-brown to brassy greenish-yellow above with dusky to black mottlings, belly whitish with yellow-green tinge. Mouth extends to eye, has canine teeth; preopercle serrate. Dorsal fins separate; first dorsal fin dusky with black edge, black blotch on membranes of last 2-3 spines; caudal fin forked, tip of lower lobe white. Lateral line complete, 82-92 scales.

Habitat
Deep waters of large streams, lakes, and reservoirs over firm sand, gravel, or rocks.
Range
From s. Hudson Bay drainage west to MacKenzie River; south through Great Lakes and Mississippi River system to Arkansas. E. Gulf drainage, Alabama and Mississippi. Widely introduced.

Discussion
The Walleye is the largest North American species in the perch family and one of the most sought sport and food fishes. The largest catch was taken in Old Hickory Lake, Tennessee, in 1960. The Walleye feeds on aquatic insects, crustaceans, amphibians, and almost any available species of fish.

Previous Natural States
Alabama
Alaska
Arizona
Arkansas
California
Colorado
Connecticut
Delaware
Florida
Idaho
Iowa
Kansas
Louisiana
Maine
Maryland
Massachusetts
Michigan
Mississippi
Montana
New Hampshire
New Jersey
New Mexico
New York
North Carolina
Ohio
Oklahoma
Oregon
Rhode Island
South Dakota
Texas
Utah
Vermont
Washington
West Virginia


Previous Natural Provinces
Alberta
British Columbia
Manitoba
New Brunswick
Northwest Territories
Ontario
Prince Edward Island
Quebec
Saskatchewan

 

[olena]

Sorry for the delay folks! I was at camp last week.

 

[Snowwark]

Originally posted by olena
Sorry for the delay folks! I was at camp last week.

Hmmm....well I don't know Heather, maybe we'll forgive you....

Camp? What kind of camp?

Is Minnesota the first state to have a state mushroom?

I love the Lady's Slipper, it's lovely!!

I don't know if I mentioned this before, but my in-laws have a "Loonies" license plate on their diesel-pusher motorhome. There are lots and lots and lots of loons, where they live!

Thank you Heather, another great job!!

 

[olena]

I was a counselor for Camp Wannaklot.

I think Oregon also has a state mushroom.

 

[Snowwark]

Heather, Camp Wannaklot looks like a wonderful place, and what a great cause to be involved with! It must be very satisfying to see the kids having so much fun! Good for you!!

You're right, Oregon has the Golden Pacific Chantrelle!

Thank you for the breadcrumb trail I was able to follow....

 

[olena]

Camp was a blast! My boys were so much fun.......

We did a nature hike and collected frogs, dtagonflies and spiders. The boys saw a snake in the creek, but we steered them clear of that specimen. We saw turtles, too.