Northern Mountain Ash

Northern Mountain Ash
Sorbus decora

Indiana is at the very southern edge of the range of this species and has been extirpated in the wild.  It was reported from a few counties, mostly northwest, with one vouchered specimen at Butler University found in LaPorte county in 1924.  That seems to be the only vouchered specimen from Indiana.

Could it be re-introduced?  Perhaps.  The vouchered specimen was found in sandy black oak woods.  The Michigan Flora website describes its habitat as:

Forested dunes and bluffs, especially frequent at edges of forests along Lake Superior; deciduous, mixed, and coniferous forests, often with fir, cedar, and pine, but sometimes in beech-maple stands; seems to thrive particularly well along shores, perhaps because of the moister climate and perhaps because released from competition of larger trees in the forest.

It might be worth a try!

Northern Maidenhair

Northern Maidenhair
Adiantum pedatum

This is one of the prettiest ferns in the state.  Notice that the stem is so thin that it's hard to see, giving the appearance of a bunch of leaves floating in air.  I didn't see this until reviewing another great website - https://www.minnesotawildflowers.info/fern/maidenhair-fern.

While found throughout the state, it is uncommon, found only in higher quality woodlands.  Unfortunately, there aren't as many high quality woodlands as their used to be.

Nodding Wakerobin

Nodding Wakerobin
Trillium flexipes

This is also known as Nodding Trillium.

The trilliums are a good example of the difficulty of trying to organize species. They were originally put into the Liliaceae family; then some taxonomists put them into their own family; Trilliaceae, then back to the Liliaceae family, on to the Melanthiaceae family, and now some are putting it back into the Trilliaceae family.

There were disagreements all around; probably arguments, bickering, brawls, and perhaps a feud or two.  The difficulty is that evolution is a continuum rather than a set of discrete steps, and it's hard to decide where the cutoff points are.  Discrete steps do happen, but not always.  Also, it's not always simple to trace the continuum of evolution and taxonomists don't always agree on how it went.  All in all, this makes taxonomy, and taxonomists, a very interesting study.

The flowers are generally white, but sometimes there are maroon ones.

Typical Trillium leaf

Nodding Onion

Nodding Onion
Allium cernuum

Wild populations of this plant are uncommon, but it is often a part of prairie restoration seed mixes, so it's population may be increasing.  A key feature is that the flower raceme "nods", unlike other Allium species.  Also, the leaves are flat like grass leaves.

Flat, grass-like leaf

The flowers aren't quite nodding yet, but they will.