… and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is hoping to expand the range of a species once extinct in Illinois. Garden scientists, students, and collaborators are conducting research to guide … the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to understand genetic and ecological limits to its recovery in Illinois and the Great Lakes region. “Lakeside daisy relies on dry, rocky habitat in the Great Lakes region to survive. Unfortunately, this habitat is often quarried, so very …
Type: Research
… The Victory Garden movement in World War II encouraged a nation of gardens. The results were impressive: 20 million gardens were established, and 40 percent of fruits and vegetables were homegrown. In Chicago, the Chicago Horticultural Society, the parent organization of the Chicago Botanic … had a leading role, helping to create the largest acreage of urban land under cultivation in the country. That legacy continues today. The Garden’s Windy City Harvest program has …
Type: Blog
… We get a lot of questions about one particular plant in 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 …
Type: Blog
… the Greenhouses with Boyce Tankersley, director of living plant documentation, to see what’s in bloom and take in the different climates visitors can enjoy. In the Arid Greenhouse, we saw a number of species of aloe from South Africa just coming into …
Type: Blog
… Jesiolowski, Tom Weaver, Josh Schultes, Kelly Norris, and Steve McNamara (left to right) In a trip funded by the Plant Collecting Collaborative (PCC) , a consortium of public gardens, … developed, based on what plants our gardens deemed important for conservation, to fill a gap in our collections, or add beauty to our display gardens. And of course, we had the proper state and federal permits in hand for seed collecting. The six areas that we explored were typically oak-hickory forests, …
Type: Blog
… pollinators through Bees & Beyond, a program that reveals the vital role pollinators play in our everyday lives and in a healthy, diverse planet. The “beyond” in the title refers to bats, birds, butterflies, moths, wind, and generally any force or creature …
Type: Blog
… In the Chicago area, record-breaking weather was recorded in 2016 and 2017: For the first time in 146 years, the National Weather Service documented no measurable snowfall in either January or …
Type: Blog
… dressed students are shown sitting near a river, a specimen and an open floristic manual in each of their laps. Inspired, I stand up to look out my window at the plants in bloom in my campus view. I wonder if the present-day students walking past have seen them, too, and are …
Type: Blog
… century, when these and other waders were hunted for their feathery plumes that women wore in their hats. Since then, the great egret, standing more than 3 feet tall with a nearly 5-foot wing span, has become the symbol for the National Audubon Society, founded in part to stop these birds from being killed to extinction. Great egrets spend winter as far south as the West Indies, Central America, and South America. In spring, they migrate in small flocks during the day, eventually choosing a place farther north …
Type: Blog
… In August, when the jewelweed and cardinal flowers bloom, the ruby-throated hummingbird is … Ruby-throated hummingbird © Carol Freeman The ruby-throat is the only hummingbird to breed in eastern North America, and these tiny jewels are somewhat common nesters in Cook County woodlands. They become more numerous in late summer and fall, as those that nested …
Type: Blog
