The excerpt

The Southern Chapter of INPS is presenting a workshop on the identification of the sunflower family (Asteraceae) in southern Illinois. The workshop will begin with an introduction to plant features, how to use a dichotomous key and hand lens, and a hike to identify Asteraceae in the field.

When my parents moved to Northbrook in 1951, the entire area between Crabtree Lane and Dundee Road was prairie and unchanneled west fork of the north branch of the Chicago River (except for a handful of houses on the north side of Crabtree Lane near Western Ave). Many natural prairie areas that had never been…
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Lakeside daisy’s (Tetraneuris herbacea) rocky road to recovery began in 1988 when it was listed as a federally threatened species. This designation was determined in part by the limited availability of suitable habitat, and the potential loss of that habitat as a result of stone quarrying operations in major parts of its range (namely Ohio).…
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Dune willow (Salix syrticola) is an Illinois Endangered species found at only a few lakeshore sites in northeastern IL. David Johannesen, a Plants of Concern volunteer, raised an alert in 2020 when he discovered plants were being lost to lakeshore erosion, and flooding had submerged half of the 10 remaining dune willows at Illinois Beach…
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-Lois Fox Since the last newsletter in April, two more field trips that were very different from each other have taken place. One was at the Route 66 Prairie outside of Litchfield and the other at Carol Anderson’s home in Rochester.  Both were well attended.  Henry Eilers led the field trip on May 15 at…
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Join Nick Seaton, board member with the Southern Illinois Native Plant Society at Max Creek to botanize the plants found along the trail system. This event is open to the public but will be capped at 15 participants. Please bring water and snacks and expect to hike approximately 3 miles from 9-12 noon on Saturday July 17th. Max Creek is located north of Vienna off of Taylor Ridge Lane.

If you get Enemion biternatum and Thalictrum thalictroides mixed up, you’re not alone. It doesn’t help that their common names—false rue anemone and rue anemone—are so similar. Both spring ephemerals are in the buttercup family (Ranunculaceae). Both have typically white petaloid sepals and three-lobed leaves. Here are some differences in their appearance: E. biternatum has…
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This year we have already had 2 field trips, one at Bruce Semans’ Cabin and the other at Veara Woods.  Both field trips were well attended.  Another field trip is being planned for the Route 66 Prairie outside of Litchfield. Chris Benda led the field trip on April 18 at Bruce Semans’ Cabin along the…
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The Morton Arboretum is iconic for many reasons. And I’m not sure founder Joy Morton had any idea that his grand idea would evolve into an international center for tree research, centered in its labs and respected herbarium, almost 100 years later. In 1940, their first superintendent, Clarence Godschalk, hired teacher May Theilgaard Watts. May…
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