… Pondering the Prairie Series Life in the prairie in the middle of winter is fairly uneventful; at least for humans who focus primarily on life above ground. Perhaps now is a good time to reflect on the diversity of life in a prairie below ground. All one has to do is drive across the Midwest and view the unending and, to many, boring, miles of corn and …
Type: Blog
… a question we heard a lot from Spike’s visitors this past weekend. The titan arum, native to the rainforests of the island of Sumatra in Indonesia, was first “discovered” by Italian … August 6, 1878, he first observed the leaves and fruits of a plant (interestingly, August 6 is the date we put Spike on public view!) . Several weeks later, Beccari saw a flowering plant for the first time. He sent a few tubers and seeds to Florence, Italy, but the tubers all perished; a few seeds, however, eventually germinated. One …
Type: Blog
… gentian. Talk about taking your breath away! It seems that a brilliantly colored flower is necessary to attract pollinators to a plant of such short stature that chooses to bloom at a time when its grassland habitat has …
Type: Blog
… It’s time for a visit to the Dixon Prairie to savor late spring flowers and the pollinators visiting these plants. A standout plant, looking almost like a small shrub, is white wild indigo (Baptisia alba). This is the white-flowered cousin to blue wild indigo …
Type: Blog
… When I was 8 years old, I traveled with my family to Przysietnica, Poland, to spend the summer with relatives. My grandparents’ farm was the home base for my adventures … wild and tasted like candy. We often brought some back to share with the family, but there is nothing quite like a strawberry fresh off the plant. Time lapse of a strawberry, …
Type: Blog
… the Grunsfeld Children’s Growing Garden: Naranjilla (pronounced nahr-ahn- HEE -yah). It’s easy to see why. You can find this naranjilla ( Solanum quitoense ) in Bed #10 in the Growing Garden. This attractive plant has large, thick, green leaves, is about 10–12 inches long and 8–10 inches wide, with deeply serrated edges, and is completely … (which are not really hairs—in the botanical world they are called “tricomes” ) . It is native to Ecuador and other South American countries. There is more to notice about this …
Type: Blog
… at the Chicago Botanic Garden, there are dragonflies everywhere! The quick, strong fliers seem to love the Garden. Eastern pondhawk dragonfly, female. Most dragonflies have very … field of vision that helps it avoid predators. The most abundant dragonfly I’ve seen is the eastern pondhawk, with blue dasher dragonflies coming in a close second. I’m also seeing … a few damselflies, which are generally smaller and more thin-bodied than dragonflies and tend to hold their wings above their bodies. (See my blog post Damselflies 101 for more information.) …
Type: Blog
… the McDonald Woods, which wrap around the northeastern edge of the Chicago Botanic Garden. But to Jim Steffen , senior ecologist at the Garden, the oak woodland is a bustling center for natural processes and species, and may hold answers to unsolved scientific questions. Purple milkweed ( Asclepias purpurascens ) blooms in the …
Type: Blog
… " The Anna Karenina principle states that “Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way” When we talk about rare species we tend to think of them as a collective group that shares similar traits, however, some argue that … in plant conservation" Botanic Gardens collections are playing an important role in helping to slow the extinction of plant species. A well-planned collection will represent the complete …
Type: Staff bio
… Prairie as we search for songbirds, waterfowl, and raptors. No prior bird-watching experience is required, and binoculars are recommended but not necessary. Bridget Kiernan, birder and …
Type: Item Detail
