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| A carnivorous pitcher plant grows in Pinhook Bog. NPS photo. |
Fens, foredunes, riversides and hardwood forests all provide different habitats for often unique plants. Indeed, Indiana Dunes boasts more than 370 species of flowering plants with thirteen of them threatened or in danger of extinction.
Among the park’s best trails to see interesting flora are:
• Cowles Bog Trail – Day hikers can see what plants conspire to make a fen such a frightening place on this 2.85-miles round trip trail. While red maple and yellow birch rule the uplands edging Cowles Bog, the swamp is covered in tamarack growing out of partially decomposed plants settling into a mire. Along the bog’s edge are poison sumac, spicebush, blackberry, grape, red osier and witch hazel. Park in the lot off of N. Mineral Springs Road north of U.S. Hwy. 12.
• Dune Ridge Trail – A variety of habitats along this 0.7-mile loop trail ensure you’ll see a range of interesting plants that thrive on sand dunes. The foredunes section of the trail boasts marram, little bluestem grasses, and cottonwoods. Marram is particularly adapted to living in moving dunes, but they succumb to taller plants’ shade. This layer of dead grass provides the soil needed for the oak savanna that replaces it. The trail leaves from the lot on East State Park Road north of Hwy. 12.
• Heron Rookery Trail – Every spring, wildflowers cover the forest floor along the East Arm Little Calumet River on this 3.3-miles round trip trail. Trillium, Dutchman's breeches, and spring beauties are among only a few of the flowers that bloom before tree leaves unfurl. The trail is considered the national park’s most extensive display of spring wildflowers. Start at the parking lot off of 600 East south of 1350 North.
• Pinhook Bog Trail – Among the best spots to see exotic plants in the park is this 0.86-mile trail, which runs through a depression within a moraine. You’ll see five carnivorous plants: the tiny spoonleaf sundew; round-leaved sundew; purple pitcher plant; hidden-fruited bladderwort; and horned bladderwort. While the neighboring Pinhook Upland Trail is open at all times, the bog only can be accessed on ranger-led tours. The trailhead is off North Wozniak Road south of Snyder Road/W 200 N.
• Tolleston Dune Trail – While this 2.6-mile trail is well-known for its wildlife, what attracts so many animals is the great diversity of plant life here. A rare black oak savanna covers the dunes, providing food and homes to a number of mammals. The leaves of the wild blue lupine flower, which grows abundantly here, provides meals for the caterpillar of the Karner blue butterfly, a federally endangered species. The trail leaves from the lot off of Hwy. 12 west of Hillcrest Road.
• West Beach Trail – Hikers can spot an Arizona beauty – eastern prickly pear cactus – in Indiana on this 1.2 miles-round trip trail, which heads to a beach on Long Lake. The cactus’s fruit and pads provide dinner for coyote, gray fox, cottontail rabbits, striped skunks, and white-tailed deer while its flowers offer nectar and pollen to a variety of bees. Pick up the trail at the parking lot off of West Beach Road east of County Line Road.
