Chicago Nature NOW! Alert
June 17, 2021
“Weekly Wildflower Reports Featuring
Chicago’s Best Outdoor Getaways & Nature Trips”
Plan the Best Summer Walks & Outdoor Getaways Around Chicago!
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PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE VISITING OUR SHOWCASE PRESERVES:
ChicagoNatureNOW! preserves are Sacred Cathedrals of Nature, NOT playgrounds or amusement parks. Please treat these sanctuaries with reverence, and behave as you would in any house of worship:
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- Stay on the trails.
- Walk, don’t run.
- If your kids need to run around, there are THOUSANDS of more appropriate places to play.
- Speak quietly as to not interfere with the spiritual experiences of others.
- Don’t pick flowers or remove anything from a preserve.
- Share cherished moments through photography, drawing, painting, and writing.
- Many of these preserves do NOT allow pets, even if they’re leashed.
- If a rule isn’t listed here, then ask yourself, “Would I do this in church?”
SITE ACCESS:
Most sites and trails that are owned by Chicago-area counties and Indiana Dunes National Park are open, except for visitor centers, buildings, and bathrooms. Fermilab Prairie woodland (Fermilab Natural Areas) in Batavia is closed. Period.
WILDFLOWER HIGHLIGHTS TO HELP YOU PLAN YOUR OUTDOOR ADVENTURES INTO CHICAGO’S WOODLANDS:
The best wildflower experience can be found at Spears Woods in Willow Springs, where a wide variety of prairie flowers are blooming in large numbers, including omnipresent cauliflower heads of wild quinine, which can be found in any of our mesic prairies.
Our Plant of the Week is pale purple coneflower, and you can find it light pink and occasionally white. It blooms in large numbers at Bluff Spring Fen, Belmont Prairie, and the slopes outside the fence of Shoe Factory Road Prairie, which has now been reopened, and in fewer numbers in the east prairie of Theodore Stone Preserve,
You can still experience the ephemeral blue flowers of Ohio spiderwort that open to meet their one-and-only day, then dissolve into a gem of purple liquid. They are now melting hearts around Chicago as they continue their monthlong show. You can find them at many preserves around the area. Click here to read my poem about it.
Here is my most profound recommendation for enjoying your time in nature. If the preserve allows, arrive before first light. A morning rendezvous with nature is a magical experience that vastly transcends what’s possible at other times of day. In the early bright, the world expands beyond the usual three dimensions, as the transformation from darkness into light excites more than just the visual sense. As night gives birth to dawn, and the landscape gently turns from azure to gold, the soft and changing light is a spectacle for the eyes. A moist fog or a splash of crisp dew against your skin affirms your existence. The still atmosphere concentrates the fragrances floating in the air and provides a tranquil stage for birds to project their crystal melodies. In the morning, you’ll find all this, along with the promise of a new day.
If a flower that turns to liquid isn’t weird enough, you can now find porcupine grass with a seed that drills itself into the soil. Watch my real-time video of the drilling seed below. Look for this grass and its seeds at Belmont Prairie, Illinois Beach Nature Preserve, Bluff Spring Fen, Pembroke Savanna, Miller Woods, and Powderhorn Marsh & Prairie.
The pearly white trumpets of foxglove beardtongue are now in full blossom. I love this plant because, in the fall, their seeds smell exactly, and I mean “exactly,” like vomit! In stark contrast, you can now experience a most wonderful fragrance by dropping to your knees and lowering your nose into the pink blossom of pasture rose. Over several weeks in late spring, it blooms barely inches from the ground. During that time, whenever we’re together, I partake in a sacred ritual. I drop to my knees and bow in reverence, nose to petal. Only once did I experience a downside. As I lowered my nose to the flower, I immediately felt a tingling on my upper lip that had come into contact with poison ivy. It was a small price to pay for the many years of delight that this flower has brought me.
WHERE TO GO THIS WEEKEND FOR A SPRING WILDFLOWER GETAWAY AROUND CHICAGO:
We’ve ranked the preserves on this week’s list based on the quality of the wildflower experience, starting out with the best or “Go!” The “Go, if You’re in the Neighborhood” section is for sites that are worth visiting if you can’t get out to our top-rated preserves. And our “Preserves for You to Scout” section for those preserves that we couldn’t get to this week, but that you can help us explore! The date within the parentheses tells you when we last scouted the preserve. After the date, you may see one of these three mathematical symbols: +, –, = (plus, minus, equal). They represent our prediction about how the flowers will look on the coming weekend: “+” is Probably Better; “-” is Probably Less Dramatic; “=” is Probably the Same. Notice the word “probably.”
THIS WEEK’S BEST (“GO!”):
The order of the preserves below is based on the quality of the wildflower experience, starting out with the best.
Spears Woods in Willow Springs (6/15+): This preserve is presenting the finest show of the week despite the drought, especially if you visit in the mornings while Ohio spiderwort is in bloom. Joining these melting blue blossoms are the many whites of foxglove beardtongue, white wild indigo, and dramatic displays of wild quinine throughout the prairies. Along the narrow prairie trail, you should also see the stunning purple milkweed, sprinklings of black-eyed Susan, and the glorious and happy yellow blossoms of prairie sundrop. Thanks to spring’s prescribed fire, the prairie is green and clean, uncluttered by last year’s tan skeletons. Spears Woods is one of the most beautiful sites in the region, where your walk will take you through woodlands, prairies, and wetlands.
Bluff Spring Fen in Elgin (6/13+): The glorious pale purple coneflower is now blooming atop the big kame in the savanna and the switchback kame to the northeast. To reach the big kame, please use the out-and-back trail to the top. While you’re up there, you’ll have a great view of the oak savanna and the bowl of the fen to the east. As you continue your hike around the bowl, look for the white blossoms of white wild indigo and daisy fleabane along with newly blooming foxglove beardtongue and wild quinine. Ohio spiderwort is blooming in the mornings. And keep your eye out for fragrant pasture rose at the base of the southeast kame.
Belmont Prairie in Downers Grove (6/15+): The annual performance of pale purple coneflower has begun. And an abundance of scurfy pea is about to fill the prairie with a filigree of blue. And don’t forget that the ephemeral blue blossoms of Ohio spiderwort bloom in the morning hours. Their blue flowers open around sunrise, but only last a few hours until they shrivel away into a purple liquid. Very cool! Click here to read my poem about spiderwort’s miraculous melting flowers. I just love the grasses, including the drooping heads of prairie brome and the miraculous self-drilling seed of porcupine grass. Click here to watch my video about it.
Wolf Road Prairie in Westchester (6/15+): This is “Go!” for the morning hours to experience the show of Ohio spiderwort amidst a dramatic glowing backdrop of aortic prairie dock foliage. It’s a “Go, if you’re in the neighborhood,” otherwise. Along the way, you’ll also experience the beautiful whites of the numerous wild quinine and daisy fleabane, and the occasional stalks of white wild indigo and purple meadow rue. Yellow petals are provided by smattering of black-eyed Susan along with small heart-stopping displays of prairie sundrop. The textures and colors of the foliage adds to excitement, including the blue-greens of rattlesnake master and hundreds of prairie dock hearts.
GO, IF YOU’RE IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD:
Somme Prairie Grove in Northbrook (6/16+): If you live up north, and you don’t want to come down south, just visit Somme Prairie Grove to enjoy the greenery of the scenery with occasional flashes of floral color. This preserve has a nice feel to it. Throughout the preserve, you’ll find various lush textures and green hue from forbs, sedges, grasses, and bloomers-to-be, including the floppy hairdos of prairie dropseed, heart-shaped leaves of prairie dock, desert-looking rattlesnake master, and fern-looking leadplant with a flower head that’s just starting to turn into purple flowers. I’m about to list a bunch of flowers, but that doesn’t mean that there’s a lot of floral color. The preserve is still ninety-eight percent green. The gorgeous yellow blossoms of prairie sundrop steal the show, this week, with a little bit of competition from newly flowering orange butterfly weed and the few remaining groups of red Indian paintbrush. Flickers of white come from foxglove beardtongue, wild quinine, white wild indigo, daisy fleabane, and the non-native ox-eye daisy. And keep your eyes open for the striking blooms of purple milkweed and the beautifully scented pasture rose. And finally, the golden flowers are blooming on a few compass plants.
Shoe Factory Road Prairie in Hoffman Estates (6/14+): The action is really taking place outside the fence and official boundary of the preserve where hundreds of pale purple coneflower bloom on the southern and western slopes. It’s quite green inside the fence, but you’ll find porcupine grass, wild quinine, a couple of early-blooming leadplant, a few prairie coreopsis, downy phlox, and short green milkweed. NOTE: Consider visiting Bluff Spring Fen while you’re here. It’s roughly in the neighborhood.
PLANT OF THE WEEK: PALE PURPLE CONEFLOWER
Pale purple coneflower is favorite of mine. I just love how the petals droop downward. The plant has deep taproot, allowing it to survive drought and to thrive in gravel and dolomite limestone prairies. In the warm light of rising or setting sun, the flowers turn a stunning orange pink. Here at Belmont Prairie, I picked out this scene from a thousand coneflowers: a miniature, slow-motion rodeo that was taking place upon one prickly flower head. I watched as a tiny ant rode the back of a slinking inchworm.*
PHOTO SECTION
Porcupine Grass and its Miraculous Self-Drilling Seeds
The seeds of porcupine grass are located at the tip of long sharp needles that fall off the plant and then slowly drill themselves into the soil. You can find porcupine grass at Belmont Prairie, Illinois Beach Nature Preserve, Bluff Spring Fen, Pembroke Savanna, Miller Woods, and Powderhorn Marsh & Prairie.*
The awn of this porcupine grass seed is tightly twisted, as you can see by the winding yellow and black stripes along its length. The pointy seed head of porcupine grass is bearded, with hairs pointing upward to keep it lodged in the soil.
As a fun experiment, drop the entire fruit into a tall glass of water and remove it after it has mostly straightened out. Dab it dry with a towel, and then stick the seed head into a small pot of dirt or, if in a pinch, a dry sponge. Now watch. Soon, you’ll begin to see the awn wind like a very slow second hand of a backwards-running clock.
Watch my video of porcupine grass drilling itself into the soil right before your eyes!
CLICK HERE TO LEARN MORE ABOUT PORCUPINE GRASS.
Foxglove Beardtongue
In June, foxglove beardtongue blooms at Bluff Spring Fen in Elgin and many other preserves. The flowers have no smell that I can detect. But come autumn, the seeds smell EXACTLY like vomit! Be still my heart.*
The spring prairie at Spears Woods in Willow Springs puts on a show of foxglove beardtongue.
At Bluff Spring Fen in Elgin, Illinois, pearl blossoms of foxglove beardtongue catch the morning rays and a new day awakens—one as splendid and picturesque as any place on Earth.*
Pale Purple Coneflower is Faring Well Despite the Drought
The predawn clouds take on the colors of the pale purple coneflower at this dolomite limestone prairie at Theodore Stone Preserve in Hodgkins, Illinois. You can usually find this majestic plant growing most prominently at Bluff Spring Fen.*
Each day, Mother Nature chooses from an array of natural elements and then fashions them into new works of art. Most Junes at Belmont Prairie, dazzling mosaics like this go on exhibit. Assembled from over one hundred pale purple coneflowers, the final work, not the individual pieces, draws our attention.*
Sometimes the petals of pale purple coneflowers can be pale white. Here, a combination of pink and white coneflowers populate the kame at Bluff Spring Fen in Elgin, Illinois.*
Ohio Spiderwort is Our Morning Star
In late May or early June, Ohio spiderwort begins a performance that will last a month or longer, starring a cluster of buds that releases only a couple of flowers each day. Each morning, a new bud opens into a delicate blue or purple flower. You can find spiderwort, right now, at Wolf Road Prairie, Belmont Prairie, Bluff Spring Fen, Pembroke Savanna, Powderhorn Prairie, Miller Woods, Illinois Beach Nature Preserve, and more.
As the day wears on, each blossom begins to wither—then miraculously melts into a gem of royal jelly. An enzyme in the flower causes it to slowly decompose, and hot weather speeds up the process. It’s noon, and this flower is already shriveling.
By midafternoon, this spiderwort bloom was melting blue between my fingertips. Do you notice my purple fingers? I was arrested earlier that morning.
This is the scene from Wolf Road Prairie, as blossoms of Ohio spiderwort open to meet the new day.*
At Miller Woods (Indiana Dunes National Park), spiderwort and bracken fern cover the side of the dunes.*
Now that you know a little something about spiderwort, click here to read my poem about this plant from my book, My Journey into the Wilds of Chicago: A Celebration of Chicagoland’s Startling Natural Wonders.
Pasture Rose is a Must-Smell Flower
Pasture rose grows here in the sand prairie at Illinois Beach Nature Preserve. But you can also find it at other preserves, including Bluff Spring Fen and Pembroke Savanna. The fragrance of pasture rose is transcendent—a spiritual experience.*
Purple Milkweed
The striking blooms of purple milkweed can be found in the best prairies and savannas, including Somme Prairie Grove and, here, at Wolf Road Prairie in Westchester, Illinois.*
Butterfly Weed is Beginning to Flower at Some Sites
Coral hairstreak butterfly on butterfly weed at Gensburg-Markham Prairie in Markham, Illinois.*
Here at Belmont Prairie in Downers Grove, the bright orange flowers of butterfly weed makes a colorful statement. You can find this plant at several high-quality preserves, including Bluff Spring Fen, Illinois Beach Nature Preserve, and Somme Prairie Grove.*
Butterfly weed blooms across the oak savanna at Illinois Beach Nature Preserve. You can also find it at many other preserves including, Somme Prairie Grove, Belmont Prairie, and Bluff Spring Fen.*
Purple Meadow Rue Towers in Some Spring Prairies
In June, purple meadow rue towers above the blue morning blooms of Ohio spiderwort at Wolf Road Prairie in Westchester, Illinois.
Indian Paintbrush
Here at Illinois Beach Nature Preserve, Indian paintbrush brightens up the foggy morning landscape. You can also find this flower at Gensburg-Markham Prairie and Somme Prairie Grove.*
Compass Plant is Starting to Flower
The golden blooms of compass plant are just starting in some of our prairies. They’re an iconic species that can be found in most of our mesic prairies.
The Charismatic Foliage of Compass Plant & Prairie Dock
These are the large leaves of the prairie’s most iconic plants. The heart-shaped leaf is that of prairie dock, while the long-lobed leaf is its cousin compass plant.
Green glow describes leaves that glow a bright green from sunlight shining through them. Here, we see a special kind of green glow that results in a shadow play, as sunlight shines through a translucent leaf of prairie dock, as golden Alexander casts its distinctive silhouette.*
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If you find this website of Chicago nature information useful, please consider donating or purchasing my nationally-acclaimed book that celebrates all of the preserves featured on this website.
—Mike
