I never saw the flowers even though I make it a point of hiking through this area regularly. Due to the chewed off tops, it is quite possible if I had visited a few days or a week later I may not have seen these plants either. bboy - not sure if you are referring to the plant's odd name or if you think they were eaten by horses, but on that note, while I was looking up info about "horse gentain" it was noted that nobody really knows why it was given this name :-)

Bingo! It is definitely Penstemon. I had hit a dead end with this one, so I am grateful for everyone's help. Who knows; maybe someday I can answer a question or two. Cheers, Doug

That is a wonderful rose that i have. What you got though, were hellebore orientalis seedlings. I put the seedlings in reused cups i'd used to try to root roses to keep them upright and hydrated. There was a sign by them so folks didn't get confused, but i guess it didn't stay close by the whole time. I was lazy and didn't mark off all of the old names (there were 2 flats worth of cups and seedlings and i ran out of time)- figuring most folks would know that wasn't what was in them. Sorry! Tammy

Wow, that was a quick reply! Looks like it may be Smilax ecirrhata, it is native to Michigan. Thanks jaynine for your help. This quote might explain why it disappeared: "Populations of this plant are threatened by the overpopulation of White-tailed Deer", from http://www.illinoiswildflowers.info/woodland/plants/up_carrionflw.html - there are lots of deer in this nature center. This post was edited by westmichiganflorafau on Wed, Jan 21, 15 at 7:40