The curled up fingers of a dried compass plant leaf, moody blue-gray clouds hanging low over yellowed grasses, a formation of sandhill cranes migrating across a partly cloudy sky. These are some of the observations made in natural science illustrator Karen Johnson’s sketchbook, and which she shares on her Instagram (@karensnatureart) and at karensnatureart.com. Living…
Read more

Small but formidable, frustrating the manicured lawn gardener and the native plant enthusiast alike: it’s the genus Viola, the violets. More than two dozen violet species have been recorded in our area and the violet was named the state flower of Illinois. But which one? The school children tasked with deciding the state flower in…
Read more

Four and a half years ago I ran into Ken Klick, restoration ecologist for Lake County Forest Preserves, at Illinois Beach State Park. Ken was headed up to do some rare plant monitoring at Hosah Park and invited me to join him. I had been to Hosah a few years before on a Habitat 2030…
Read more

I was just going through prairie photos, thinking about Henry Eilers and how far recognition of our Prairie has come over the past 5 years! As they say: “time flies when you are having fun!” It was mid to late December of 2014 when I received an email from one HENRY EILERS. I had no…
Read more

We had a fantastic year at the Horn Prairie with abundant rainfall all summer long. The entire 40 acre site was burned in March of 2019, and the prairie ALWAYS blooms better after a good burn. We hosted two prairie tours for INPS this past season with great turn out both times. We were very…
Read more

The Illinois Native Plant Society Research Fund was developed to promote the conservation of Illinois native plants and communities through scientific research. llinois is nicknamed “The Prairie State,” but many woodland species also make their home here, visible in our forest preserves and other natural areas. One of these species is starflower (Lysimachia borealis), an…
Read more

What ecological potential can a former steel processing site hold? The answer is being explored at Big Marsh Park in the Calumet Region on Chicago’s Far Southeast Side. Dr. Lauren Umek, an ecologist and project manager with the Chicago Park District, gave an overview of the site’s history and possible future during the INPS Northeast…
Read more

Sixteen participants had the great privilege of visiting Montrose Beach Dunes on July 16 under the guidance of its longtime and very knowledgeable site steward.  Montrose Beach Dunes development began in the early 1990s when Lake Michigan’s water level dropped to a historic low, creating a much wider beach soon colonized by plants  such as…
Read more

The distance from the Lake Michigan shore at the Wisconsin-Illinois border to the Union Pacific railway tracks is roughly one mile. In that mile lies 10,000 years of the Earth’s history, from the last glacier’s retreat to today’s ridges and swales—and you can walk it in less than half an hour. The railway tracks, dug…
Read more

This Memorial Day, the Northeast Chapter joined a group of volunteers that have gone on a plant walk at Illinois Beach State Park for the past 35 Memorial Days. It’s a fantastic tour of a fantastic natural area every year. This year we had over 60 people attend. That’s not a typo—over 60 people! Due…
Read more