Big Bluestem (Andropogon gerardii) towering over my head.Last week I went with the girl's class to Grigsby Prairie in Barrington Hills, Illinois. This is a restored prairie owned by a private organization, Citizens For Conservation. (Last year I chaperoned my son's class to this same prairie, but that was in November, when there were no flowers in bloom and it was quite chilly.) This year it was warm and the prairie forbs were still in bloom.
I wish I could remember who* asked about the identity of this plant, but my memory is starting to resemble a teenager's bedroom: what I want is in there somewhere, but I just can't find it right now. Whoever it was, here it is, Indian Plantain (Arnoglossum plantagineum), from the Aster family. Someone else (I can't recall who) had a question about the identity of a Goldenrod, which she described as having almost round leaves. I wonder if it was this one
Stiff Goldenrod (Oligoneuron/Solidago rigidum), which has flat-topped flower clusters.I've been seeing Praying Mantises on blogs a lot lately, including Prairie Rose's Garden and Ledge and Gardens, so I thought I'd join in the fun. One of the boys in the class spotted this one.
I felt like abducting it to my garden.In addition to the standard blooms of Asters and Goldenrods, we saw the blooms of Prairie Penstemon,
and the jewels of the prairie, the Gentians. That's Closed or Bottle Gentian (Gentiana andrewsii) in the above photo 
and this is Fringed Gentian (Gentianopsis crinita).The Illinois prairie is at its peak of beauty right now. I wish I could take everyone along to experience its sights and sounds, but we can't hold the 2009 Spring Fling in the autumn because it would conflict with the Garden Writers of America Conference. Maybe I'll learn how to upload videos and post a mini tour that way. I love the prairie, it is such a special and unique place.
*Thanks to Beckie for refreshing my memory. It was Lisa of Greenbow who asked about a wild, white-flowered plant. It might this.
25 comments:
I love the Fringed Gentian, I have never seen it before. I am in a neighboring state to you. Missouri has most of the flowers you speak of. I have always let them live in my gardens. I love native plants. Where I moved to in mid Mo. There are so many fields full of color. I love the bounty of natural flowers.
Thanks for that 'shout out'. I think the praying mantis is truely weird looking. Glad you saw one on your walk. The fringed gentian is a great shot. I don't believe that I have actually seen one before this picture.
MMd,
I love the Fringed Gentian, what a great photo. We never went on a field trip this cool when Matt was a kid!
gail
Hi MMD, hope you got your feed thing figured out. I'm with Gail, we went on lots of field trips but never to a place like this. It seems fairly close to you to, is it? And no autumn spring fling? What, or should I say when then? And I do want to got to the writer's conference too, how do you get to go? What do you join and sign me up!
Frances
What an awesome fieldtrip! Why didn't I get to cool places like that when I was in school. I love the Fringed Gentian too, it is quite pretty.
MMD, Lisa at Greenbow first asked about the Indian Plantain. She'd seen a whole filed of them. Your prairie shots are great and I, too, love the Fringed Gentain. So glad you got a second chance to go and see the prairie at it's best.
Oh wait! I just got it. Little Class(House) on the Prairie. Good one!
What a cool field trip! I love the praying mantis..we've got a few in the yard and they are so fun to find...and I swear they scope you out while you try to take their picture.
If I'd known you'd wanted a praying mantis for your garden, MMD, perhaps I could have mailed you one:)
I may have been the one who asked about the Indian Plantain some time ago, but I've forgotten, too. Thanks for all the helpful identification of these lovely prairie plants. I've become entranced with these native plants this year and find myself watching the roadsides while I drive by to see what's blooming. Looks like I need to make another trip to the local park with the prairie project.
That fringed gentian is really pretty. I love the midwestern prairie and enjoyed your field trip.
The fringed Gentian is a beauty!!! Must be on the look-out for that one!
/ Katarina
Hi MMD, very cool field trip! I did lots of field-trip chaperoning way back when my girls were in school, no gardens though.
I love the prairie photos -- just another place I am going to write down as "place to visit!." We are so lucky to have all this in Northern Illinois.
BTW, you posted that your Pagoda Dogwood and japanese Aemone are battling - you'll have to post a photo because I can't picture that. And I'm curious how others who bought he PD are faring.
My daughter snapped a picture of a mantis with one green eye and one black eye. I put it up on my blog. I guess fall is the time to spot the praying mantis, and they're always interesting. I've seen lots of pictures up too.
Your prarie excursion was very informative. Thanks for posting.
ICQB
Hi MMD, Great post! I should get out to our prairie more often, but it seems there's always so much to do "around here!" whine?
I, too, would love to import a few praying mantises. I've seen a lot of them on other peoples' posts. Your photo accentuates his camouflage ability! :-)
What is the Garden Writers of America Conference??
Grammy - I wish I could grow Gentians. I had a different species, but it lived for only a few years. Wildflowers are so wonderful.
Layanee - I wish the girl had been as interested in seeing the Mantis as I was. The Fringed Gentian is a much less common plant than the Bottle Gentians, both blue and white.
Gail - I'm very fortunate to live in a community that values the environment so highly. At another school in the district, the kids have planted a rain garden next to the playground.
Frances - you're right, this prairie isn't too far from home. It's in the same community as the long shot of the road that I used in my Where in the World are you Blogging from post. I'll email you about the GWA thing, but all I'm willing to say publicly about 2009 Spring Fling right now is that it won't be in June and it won't be in the fall. I hope to have a date pinned down by Monday. Then I'll make the big announcement.
PG - we never had field trips like this when I was a kid because there weren't places like this yet. These kids don't know how lucky they are.
Beckie - thanks for remembering it was Lisa. Now I remember! I'll go leave her a message.
Leslie - Mantises make such good photo subjects because they move so slowly. Unlike the rotten butterflies who flee when they see me focusing the camera.
Rose - I hope you're not driving! Thanks for the Mantis offer, but I don't think the girl would want to find one in the mail. Maybe you asked about the Indian plantain too. (It's hell to get old!)
Pam - I don't remember, did you visit the prairie at the Chicago Botanic Garden when you were here last fall? It's smaller than this one, but it's a nice one.
Katarina - the Fringed Gentian likes moist soil. I hope you find one. It's times like this that I wish my soil wasn't so well drained.
Garden Girl - 2 years ago I went with the boy's class to the Botanic Garden, but the school discontinued that field trip, so the girl didn't get to go. I was very disappointed.
Rosemarie - have you been to the Morton Arboretum's prairie? I think I like that one better than the one at the botanic garden. I took a fall class at the arboretum one year and we went out in the prairie for nearly every class. Soon I will post "The Truth About Japanese Anemones." I need to take another photo or 2.
That's the kind of class that I like to take. Can I come next year too, pretty please with sugar on top? ;-)
Gentians are great flowers, with or without fringes.
MrMcD, Thanks so much for the id of the Indian Plantain. It is probably the same plant. The ones here are about finished blooming but still the butterflies stay on it.
That Fringed Gentian is gorgeous. I would love to have that growing in the garden.
I don't like to be in a field of the Big Blue Stem Grass. It makes me feel clostrophobic. Ha.. It does attract birds though.
I about cracked up reading your analogy of your mind being like a teenagers room. Now that is a scary thought.
Love those gentians! What a beautiful blue.I visited the arboretum today....tomorrow the prairie forest preserve. We must visit these places before the snow flies. Thanks for sharing with us.
I SO much want to see some proper prairie! The little restored/protected piece I saw in Windsor, Ontario (yes, prairie extended even that far) and bits I saw around Kansas City and at Powell Gardens just whet my appetite to see more of this stunning natural beauty. Your photos helped a LOT, too. That fringed gentian made me instantly happy to look at it.
I really like the stem and leaves on that stiff goldenrod. They really have some architectural interest... how big (approximately) are those rounded leaves?
Yolanda Elizabet - if you like this class, you would have really liked a class I took a long time ago at the Morton Arboretum. It was called Autumn Plants, and we trudged all over the arboretum, including the prairie and the woods, even into streams, looking at plants.
Lisa - I think I've changed my mind again about that plant. Yours might be Eupatorium perfoliatum. I'm so confused! Fringed Gentian needs wet soil, so if you can make a bog garden it might work. Clautrophobia & the Tall Grass Prairie don't mix. The stems do smack you in the face and it is possible to get lost on a large prairie.
Balisha - don't you like the prairie in the snow too? :^) I've seriously considered taking up cross-country skiing at the forest preserve.
Jodi - Hey, that's a good slogan for a Tshirt, "Happiness is a Fringed Gentian." Grigsby Prairie is a good sized one, but none of the ones around here are big enough for me. I'd like to go to the one downstate that has Bison. That would be satisfying.
Blackswamp Girl - the leaves of Stiff Goldenrod are about 2" for the largest and about a quarter inch for the smallest. The flowers are very un-Goldenrodish, looking more like Bidens.
It was me who was wondering about the wild flower you called Indian Plantain.
I was wondering after Lisa from Greenbow began wondering. I was looking in my wildflower book and I am thinking what I see in the restored prairie near my house might be Tall Meadow Rue.
What do think?
I love the prairie in every season.
Sherry
Oh, that fringed gentian is interesting! Hey, I'll plug myself, come see my mantis post from Saturday. It's delicious.... And as for anemones, as per your more recent post, I've had one for only a year and it's getting thuggish, but this is fine, so far. Can't remember the cultivar, though.
Sherry - I'll take a look. So many of the plants look similar in books that they need to be compared out in the field to be able to distinguish them. I love the prairie in every season too, but I am just blown away by it when the grasses wave over my head.
Benjamin Vogt - another Mantis post? Great! They are such cool insects, definitely in the top 5 with that black & yellow spider, the stick bugs, a funky little striped thing I haven't identified yet & the hummingbird-looking moths.
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