A few years ago I acquired a new bicycle and began riding the White Pine Trail in Mecosta and Osceola Counties. (A rails to trails state park in western Michigan.) While riding, I began to notice the wonderful diversity of flora along the path. Soon, I began to stop and examine the wildflowers. It wasn’t long until I began photographing them. The difficult part came when I attempted to identify the flowers. Fortunately, I still had a copy of Peterson’s Field Guide to Wildflowers from my days as a Boy Scout in the late ‘60s. This wasn’t enough and I purchased many other texts. I spent my evenings poring over these texts in an attempt to put a proper name on my photos. When I was stumped, Professor Robert Krueger of Ferris State University was kind enough to assist me.
Having acquired thousands of photographs, I started to consider what to do with them. I made a few calendars, printed flowers for display at home and occasionally emailed the “flower of the week” to my friends. Along the way I noticed there didn’t seem to be a Michigan wild flower identification website. So, I set out to create one. I decided to have the date of flowering be a factor in the identification along with the color. Perhaps in the future other criteria will be used. Let’s see how it works! I appreciate your feedback. Ralph Crew