Chicago Nature Now! Alert
June 29, 2017
Fourth of July Edition
“Plan your Forth of July nature adventure with Chicago nature info and news
to help you discover the region’s finest natural wonders.”
Plan your Fourth of July Chicago nature adventure. This week, there is so much to see and explore!
Here’s what’s happening in Chicago nature:
This week, the preserves with the best blooms are Somme Prairie Grove, Bluff Spring Fen, and Shoe Factory Road Prairie. This week also features grand displays of leadplant and other fascinating blooms like eastern prickly pear cactus. Yes, Chicago has a native cactus! The remarkable spiderwort is still blooming in many preserves, but not as prolifically as before. You will only see their flowers in the morning. By the afternoon, their purple blooms will have melted into a purple liquid! Learn more here.
HIGHLIGHTS
Somme Prairie Grove is the preserve of the week for wildflowers. According to Nature Scout Charlie Yang, the preserve “lights up with all kinds of flowers” led by a spectacular show of leadplant.
Bluff Spring Fen is beautiful, right now, as it shows off thick displays of leadplant, prairie coreopis, and pale purple coneflower.
Shoe Factory Road Prairie offers a fanfare of prairie coreopsis, and leadplant. And in the prairie outside the fence, you’ll find other flowers like pale purple coneflower.
Belmont Prairie is offering an exciting presentation of pale purple coneflower, porcupine grass, and scurfy pea, and many gorgeous orange blossoms of butterfly weed.
Illinois Beach Nature Preserve features lots of hairy puccoon, butterfly weed, and porcupine grass. There’s lots of wildlife, here, even if you just happen to see their tracks in the sand. (See photos below.)
Spears Woods offers flowers of silver and gold and several different habits to explore.
Miller Woods is worth visiting, if you’re near Indiana, for its flourish of hairy puccoon and the chance to find eastern prickly pear cactus in flower. You can even take a walk to the beach where you can experience the cool Lake Michigan water.
PLAN YOUR CHICAGO NATURE TRIP THIS WEEKEND
Somme Prairie Grove in Northbrook: Leadplant is putting on a spectacular show, but there are also many different species of colorful flowers in bloom. One of my favorite prairie plant species is tuberous (or prairie) Indian plantain, which you can find soon after walking in. You’ll also see the gorgeous purple milkweed that only grows in oak savannas. Take the time to inhale its delicate fragrance. Along your way, you’ll also find another lovely plant—the yellow prairie sundrop and a smattering of other blooms, including wild quinine, white wild indigo, rattlesnake master, New Jersey tea, black-eyed Susan, prairie coreopsis, and butterfly weed. Soon, you’ll come upon the main event, the purple pageant of leadplant. I often speak of the forbs (flowering plants), but the texture of the grasses are also quite beautiful, in particular, prairie dropseed or, as I like to call it, Cousin Itt plant. I love Cousin Itt. He made very few appearances on “The Addams Family,” which made that much more exciting to see Itt as a kid (and as an adult). Now and though the fall, you can see his likeness at Somme Prairie Grove.
Bluff Spring Fen in Elgin: Your walk begins in the intimate oak savanna under the warm embrace and protection of majestic oaks. Soon, the trails emerge into the open prairie, where you’ll find numerous wildflowers like pale purple coneflower. Porcupine grass can also be found here, as well as butterfly milkweed and purplish common milkweed. As you walk deeper into the preserve, notice the rich display of leadplant and prairie coreopsis—the flowers of the week.
Shoe Factory Road Prairie is putting on a dramatic show of prairie coreopsis and leadplant. And outside the fence on the hillsides, you’ll find other flowers like pale purple coneflower. While you’re here, consider visiting Bluff Spring Fen which is only about fifteen minutes away by car.
Belmont Prairie in Downers Grove: Experience the beautiful symphony of color and texture, this week, at this intimate remnant prairie nestled within a quiet neighborhood of Downers Grove. Orange butterfly milkweed is looking fantastic, especially when it’s draped in the purple flowers of scurfy pea and the whitish texture of porcupine grass that have given up their spear-like seeds. Pale purple coneflower is still prominent, but fading, which is also true for the purple blooms of spiderwort. Its flowers can only be viewed during the morning hours because, as the day warms, the flowers melt away and turn to liquid.
Spears Woods in Willow Springs: “Silver and gold” describes the floral color of the prairies. The silvers come from the alabaster blooms of wild quinine, white wild indigo, and upcoming rattlesnake master. The flowers of black-eyed Susan provide the gold. The preserve is big and gives you a lot to explore. While you’re there, don’t forget to find your way to Hogwash Slough. Click here to visit the Spears Woods page to find the GPS coordinates for the prairie and the slough.
Illinois Beach Nature Preserve in Zion: This preserve is always a great experience, even when there aren’t a lot of blooms. Right now, under the canopy of oaks, you’ll find hairy puccoon in great numbers along with a smattering of butterfly weed and pasture rose. But don’t just view this beautiful rose. Get down on hands and knees and press your nose into the pink petals. It’s worth the effort. Out in the sand prairie, you’ll discover thousands of porcupine grass with their long, needlelike seeds still attached. And finally, look closely for the lemon-colored blooms of eastern prickly pear cactus. This preserve is so rich and wild that you can easily spend most of your day exploring it. And, if you take your time and look closely, you may even find wildlife or their signs. (See photos below of animal tracks, a snapping turtle, and napping turtle eggs.)
Miller Woods (Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore) in Gary, Indiana: If you’re in Indiana, visit for a nice long walk hike among the hairy puccoon, which is prominent throughout the preserve. And, while you’re there, look for eastern prickly pear cactus. It should be blooming, now. Ask at the visitor center where to find it. Take the Beach Trail and, if you go the the end, you’ll be rewarded by the cool waters of Lake Michigan. Please help us scout this preserve.
Experience Spiderwort: The blooming time for spiderwort is coming to an end. So, head out to just about any of our featured prairies and savannas, or you’ll have to wait until next year. To see the flowers, arrive by 10 o’clock in the morning. At the start of each day and over the span of about a month, the plant produces new purple flowers that turn to liquid by afternoon! To experience this purple liquid, squeeze the closed buds that resemble slightly opened pistachios. For the rest of the day, people will look at your fingers and think you were recently arrested. Read about spiderwort and learn where you can find it.
Experience Porcupine Grass at these preserves: Belmont Prairie, the sand prairie at Illinois Beach Nature Preserve, Shoe Factory Road Prairie, Bluff Spring Fen, and Powderhorn Prairie.
Experience Eastern Prickly Pear Cactus at these preserves: Illinois Beach Nature Preserve, Miller Woods, Powderhorn Marsh & Prairie, Jon J. Duerr Forest Preserve, and Braidwood Dunes.
COMING SOON: PURPLE PRAIRIE CLOVER
PHOTO SECTION
Pale Purple Coneflower
Watch this video from about this time last year at Bluff Spring Fen:
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 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.*
Miraculous Spiderwort with Flowers that Melt!
Spiderwort in the morning light at Belmont Prairie in Downers Grove and at every savanna and prairie that we feature. A flower will open up in the morning and then melt in just a few hours. So, the morning is the time to see the flowers in bloom. Learn more here.
Pasture Rose at Illinois Beach Nature Preserve & Bluff Spring Fen
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.*
Eastern Prickly Pear Cactus at Sandy Preserves Around the Region
Blooms of eastern prickly pear cactus can be found in late June in sandy preserves around the Chicago area, like Illinois Beach Nature Preserve, Miller Woods, Powderhorn Marsh & Prairie, Jon J. Duerr Forest Preserve, and Braidwood Dunes.*
Somme Prairie Grove
It was a very dry year in Chicago, yet you wouldn’t know it from looking at this scene. The purple plant in this panorama is leadplant, which can search for water fifteen feet below the arid surface. Other drought-tolerant species seen here include prairie dropseed and wild quinine, in the front; and farther out, prairie dock, compass plant, and rattlesnake master.*
Bluff Spring Fen
Soon after entering Bluff Spring Fen, you’ll find yourself in an intimate oak savanna, where majestic bur oaks with outstretched limbs protect you in their nurturing embrace.*
Behold! Morning in a Chicagoland prairie. This fine June day awakens to a magnificent panorama of pale purple coneflower, leadplant, and stiff coreopsis.*
At Bluff Spring Fen, in the golden light of morning, wild quinine, stiff coreopsis, and leadplant overlook the foggy fen from atop the reconstructed kame and the remnants of Healy Road Prairie, which was miraculously transplanted here from six miles down the road.*
Shoe Factory Road Prairie
Atop this hill prairie, deep-rooted leadplants combine with the happy yellow faces of coreopsis as they shine through the dissipating fog.*
Belmont Prairie
Belmont prairie is special because it is home to an unusually high number of blooming wildflowers and fascinating plant species. During the month of June, this remnant prairie puts on a most impressive floral display: the celebration of the pale purple coneflower. Mixed amongst the coneflowers, the bright-colored grasses crisscrossing the center of the frame are porcupine grass. Its long spear-like seeds miraculously drill themselves into the earth in a counter-clockwise motion that you can actually watch.*
Illinois Beach Nature Preserve
Butterfly milkweed (or butterfly weed) blooms in several of Chicagoland’s prairies and savannas, including Bluff Spring Fen, Belmont Prairie, Somme Prairie Grove, and, here, at Illinois Beach Nature Preserve in Zion.*
Near the Lake Michigan shore at Illinois Beach Nature Preserve, the low light of morning revealed shapes in the sand that chronicled the secrets of time and affirmed the existence of wondrous creatures and invisible forces.*
On Thursday, June 23, 2017, in the middle of the trail that leads to the Dead River, I found a snapping turtle nest that was raided by a raccoon or other predator. Maybe next time, the mother-t0-be will smarten up and pick a more secluded spot.
A common snapping turtle trudges through the sandy Lake Michigan shoreline on its way to the Dead River at Illinois Beach State Park in Zion, Illinois.*
The Dead River, at Illinois Beach Nature Preserve in Zion, is the only remaining river in Illinois that flows into Lake Michigan. The name comes either from deep pools of quicksand hidden along the banks that devour unsuspecting hikers or from water that remains still and barely flows. On this sapphire morning, the latter was true.*
* Photo is representational and was not recorded this year. Bloom times vary from year to year.
SCOUTING NEEDS for my next report on Thursday, July 6 (in rough order of urgency):
- Somme Prairie Grove: Status of leadplant and other blooms, including rattlesnake master.
- Bluff Spring Fen: Status of leadplant, prairie coreopsis, pale purple coneflowers, and purple prairie clover.
- Shoe Factory Road Prairie: Status of prairie coreopsis, leadplant, purple prairie clover, and rattlesnake master.
- Illinois Beach Nature Preserve: Status of butterfly weed, etc.
- Powderhorn Prairie: Status including eastern prickly pear cactus.
- Belmont Prairie: Status of pale purple coneflower, scurfy pea, and butterfly weed
- Fermilab Prairie: General status.
- Wolf Road Prairie: General status.
- Middlefork Savanna: General status.
If you’d like to help your neighbors discover national-park quality natural events around our homes, then become an official scout. Or, you can help by just sending us pictures and a text description from your visit. Another way is to post your pictures to Instagram using these essential hashtags: #ChicagoNatureNow and #NameOfPreserve.
Do you find this website useful? Do you benefit from our many hours of weekly scouting? Then please help keep it going by donating or purchasing my nationally-acclaimed book.
—Mike
