corydalis

I learned a new plant while working in pine forests east of Cass Lake on Monday. Corydalis (Corydalis sempervirens) is not real showy at first glance, but if you get close, it has a very distinctive flower. It is a narrow pink tube with yellow lips.

I've also been seeing pyrola flowers this week. They are small evergreen broadleaf plants that live in wet and dry forests.

Biting flies and mosquitoes have been making life challenging in the forest. Deer flies and horse flies can take your mind off the mosquitoes, at times. We are still seeing adult deer ticks and dog ticks. My strategy for dealing with them is to stay focussed on what I am doing and not what they are doing. It usually works. Today, I happened to look at my hand and a half dozen mosquitoes were biting it, but I felt nothing.