Skunk Cabbage

The unusual heat-producing flowers of this plant appear first (Feb.-Mar.). The large leaves follow and have a skunk-like odor when crushed.

Myrtle

Wherever you see myrtle, you know that civilization has preceded you. Even though we are a fair way into the woods, the myrtle tells us that near here there has been a cultivated garden.

Willow

This is a very old member of a water loving species. Its trunk is covered with burls and old vines that have found their way into the tree’s bark. It finally fell in 2019.

Trail Creek

It is the blessing and curse of the gardens. The creek cut the valley through the gardens but it floods periodically, endangering them as well. Most years, the floods are temporary inconveniences, but at times, the water rises several feet in much of the gardens, wiping out plants and leaving a layer of mud.

Bladdernut

These small trees are known for their papery 2-3 lobed capsules that carry several nut-like seeds. They have leaves in pairs with 3-7 leaflets. Flowers appear in drooping clusters. Native Americans used them as rattles when they were dry.

Woodland Spring

The woods at Friendship Botanic Gardens are dotted with springs. They attract wildlife – stop and listen closely to the music of the creek.

Hackberry

The hackberry is recognized by its corklike bark with warty protuberances. It prefers bottomlands with limestone. Its soft wood is not very useful. Birds and mammals eat its small berries and there is a butterfly that prefers it and uses it as a host.

Spicebush

Spice bush is a lovely low-growing shrub that is often used for decorative purposes. Early settlers used it for spices: it is similar to allspice. Identified by spots in its bark.

Butternut

The butternut is short lived for trees – seldom over 75 years. It is valued for its nut, which tastes buttery, as well as for its wood, which is suited for cabinetry and other detailed projects. It takes well to stains.

Cherry Tree

The wild cherry tree provides a beautiful wood used for furniture making. Cherries contain anti-inflammatory agents. They are rich in melatonin and help support the immune system.

Deer Rub

During the rutting season in October and November, young bucks’ antlers are covered with velvet. It must itch as they rub their antlers on wood repeatedly.

Wild Ginger

An unusual red-brown flower sits on the ground beneath heart-shaped leaves in early spring. The rootstock tastes and smells of ginger.

Electric Pole

Here is a remnant of earlier times as we see an electric pole with old-fashioned insulators (look upwards). The Gardens were established in 1936 and have seen many changes. Look closely ahead and up over the foliage for the cross beam.

Silver Maple

The silver maple is a fast growing native tree that is often found close to water. Its large buds provide food for squirrels in the spring when nuts are scarce. It is very tolerant of urban conditions and is widely used as an ornamental tree.

Downed Tree

All through these woods, we find trees down. Some of these were cleared for the trail. Most were brought down by the wind and flooding.

Sycamore Tree

One of the largest broad-leafed trees in North America, the sycamore lives from 250-600 years. Its large maple-leaf shaped leaves provide wonderful shade. The wood is hard and tough, used for floors, furniture and historically for ox cart wheels.

White Oak

The white oak is a graceful, spreading tree whose wood is the most prized of the oaks. Its bark is light and often peeling. The leaves have rounded lobes. It is the state tree of Illinois. The historical Charter Oak is featured on the Connecticut quarter. Its acorns are the most favored for eating.

Black Oak

The black oak is widely spread in the U.S. but in relatively small numbers. It has 5-7 bristle tips on the leaves with deep lobes between them. The acorn is small, almost as wide as it is long. The cap has loose scales that form a fringe around the acorn.

Light Posts

Scattered about our area are artifacts from the past. These light posts are from former days in the garden.

Sassafras Tree

This small tree is the source of the fragrant compound, safrole, used in tea and perfumes. However, safrole has been identified as a carcinogen. It has one, two and three lobed leaves all on the same tree. Its wood is a favorite for rustic furniture.

Grapevine

Grapes grow in the wild and provide food for birds and other creatures. Thirsty pioneers could cut a grapevine and drink the copious sap from them. Their large leaves damage the host tree by blocking sunlight.

Snags

The standing trunks of dead trees. They offer important habitat for birds and other creatures. We usually leave them standing in the woods, this one fell on its own.

Bent Tree

Though probably bent by nature, Native Americans would bend a tree as a sign to others, marking a trail or giving other information.

Tulip Tree

This is the state tree of Indiana. It grows very tall and straight and was used for ship masts. It is sometimes called “yellow poplar” but it is not really a poplar. It has yellow tulip-shaped “flowers” in the spring. Its wood is prized for its versatility.

Witch Hazel

This plant grows profusely in our woods. It is used as a decorative shrub. Its bark and leaves contain an oil that is an astringent and has been used medicinally for centuries up to the present time. It blooms in late fall.

Duff

The forest floor is food and shelter to many creatures and it also helps to prevent erosion. Here one can see red, white, and black oak leaves.

Red Oak

The red oak is recognized by the shiny stripes in bark ridges that run the length of the trunk, especially towards the top. Its acorns are flat and large with a shallow cup. Deer, squirrels and birds eat the acorns. It is commercially grown for timber.

Old Groundhog Burrows

The groundhog may move as much as 35 cubic feet of earth to construct their burrows. There is a back door to this burrow somewhere. They are members of the group of large ground squirrels known as marmots. They took advantage of this “tip-up” (when the tree fell, the roots came up).

Young Sassafras

Notice the green branches at its top. Behind it is a Spicebush. See the telling dots on the trunk and branches of the spicebush.

Prickly Pear

The prickly pear is the only cactus that grows in the eastern U.S. It is very cold tolerant. It has two types of spines: large rigid ones and small hair-like ones. The fruit and pads are edible.

Is this really an Indian Trail? They frequented this area as far back as 2000 years. This trail was carved out of the woods many years ago. It followed the lay of the land and the paths that deer and other creatures had made before them.

Northern Red Oak

A large tree with large acorns. The wood is hard, heavy, strong, coarse-grained and has many uses for interior work like cabinets and flooring.

Decaying Stump

This old stump clearly shows how trees return to the soil. Lichens and fungi digest the wood for their food. Tunnels left by insects have honeycombed the stump. One can see the fresh humus forming.

Service Road

This road allows heavy vehicles to go into the gardens. It ends to the north of the Native American garden. We will stay on the Old Indian Trail.

Fungus on Tree

When you see fungus growing on a tree, that tree may be dying or already dead. Check it out. Most of the fungus is gone now.

Turkey Trails

The little bracket fungi are called turkey tails for their banding pattern which resembles the displayed tail of a turkey. They are important in helping to break down wood for recycling in the woods. These little fungi are found in virtually every country of the world.

Poison Ivy

“Leaves of three, let it be.” The leaves are almond-shaped, smooth and shiny with little or no teeth along the edges. The irritant produced by the leaves and vine is urushiol; it can be inhaled when the plant is burning and damages the lungs. Wash thoroughly with soap and water if exposure is suspected. Sometimes it is a vine and climbs on trees.

Mysterious Hole

What made this hole? A natural sinkhole? Or maybe a big tree fell down, its roots clutching the soil leaving the hole. What’s your guess?

Pottawatomie Golf Course

The view of the Pottawatomie golf course, across the creek reminds us that there are limits to our little wilderness. Some writers say that a battle was fought in the area of the golf course on Dec. 5, 1780, between Native Americans led by the Englishman, Mr. Champion, the head fur trader of Fort St. Joseph, Michigan and some American troops – who were soundly defeated. This was the Battle of Trail Creek in the Revolutionary War.

Old Indian Trail Continues

We now keep walking straight, toward Otter Creek – though it has been decades since otters have played here.

The Climax Forest

Our woodlands are forested sand dunes. Cottonwoods and grasses are the first plants to colonize sand dunes. Then junipers and pines, and later, oaks become dominant. But their seedlings do not do well in shade so maple saplings and finally, beech trees win in the long chain of succession, because their seedlings grow well in the shade of taller trees. Beeches produce easy to work wood. Their nuts have three sharp angles covered with softly spined cupules. The young trees keep their leaves until late in the winter.

Maple Tree

Here is a maple tree, the other survivor in the epic of succession. Maples have lobed, toothed leaves. Their wood is very hard and was used for making bowling pins. Their sap produces maple syrup. The maple leaf is the national symbol of Canada. It has opposite branching.

Nurse Log

The name is given to logs that shelter and feed a variety of small creatures – mice, salamanders, bugs and grubs, lichens and mosses.

White Pine

This tree is being crowded out by the shade of the oak, maple and beech. To reach the sun, it grows taller than the surrounding trees. It is a light, versatile wood. They were used for ship masts. They have flexible bluish green needles 2-5 inches long. Their slender cones are 3-6 inches long. Most of the pine we see today are grown commercially in monocropped plantations.

Snag

Dead trees provide homes for many creatures – leave them standing if you can.

Otter Creek Trail

This trail parallels Otter creek, going through bottom land and a dense stand of burdock.

Squaw Root

This is a parasitic non-green plant that looks like a pinecone growing from the ground. It appears in colonies, in dark areas, getting its nutrition from oak roots, usually. It has yellow flowers when it blooms. You can also see the twin-leafed partridgeberry and wintergreen plants.

Ostrich Fern

The ostrich fern grows in colonies along riverbanks. The emerging ferns in springtime are tightly coiled and look like and are called “fiddleheads”. These are edible. The fertile fronds stand erect all winter and release their spores in spring.

Muscle Wood or Ironwood

Also called Hornbeam or Blue Beech, this wood is heavy, hard and very strong.

Joined Maples

Two maples are joined together here, an accident of two crowded saplings.

Boardwalk

This boardwalk over a boggy area was built by the youngsters attending LaPorte County Leadership Development Camp several years ago. Each summer, three sessions of this camp were held on FBG grounds as young people learned about ecology and citizenship. Notice all the skunk cabbage (with large green leaves).

Bottomlands at Otter Creek

This is an area that floods frequently. Over 5 feet of water ran through here in Sept ’08 and Feb ’18. You can often see where deer have been crossing the creek.

Burdock

This large leafed plant grows inch round barbed burrs that dispense the plants seeds by attaching to fur or clothes. George de Mistral, a Swiss inventor, studied the burrs and became the inventor of Velcro.

Multiflora Roses

Originally introduced into the U.S. to help control erosion, this plant is now considered an invasive species. It crowds out native plants and creates an impenetrable thicket that is a fire hazard. It can be recognized by the multiple flowers or seed heads.

Trail Creek

Trail Creek defines the early history of this region. It was the highway for Native Americans, and later, early settlers. Mills on its banks served early citizens. Its floods gave us rich alluvial soil in the valley. Fishermen enjoy its bounty. It is the subject of continual study as part of the effort to analyze pollution in Lake Michigan. A long term goal for the gardens is to have the resources to stabilize its banks and prevent erosion and the deposit of silt into Lake Michigan.

Poison Ivy Vines

This dead Ash tree is covered with huge vines. They are Poison Ivy. Look up high, you can see branchlets and berries (or remains of berries).

Blowdown

Notice all the downed trees; victims of mighty winds.

Don’t Carve The Tree

This beech shows the thoughtlessness of someone, years ago. Carving trees not only ruins their beauty, it also can introduce disease into the tree.

Moss

Mosses are found worldwide. They require moisture to survive, as they are small and thin without a waxy coating like many leaves. While mosses have been cultivated, particularly in Japanese gardens where they bring a sense of peace and age, they are difficult to grow away from their original habitat.

Indian Camp

Use your imagination. Think about the early people who lived along this river. They hunted game, fished and grew crops.