BEAVER ISLAND, MI – Michigan’s rarest wildflower is the Michigan monkey flower, and it can be found growing farther upstream than ever before in an unnamed creek on the east side of Beaver Island.
The Michigan monkey flower is among the state’s few endemic plants, meaning that it grows solely in the Great Lakes State. Scientists historically documented the rare wildflower in just 17 places across the Grand Traverse Bay and Mackinac Straits regions, including one which remains on Beaver Island.
“Today we have one monkey flower population available for the public to really enjoy and view, as long as they don’t disturb it too much,” said Pam Grassmick, a lifelong Beaver Islander and longtime environmental advocate.
“It looks like a very insignificant little plant. But again, we never know what properties these special, little plants may offer.”
Michigan monkey flower – scientifically called mimulus michiganensis – formerly grew in two places on Beaver Island, but one was lost to development decades ago near the harbor on Paradise Bay. The site was filled in by an unknowing property owner, Grassmick said.
Yet today the rare wildflower with its tiny, yellow blooms is thriving in its remaining suitable habitat on Beaver Island.
“There were never monkey flowers back up in here. They’ve moved all the way back up in here from the shoreline and migrated on their own back up into the shore area up the creek,” said Beth Leuck, a retired biologist, ecology professor, and part-time Beaver Island resident.
The spring-fed stream is within the 118-acre Little Sand Bay Nature Preserve with its 3,500 feet of Lake Michigan beach frontage. The creek’s crystal-clear water flows through a thick cedar swamp and spills into the lake not far from the end of a public-access boardwalk.
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Michigan monkey flowers grow along the edges of the stream, clustered in mats with bright yellow, snapdragon-like blooms reaching for the sunlight. The wildflower is listed as both state and federally endangered.
That’s because as a species, it’s a little finicky about its habitat.
Michigan monkey flower grows exclusively in cold groundwater-fed streams in cedar swamps or alkaline shorelines at the base of small drainages, according to the Michigan Natural Features Inventory. Scientists say habitat preservation is the primary conservation goal for the species; some historical populations were lost to development.
However, the remaining confirmed Beaver Island population of Michigan monkey flower will be forever protected within the nature preserve.
“This is from a spring. You’ve got to have this kind of water flowing constantly. See how the bottom is sandy like this? That’s what you’ve got to have to get the monkey flower,” Leuck said, as she walked down the nature preserve’s boardwalk. “But they need full sunlight, so they’re not back here in the cedar swamp.”
The pathway extends toward the lakeshore and when openings in the cedar canopy begin to allow sunlight to shine through to the stream below, the Michigan monkey flower blooms can be spotted from the trail. They grow in clumps that hug the streambank edges nearly all the way to Lake Michigan.
And the islanders strive to carefully tend to the rare wildflower’s ecological needs.
“We actually have two interns this year. They just were there yesterday. They were pulling out some invasive watercress that was encroaching on the monkey flower,” said Shelby Harris, a Native Beaver Islander and the invasive species program administrator for the island’s two townships.
Michigan monkey flower typically blooms from mid-June through mid-August, though sometimes blossoms can be observed as late as October.
Other up-north places where scientists have documented the rare species in greater numbers includes isolated spots on Burt, Glen, and Mullett lakes, as well as along the Lake Michigan cliff shoreline between St. Ignace and Naubinway in the Upper Peninsula’s Mackinac County.
Smaller populations of the rare wildflower exist in Benzie and Leelanau counties, and historical records show the Michigan monkey flower formerly grew along the western shorelines of Burt and Mullett lakes but are no longer found there – although colonies continue to grow in other parts of those two lakes.
Read more about Michigan’s Beaver Island here.
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