Prairie Phlox (Phlox pilosa)

    Prairie Phlox is a perennial plant native to the eastern half of the United States and Canada. It is a prairie spring-time bloomer that likes to grow in moist to mesic soils.

Chickopee Woods Mountain Bike Trails (Unknown Bush)

       I went to Gainsville, GA for the thanksgiving holiday weekend, and while I was there I went to Chickopee Woods Mountain Bike Trails. That is when I spotted this very beautiful peculiar bush with large pink berries. If anyone knows what this is please let me know!

Winged Loosestrife (Lythrum alatum)

    Winged loosestrife is a wetland perennial plant native to the eastern half of the United States and Canada. It likes to grow along marshes, lakes, ponds, ditches, wet prairies, and swales. During the first few years of its life, it is only a few feet tall, but as these pictures indicate, winged loosestrife can get pretty tall, as tall as 6 feet in later years.

Santa Fe Prairie

Entrance to the prairie

A caboose in remembrance when the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway owned the prairie before 1997.

My second geocache.

      

 This is how Santa Fe Prairie looks like in the winter. A few trees and marshes dot the prairie.

            This past week I went to Santa Fe Prairie Nature Preserve in Hodgkins, IL. Santa Fe Prairie is a very high quality prairie and there is only only another of its kind in Illinois.Santa Fe Prairie is a gem in the midst of an industrial park. The small 10 acre prairie boasts more than 250 native prairie plants, but unfortunately one of my worst nightmares, teasel, is slowly creeping in on the borders of the prairie. Other undesirable plant species that I have encountered were poplar trees, giant ragweed, narrow-leaved cattail and Canada goldenrod. What I found very interesting about the prairie is that there were native roses (most likely pasture rose was present), some rare trees that they had flagged off for protection, a giant sea of Indian grass with wild bergamot, tall coreopsis, wild quinine, mountain mint, yellow coneflower, prairie dock, rosin weed, and some big bluestem. My visit was in early December so I think that I have only caught a glimpse of what the prairie could look like in the summer when everything is in bloom. It has been mentioned that there are some rarer species in the prairie such as turk's cap lily, butterfly milkweed, pale purple coneflower, bobolinks, and meadow voles.

     While I was there I found a geocache in a very secret location that I cannot speak of. Geocaching has been a recent hobby for me especially when I am out and about in cool areas like Santa Fe Prairie.

For more information about the prairie click on this link:
http://www.chicagowildernessmag.org/CW_Archives/issues/summer2001/IWsantafeprairie.html

Beautiful Swamp Milkweed in Midewin National Tallgrass Prairie

Typha angustifolia (Narrow-Leaved Cattail)

Typha angustifolia is a highly invasive plant that grows in moist to saturated soils such as those in marshes, ditches, and along the edges of lakes. Some say that this plant is native, while others would largely disagree and say that it is exotic since it is not exactly known if this plant was in North America before pre-settlement times.This plant is distinguished from Typha latifolia by its long and thin leaves (1/2 '' wide and 6' long) coming from a single point of origin. Most importantly, this plant has a gap between the pistillate and the staminate flowers whereas, T. latifolia does not. From recent observations, Phragmites australis outcompetes T. angustifolia, but the latter outcompetes Typha latifolia in the same habitat.

Typha latifolia (Broad-leaved cattail)

   Broadleaf cattail is a wetland plant native to many parts of the world. Some sources say that broadleaf cattail is native to North America, Europe, Asia, northern Africa and even India. In the United States, it is native to the lower 48, but a noxious invasive plant in Hawaii. Broadleaf cattail can be found in marshes, riverbanks, swamps, seeps, ditches, and other moist areas.

   Broadleaf cattail is characterized by very long leaves originating from a central portion of the plant. The flowers and the seed head is a large cylindrical body. This plant is highly aggressive and can form large monotypic stands. Today, this plant is being outcompeted by Phragmites australis and Typha latifolia (two highly invasive exotic weeds).