Rare monkey-flower found by accident

A restaurant garnish gathered along the shores of Glen Lake in the 1980s would unexpectedly help bring attention to one of Michigan’s rarest native plants and set in motion decades of conservation work along the lake’s shoreline.

At the time, Linda O’Neill was working at La Becasse, a French restaurant off Glen Lake that was then owned and operated by her husband, John O’Neill’s family.

“My mother-in-law wanted some garnish for the plates,” Linda recalled. “So I started picking watercress each day for the restaurant.”