… One day at Butterflies & Blooms, I noticed a crepuscular , cosmopolitan imago puddling in order to prepare for an upcoming lek . What did I just say? The vocabulary surrounding … decode the sentence above. The very cosmopolitan painted lady (Vanesa cardui) Cosmopolitan— In this case, a cosmopolitan is not a mixed drink or a well-traveled individual—although this term is related to being in many …
Type: Blog
… Pondering the Prairie Series Rosa setigera , or Illinois rose, grows in moist prairies and thickets, and is a typical wild rose in many ways: five pink petals, with lots of yellow stamens in the center supported by prickly …
Type: Blog
… Pokémon hunting in the Garden can be a great way to stop and take a closer look at some of the gardens while … GO has taken over the imaginations of kids and adults alike since its recent release. The game is global—users can play anywhere in the world—and the Garden is one of the locations with many … Gyms—virtual locations where players can train and battle their Pokémon—are currently found on-site. But that’s not all that’s to be found: the gardens are a mass of blooms and butterflies, …
Type: Blog
… Like so many things in tending bonsai, how you overwinter your trees is specific to the tree species and the region in which you live. Bonsai in fall color, before being prepped for storage. The same bonsai …
Type: Blog
… that go by the common name of "milkweed" are the food that these butterflies need. Milkweed is both a food source and a host plant on which the monarch butterflies lay their eggs. Monarchs … of the milkweed foliage. After hatching, the larvae consume the foliage, which is high in cardiac glycosides—a poison that interferes with the heart functioning of vertebrates (animals … are native: Asclepias amplexicaulis is native to our prairies and is suitable for planting in sunny perennial flower gardens. The flowers are described as "eraser pink" in color and are …
Type: Blog
… fall asters, many of them blooming throughout October. Look for bottle and cream gentians in the Garden’s Dixon Prairie or elsewhere. Buried beneath the riot of asters, sunflowers, … 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 reached its peak height. Prairie gentian can only be found in remnant prairies of high quality, of which very few have survived. To find this rare gem is a …
Type: Blog
… this past weekend. The titan arum, native to the rainforests of the island of Sumatra in Indonesia, was first “discovered” by Italian botanist Odoardo Beccari in 1878. On 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 …
Type: Blog
… Pondering the Prairie Series Graminoid is a term created to encompass all of those grass-like plants with narrow leaves and barely … who suffer from hay fever. Graminoids such as grasses, sedges, and rushes are well represented in prairies. Grasses—the most dominant graminoid in prairies— have evolved to thrive with grazing animals. In most plants, the growth of the plant …
Type: Blog
… Experts in reforestation are concerned with the reasons why some replanted sites struggle. They suspect the problem may be solved through soil science. The health of a forest is rooted in soil and the diverse fungi living within it, according to researchers at the Chicago … lead to the deforestation of native natural areas. Research collaborators tour a study site in China. “There has been a lot of deforestation in China and so there is interest in …
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 inches long and 8–10 inches wide, with deeply serrated edges, and is completely …
Type: Blog
