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Chicago Nature Now! Alert
June 18, 2020

“Weekly Wildflower Reports Featuring
Chicago’s Best Weekend Getaways & Nature Trips”

Best Wildflower Walks & Outdoor Getaways Around Chicago!

Don’t miss one beautiful moment.
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Even during the COVD-19 pandemic,
we are working hard to bring you opportunities to find peace!
PLEASE DONATE TO HELP US CONTINUE OUR MISSION.

THANK YOU TO THOSE WHO HAVE GIVEN THEIR FINANCIAL SUPPORT, THIS YEAR!

PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE VISITING OUR SHOWCASE PRESERVES DURING THIS TIME OF INCREASED INTEREST IN BEING OUTDOORS:

ChicagoNatureNOW! preserves are Sacred Cathedrals of Nature, NOT playgrounds or amusement parks. Please treat these sanctuaries with reverence. Behave as you would in any house of worship:

  • 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 a house of worship?”

IMPORTANT COVID-19 SITE ACCESS & SAFETY TIPS

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. Check out these websites before you go:

BE SAFE:

  • WEAR A MASK to protect others. Act as if you are infected because you very well could be and don’t know it.
  • Give each other at least TEN feet of space between you because the wind can carry the virus.
    • When people are present, be conscious of the wind and its direction.
    • When having a conversation, position yourselves so that the wind is blowing from the left or the right.
  • Don’t block people’s progress by blocking trails or gathering around trailheads or intersections.

WE NEED MORE SCOUTS, ESPECIALLY IF YOU LIVE SOUTH OF THE CITY.
CLICK HERE TO LEARN ABOUT VOLUNTEERING!

WILDFLOWER HIGHLIGHTS FOR PLANNING YOUR NATURE OUTING AROUND CHICAGO:

The show of the week is happening at Illinois Beach Nature Preserve, where tens of thousands golden sand coreopsis combine with hoary puccoon and downy phlox. This dramatic annual bloom of sand coreopsis is being featured worldwide with my picture in the current edition of the famous Sierra Club Wilderness Wall Calendar. (If you’re interested in an autographed calendar, I have just four copies left in stock here.)

The glorious blossoms of pale purple coneflower (our Plant of the Week) is making a big pink splash at Bluff Spring Fen. Normally, this flower is so prolific at Belmont Prairie, that it nearly stops my heart. But there are remarkably few, this year. Still, Belmont Prairie is a good morning spot to experience the melting blue blooms of Ohio spiderwort that are melting hearts around Chicago. A tremendous show of this ephemeral flower can be experienced for another few weeks. The flowers begin to open a little after sunrise and last until they turn to liquid, which could be as early as noon. The best show is taking place at Wolf Road Prairie in Westchester. There’s also a nice show at Springbrook Prairie in Naperville. Click here to read my poem about Ohio spiderwort.

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, Theodore Stone Preserve, 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. However, last year, I didn’t notice the poison ivy growing right next to the flower. I immediately felt a tingling on my upper lip, but it was too late. 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:

Before visiting a preserve, visit the website for the landholder first. Click here for some resources.

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 like on the coming weekend: “+” is Probably Better; “-” is Probably Less Dramatic; “=” is Probably the Same. Notice the word “probably.”

THIS WEEK’S BEST (“GO!”):

Illinois Beach Nature Preserve in Zion (6/15-): This is the most colorful preserve to visit this week. Golden flowers of sand coreopsis are blooming throughout the preserve, but under the trees they mix with bright-yellow hoary puccoon and pink downy phlox. Tens of thousands of sand coreopsis cover most of sand prairie located east and south of the parking lot in a mix of hoary puccoon and the occasional sandwort, New Jersey tea, and porcupine grass.

Bluff Spring Fen in Elgin (6/17+): The glorious pale purple coneflower is now blooming in several spots with the best display atop the big kame. To reach this spot, 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.

Wolf Road Prairie in Westchester (6/17+): This is “Go!” for the morning only to see the tremendous show of Ohio spiderwort (our Plant of the Week) along the southeast edge of the preserve near Wolf Road. If you visit in the afternoon (and possibly later in the morning) the flowers will be gone. Plus, keep in mind that the flowers fade more quickly when it’s hot. In the prairie, you’ll also find downy phlox, daisy fleabane, prairie sundrop, the beautiful purple milkweed, and the glorious foliage of prairie dock and compass plant.

Belmont Prairie in Downers Grove (6/17+): Like Wolf Road Prairie, this preserve is a “Go!” during the morning hours to see the ephemeral blooms of Ohio spiderwort. Their purple flowers open around sunrise, but only last a few hours until they shrivel away into a purple liquid. Very cool, huh? Click here to learn about spiderwort’s miraculous melting flowers. Pale purple coneflower and scurfy pea are just starting to flower. I often find breathtaking numbers of coneflowers, here. But not this year. Porcupine grass is showing its long miraculous seeds that drill themselves into the soil. Again, “very cool!”  Watch the seed drill in my video. And look for the gorgeous leaves of prairie dock and compass plant that glow brightly when the sun is behind them.

We need scouts, especially Southsiders!
Click here to learn about how you can help us share the beauty.

GO, IF YOU’RE IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD:

Somme Prairie Grove in Northbrook (6/15+): The plants are in transition without a lot of flowering or color, except for Ohio spiderwort that can be found at many places throughout the site. Under the sun, you’ll see the white flowers of foxglove beardtongue, white wild indigo, and daisy fleabane. Under the trees, you the cow parsnip is now showing off its ivory inflorescence. You’ll also notice a white daisy in many places. This is the non-native ox-eye daisy. The preserve was recently burned, which cleared away the brambly dead growth from last year, leaving behind verdant emerging sprouts that pop out against a backdrop of bare black soil. It’s quite garden-like and pleasing to the eye. I especially like the many bright-emerald tufts of prairie dropseed.

Spears Woods in Willow Springs (6/18=); The highlight of the preserve happens in the prairies with a prominent performance of foxglove beardtongue in the prairies. Joining in the show-of-white are white wild indigo and daisy fleabane. And I also found the wonderful prairie sundrop. This preserve is special because of its rolling hills and varying habitats as if you’re moving from one performance theater to another.

Miller Woods in Indiana Dunes National Park (UNSCOUTED): Click here to help us scout this preserve. Come on southsiders! You have a lot of great southern preserves, but most of our scouts are from the north and western suburbs. Volunteer to help out your neighbors discover nature in your area.

Pembroke Savanna in Hopkins Park (UNSCOUTED): Sorry! We didn’t have the woman- or manpower to cover this far southside preserve, either.

PLANT OF THE WEEK: PALE PURPLE CONEFLOWER

In addition to experiencing the prairie as a whole, take a closer look and discover the many attractions that hide in plain sight. Here, within a scene of a thousand coneflowers, I attended a iniature, 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.*

Pale purple coneflower is favorite of mine because I 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

Sand Coreopsis at Illinois Beach Nature Preserve

In a celebration of life, blooms of sand coreopsis spread with golden joy along the banks of the Dead River at Illinois Beach Nature Preserve in Zion.*

In a celebration of life, blooms of sand coreopsis spread their golden joy along the banks of the Dead River at Illinois Beach Nature Preserve in Zion. The current Sierra Club Wilderness Wall Calendar features this image to represent the month of July.*

The turning earth is the dimmer switch, gradually recasting every dim dewdrop, petal, and blade of grass into a galaxy of blazing bulbs and lustrous lamps. On this morning in late May, blooms of golden coreopsis and New Jersey tea are set aglow alongside shimmering spider webs that cling to last year’s grasses.*

The turning earth is the dimmer switch, gradually recasting every dim dewdrop, petal, and blade of grass into a galaxy of blazing bulbs and lustrous lamps. On this late-spring morning at Illinois Beach Nature Preserve, blooms of golden sand coreopsis and New Jersey tea are set aglow alongside shimmering spider webs that cling to last year’s grasses.*

Sand coreopsis sparkles throughout the dunes and sand prairie at Illinois Beach Nature Preserve.*

Sand coreopsis sparkles throughout the dunes and sand prairie at Illinois Beach Nature Preserve.*

Pale Purple Coneflower is in Full Flower

Scattered around Bluff Spring Fen are special hills known as kames, which were formed by gravel and sand left behind by a retreating glacier. Atop this kame, you can clearly see the gravelly soil and the life that somehow manages to make this make home. Here, pale purple coneflowers explode from the rocky bed."

Scattered around Bluff Spring Fen are special hills known as kames, which were formed by gravel and sand left behind by a retreating glacier. Atop this kame, you can clearly see the gravelly soil and the life that somehow manages to make this make home. Here, pale purple coneflowers explode from the rocky bed.”

Pale purple coneflowers rise above the prairie at Bluff Spring Fen in Elgin, Illinois.*

Pale purple coneflower rises above the prairie at Bluff Spring Fen in Elgin. You can also find this beautiful blossom at Belmont Prairie and Theodore Stone Preserve.*

Purple pale coneflowers, scurfy pea, and porcupine grass at Belmont Prairie in Downers Grove, Illinois.*

Pale purple coneflower blooms amidst purple scurfy pea and prickly porcupine grass at Belmont Prairie in Downers Grove.”

The predawn clouds take on the colors of the pale purple coneflowers at this dolomite limestone prairie at Theodore Stone Preserve in Hodgkins, Illinois.*

The predawn clouds take on the color of the pale purple coneflowers at this dolomite limestone prairie at Theodore Stone Preserve in Hodgkins.*

Ohio Spiderwort and its Melting Flowers

Ohio spiderwort in the morning light at Belmont Prairie in Downers Grove, Illinois.

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.

In late May, 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. At dawn, a new bud opens into a delicate blue or purple flower. But as the day wears on, it 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.

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 blossom melts blue between my fingertips, thanks to an enzyme in the flowers that causes it to slowly decompose.

By midafternoon, this spiderwort bloom was melting blue between my fingertips. Do you notice my purple fingers? I was arrested earlier that morning.

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.

Foxglove Beardtongue is Beginning to Bloom

In June, foxglove beardtongue blooms in profusion at Bluff Spring Fen in Elgin, Illinois.*

In June, foxglove beardtongue blooms at Bluff Spring Fen in Elgin and many other preserves. In the fall, the seeds smell EXACTLY like vomit! Be still my heart.*

The Melting Flowers of Ohio Spiderwort

At Miller Woods (Indiana Dunes National Park), spiderwort and ferns cover the side of the dunes.

At Miller Woods (Indiana Dunes National Park), Ohio spiderwort and ferns cover the side of the dunes. You can experience this remarkable morning flower in prairies and savannas across the region. Click here to read my poem about this plant.*

Porcupine Grass and its Miraculous Drilling Seeds

Porcupine grass (Hesperostipa spartea, previously known as Stipa spartea, for anyone who cares) is a particularly fun and interesting plant because of its fascinating seed. The common name refers to its long needles, which apparently resemble the spines of a porcupine, though I think the needle-like fruit best resembles a six- to seven-inch spear. The seed head represents the blade, and the long shaft is known as the awn. As the javelin-shaped fruit falls from the plant, the heavy seed head leads the way and embeds its sharp tip into the soil. As the awn dries, it twirls counter-clockwise until the shaft becomes so tightly wound that the implanted seed head begins to drill into the ground. Humidity and moisture have the opposite effect on the awn, causing it to uncoil, allowing rain or heavy dew to straighten it out. As the awn unwinds, the seed is left in place. The drilling process resumes when the environment dries out, and the cycle repeats until the seed is deposited as far as three to four inches beneath the surface, where the awn decays and the grain germinates. Seeds of porcupine grass can’t help but drill, so much so that they’ve been known to cause fatal wounds in animals. Hence, trust me when I tell you that putting them in your pocket is a big mistake.

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, 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.

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.

Pasture Rose is a Flower that Must be Smelled

Pasture Rose grows in the sand prairie at Illinois Beach Nature Preserve. The fragrance of pasture rose is transcendent—a spiritual experience. 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.*

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.*

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, and the long-lobed leaf is from a cousin called compass plant.

These are the large leaves of the prairie’s most iconic plants. The heart-shaped leaf is that of prairie dock, and the long-lobed leaf is its cousin compass plant.

* Photo is representational and was not recorded this year. Bloom times vary from year to year.

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

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