Chicago Nature Now! Alert
July 13, 2017
“Plan your Chicago outdoor adventure with Chicago nature info and news
to help you discover the region’s finest natural wonders.”
Click here to see my interview about Chicago nature on CBS 2 Chicago “Sunday Morning News.”
Here’s what’s happening in Chicago nature to help you plan your Chicago outdoor adventure:
This week, the preserves with the best blooms are Bluff Spring Fen, Somme Prairie Grove, and Shoe Factory Road Prairie. All three feature beautiful displays of purple prairie clover. But, don’t just view the prairie clover. Take in its refreshing fragrance that resembles a medley of carrot and lemon.
HIGHLIGHTS
Bluff Spring Fen is gorgeous, right now, with flowering purple prairie clover throughout the preserve and many other species in bloom.
Somme Prairie Grove is putting on a show of many flowers, with purple prairie clover playing the leading role.
Shoe Factory Road Prairie offers a fanfare of prairie coreopsis and rattlesnake master.
WHERE TO GO THIS WEEKEND FOR A CHICAGO OUTDOOR ADVENTURE
Bluff Spring Fen in Elgin: Come to see the vast celebration of purple prairie clover, which has taken most of the dry, gravelly area of the prairie. You’ll also find many other flowering species, like yellow black-eyed Susan, yellow coneflower, rosinweed, and sky-bound compass plant. Butterfly milkweed, common milkweed, wild bergamot, and hoary vervain are also part of the kaleidoscopic mix.
Somme Prairie Grove in Northbrook: The beautiful display of purple prairie clover is this week’s reason to visit. However, 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 other blooms of wild quinine, rattlesnake master, black-eyed Susan, butterfly weed, and towering compass plants. I often speak of the forbs (flowering plants), but the texture of the grasses are also quite beautiful, in particular, prairie dropseed.
Shoe Factory Road Prairie is putting on a dramatic show of purple prairie clover and rattlesnake master. While you’re here, consider visiting Bluff Spring Fen, which is fifteen minutes away by car.
Miller Woods (Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore) in Gary, Indiana: We weren’t able scouting this preserve, this week. Please consider volunteering for us. Last week, there was a big display of New Jersey tea along the Beach Trail that combines beautifully with with yellow blooms of black-eyed Susan.
COMING SOON: PRAIRIE BLAZING STAR
PHOTO SECTION
Purple Prairie Clover
A honey bee flies over to purple prairie clover at Bluff Spring Fen Nature Preserve in Elgin, Illinois. You must smell this refreshingly fragrant flower. To me, its smells like a mix of carrot and lemon. *
There’s hardly a dull moment in Bluff Spring Fen’s prairie. Just as blooms of leadplant and coreopsis fade, purple prairie clover rises to take their place.*
Rattlesnake Master
Rattlesnake master is a wonderful Chicago prairie flower that looks like something you’d find in Arizona or Texas. To experience rattlesnake master, visit Belmont Prairie, Somme Prairie Grove, Shoe Factory Road Prairie, Wolf Road Prairie, Fermilab Prairie, Gensburg Markham Prairie, Kickapoo Woods and Prairie, Spears Woods, Theodore Stone Preserve, and other local prairies over the next few weeks.*
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.*
Come to Bluff Spring Fen early on a July morning and you might experience a chromatic expanse of purple prairie clover.*
“Lavender in color and mint in fragrance” describes wild bergamot. “Whimsical with an aroma of anise” describes yellow coneflower. Both are native to the prairie, and both are healers. Known as pioneer species,
they are among the first plants to colonize disturbed or degraded areas. Their presence improves soil quality while allowing other plants to move in, leading to greater biodiversity.*
Somme Prairie Grove
Here, at Somme Prairie Grove in Northbrook, Illinois , we see the large, deeply lobed leaf of compass plant among a sea of purple prairie clover.*
* 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 20 (in rough order of urgency):
- Somme Prairie Grove: Status of purple prairie clover and other blooms, including like sweet (or purple) Joe-Pye weed in the woodland and woodland sunflowers.
- Bluff Spring Fen: Status of purple prairie clover and other blooms.
- Shoe Factory Road Prairie: Status of purple prairie clover, rattlesnake master, etc..
- Illinois Beach Nature Preserve: Status of butterfly weed, flowering spurge, etc.
- Wolf Road Prairie: Culver’s root, wild bergamot, etc.
- Kickapoo Prairie: General status
- Miller Woods: General status.
- Powderhorn Prairie: General status.
- Belmont Prairie: General status.
- Fermilab 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
