Illinois Botanizer

Illinois Botanizer This page features the natural history of flora and fauna in Illinois. Emphasis is on remnant natural communities. Photography by Christopher David Benda.

Some students from the summer flora class wanted to see Cretaceous Hills Ecological Area in southern Pope County so we v...
08/24/2026

Some students from the summer flora class wanted to see Cretaceous Hills Ecological Area in southern Pope County so we visited today and recorded 231 species of vascular plants, including 8 state listed species!
1. Obligatory group photo
2. Rhexia mariana, dull meadow beauty
3. Sagittaria australis, longbeak arrowhead
4. Selaginella apoda, spikemoss
5. Scirpus polyphyllus, leafy bullrush
6. Diphasiastrum digitatum, ground pine
7. Thelypteris noveboracensis, New York fern
8. Isotria verticillata, large whorled pogonia orchid
9. Bartonia paniculata, screw stem
10. Osmundastrum cinnamomeum, cinnamon fern

The neat thing about ferns is that most of them are native! However, there are few non-native species that occur in the ...
08/23/2026

The neat thing about ferns is that most of them are native! However, there are few non-native species that occur in the wild in southern Illinois and this is one seems to be popping up more and more.
This is Macrothelypteris torresiana and it is native to Asia and Africa. In the 2014 edition of Vascular Flora of Illinois Mohlenbrock lists it as very rare in Johnson County. Now it can be found across southern Illinois.

I often tell people that most plant species that are rare in Illinois are common somewhere else. The Illinois landscape ...
08/21/2026

I often tell people that most plant species that are rare in Illinois are common somewhere else. The Illinois landscape is relatively young geologically speaking and so we have very few endemic species. That being said Actaea rubifolia, called Appalachian Bugbane, is rare in Illinois, only occurring in a few counties in the southernmost part of the state and is rare across its entire range.
The flowers look similar to black cohosh, Actaea racemosa, but the leaves do not, as black cohosh leaves are much more dissected. Plus that species curiously does not occur in southern Illinois anyway.
Actaea rubifolia populations mostly occur in Illinois and Tennessee, with additional populations in a few counties in Kentucky, Indiana, and Virginia. In Illinois, the species occurs at the bases of slopes in moist, rocky, forested ravines, primarily in Pope and Hardin counties.

In between rare plant monitoring with volunteers, I visited two iconic Hardin County sites today, Cave-in-Rock State Par...
08/21/2026

In between rare plant monitoring with volunteers, I visited two iconic Hardin County sites today, Cave-in-Rock State Park along the Ohio River and Iron Furnace near Big Creek. It’s a long drive out there from Carbondale, but it’s worth it and if you go during the week this time of year, you can enjoy the sites all by yourself.

I was gifted these beautiful paintings by Laura Majorie Miller, an Illinois Master Naturalist and community listener in ...
08/20/2026

I was gifted these beautiful paintings by Laura Majorie Miller, an Illinois Master Naturalist and community listener in my summer flora class at Southern Illinois University. She made one painting after each class.
I love how she labeled them with scientific names and focused on some more subtle features than just the flowers. The paintbrush-like pawpaw bud, choosing the rather obscure rush Juncus effusus, the succulence of the fameflower, the elegance of the spiderwort, the hairiness of the hawkweed leaves complete with notches in the yellow ray flowers, and the floating purple fragrance of American pennyroyal.

A truly bizarre looking wildflower is the Purple Passionflower, Passiflora incarnata. This vine is common along fencerow...
08/20/2026

A truly bizarre looking wildflower is the Purple Passionflower, Passiflora incarnata. This vine is common along fencerows and thicket edges and has an edible fruit called a maypop. It’s larger and showier than our other native passionflower, the yellow passionflower, Passiflora lutea.

Hydrolea uniflora, simply called One-flowered Hydrolea, is a state endangered species in Illinois and a gorgeous wildflo...
08/19/2026

Hydrolea uniflora, simply called One-flowered Hydrolea, is a state endangered species in Illinois and a gorgeous wildflower. I have observed it at just 6 locations in 4 counties, all near the southern tip of Illinois, which is the northern edge of its natural range. At one privately owned site, hundreds if not thousands of plants occur in a constructed wetland in a former crop field. It also occurs in several roadside ditches that seasonally flood and are largely undisturbed otherwise, as well as several high quality swamps and floodplain forests. Flowering plants are well guarded too, as there is a spine or two at each node.

Cup Plant, Silphium perfoliatum, in full glorious bloom in a prairie-like landscape in Lake County, with an ominous summ...
08/15/2026

Cup Plant, Silphium perfoliatum, in full glorious bloom in a prairie-like landscape in Lake County, with an ominous summer storm brewing in the background.
Silphiums differ from Sunflowers (Helianthus) by having large, rounded phyllaries and seeds produced from fertile ray flowers instead of long and pointy phyllaries and seeds produced from fertile disk flowers as in Helianthus.

Brand new meme dropped! I came up with this while conducting vegetation sampling yesterday in Cook County with Nathanael...
08/14/2026

Brand new meme dropped!
I came up with this while conducting vegetation sampling yesterday in Cook County with Nathanael Pilla of Midwest Biological Survey, LLC. Botanists spend long days in the field, which might make us a little silly.
Thanks to Michael Lynch for making this meme.

The 2026 August Plant Identification class at Paintbrush Prairie. I teach this intensive 3-day botany workshop three tim...
08/13/2026

The 2026 August Plant Identification class at Paintbrush Prairie. I teach this intensive 3-day botany workshop three times a year in Chicagoland with Dr. Glenn Adelson of Lake Forest College.
Until next year!

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