• Nature's Alphabet - A

    A fallen tree covered with moss shows the shape of the
    letter A, in Cloquet Valley State Forest near Cotton.

  • Natures Alphabet B Between Bemidji and Turtle River, a painted turtle crossed the road, carrying the letter B on its carapace.

    Chippewa National Forest contains C-shaped antlers shed by white-tailed bucks.

    		Natures Alphabet C
  • Natures Alphabet D Dead trees sprout shelf fungi
    like this D look-alike in Nerstrand
    Big Woods State Park.

    Even the wind can shape a letter. Here the wind blew a reed into an
    easy E at Carlos Avery Wildlife Management Area.

    		 Natures Alphabet E

  • Natures Alphabet F

    Natures Alphabet G

    Natures Alphabet H

    Natures Alphabet I
    Funny shapes of twigs sometimes look like letters, like this F in a black spruce bog in Chippewa National Forest. Gone is the live snail, but its G-design shell remains on the shore of Lake Rabideau in Chippewa National Forest. Hard frost at Lake Rabideau might have bent these rushes to form an h. If you see a cattail in a marsh, you might be seeing the outline of the letter I.
  • Natures Alphabet J Jaws spread wide might look like J. On the Minnesota River near Granite Falls, this American white pelican’s open bill and pouch certainly do.

  • Natures Alphabet K

    Natures Alphabet L

    Natures Alphabet M

    Natures Alphabet N
    K is the letter in the spruce tree roots on the shores of Lake Superior. Look at how a monarch caterpillar on backyard milkweed resembles L. Monarch butterfly wings have the mark of M. Nobody knows when a squirrel will flick its tail into an outline of a letter like a little n.

  • Natures Alphabet O

    Natures Alphabet P

    Natures Alphabet Q

    Natures Alphabet R
    On a stormy night, a bird’s nest fell to the ground, revealing its finely fashioned o structure. Please notice the perfect P of a fiddlehead fern. Quizzical patterns like a lowercase q appear on rocks like this boulder from the shore of Upper Red Lake. Regard the early spring flowers of prairie smoke in Blue Mounds State Park and you might see a delicate lowercase r.
  • Natures Alphabet S Slivers of birch bark peel into a shape that looks like s written in script.

    Tricky patterns on a moth fit this letter to a T.

    		 Natures Alphabet T
  • Natures Alphabet U

    Under a microscope, would this piece of an oak leaf still look like U?

    		 V is the shape of a rabbit’s ears. Natures Alphabet V

  • Natures Alphabet W

    Natures Alphabet X

    Natures Alphabet Y

    Natures Alphabet Z
    When spring arrives, watch for trout lilies to bloom in W formation in Nerstrand Big Woods State Park. Xeric soil won’t grow wild rice. This native grass grows in lakes. Before it pops up out of the water, the blades lie on the surface and cross into patterns such as X. You can see Y on a sheet of ice on a pond. Zigzag cracks draw a Z on a lichen- covered rock at Split Rock Lighthouse State Park.