Fossil Beach at Westmoreland State Park in Virginia.

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Natural Notes: Native Sunflowers

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September is the month of yellow, and for gardeners the easy-to-grow and popular choice of flower  is the Annual Sunflower ( Helianthus annuus ) which adorns garden borders and roadsides across the Chicago Region.  Numerous cultivars of this urban weed have been developed, and the source of commercial sunflowers and sunflower oil are derived from the Annual Sunflower (figure 1).  Figure 1:  Annual Sunflower growing  at the Taylor Street Farms community garden in Chicago.   But prior to European settlement, the Chicago region was largely absent of this tall and showy late-summer wildflower, whose range historically included the south-central United States into the plains and grasslands just to the east of the Rocky Mountains.  Instead, the prairie landscape of Northern Illinois would have been adorned with several species of native sunflowers and sunflower-like plants (figure 2).  Figure 2:  Although virtually absent of the notor...
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Natural Notes: Animals of the Night

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Are you a night owl?  If you're an Illinois wildlife species, than chances are, yes!  However, many animals besides owls are active at night.  In fact, the majority of wildlife species in Illinois are hunting, gathering mates, establishing territories, and moving about during the nighttime hours! A daytime walk on a trail through a forest preserve might yield some common wildlife sightings such as gray squirrels ( Sciurus carolinensis ) or sparrows.  Most animals that people see around Illinois are active during the day, or   diurnal.   Humans are a great example of a diurnal animal.   Other animals though are most active active at different times of the day (figure 1).  Late in the afternoon or early in the day, many folks encounter white-tailed deer ( Odocoileus virginianus ).  Deer are a great example of a wildlife species that is crepuscular , or active at dawn or dusk. Figure 1:  In Illinois, most wildlife species are more act...
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Windy City Cactus: Eastern Prickly Pear Cactus

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When you think of Chicago, you probably don't think of sand dunes, prairies, or large oak trees.  Yet despite Chicago being the third largest city in the United States and heavily impacted by urban sprawl and industrial blight, there remains thousands of acres of greenspace with wetlands, open woods, sandy beaches...and some rather surprising flora. The pictures below were not shot in Arizona nor in Southwest California, but were in fact taken at the 63rd street beach on a recently restored sand dune near Hyde Park in Chicago, Illinois.  They are the eastern prickly pear cactus ( Opuntia humifusa ) . Figure 1:  Eastern prickly pear cactus, a native plant to the Chicago region and the only native cactus to the Great Lakes area.   The genus Opuntia is much more common out west where they have many different species, but in the Great Lakes and Midwest regions, the eastern prickly pear is the only native cactus.  It tends to be a little bit smaller than ...
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