Happy Earth Day!

Great turn-out of students and staff for our Earth Day event out in the new and improving Oak Savannah!  We also were able to sell some of our wildflowers & grasses despite the cold and wind.

We'd like to send a big THANK YOU to Ken Schaefer and the Oakton Community College Ecology Club for bringing tools, woodland and prairie seeds, gloves, & expertise!  We'd also like to thank Art from Art & Linda's Wildflowers for bringing us the plants and helping set this all up.  And, finally to the Brookfield Zoo for donating oak, maple and dogwood trees.  Oh, yes and Jennifer Delgado from the Triblocal for this write-up!

We might shoot for another fundraiser and workday - perhaps the Friday before Mother's Day!  We'll keep you posted...

Earth Day Fundraiser & Oak Savannah Restoration

This Friday, April 20th from 3:45 - 5:30pm we will have students and staff helping out in the Oak Savannah with tree planting, seed spreading, buckthorn pulling, cattail cutting, and fundraising! We will be selling small native prairie grasses and flowers as well as some woodland plants for $4 each. The profits will help to purchase a new fence, trail signs, and seating area by the pond.  The following plants will be available:


Spring bloomers
Wild Columbine (1-3' tall, red & yellow flowers)
Prairie Smoke (1' tall, pinkish flowers)
Blue Flag Iris (2-3' tall, purple & yellow flowers, likes wet/moist soil, partial to full sun)

Summer Bloomers
Butterfly Milkweed (2-3' tall, orange flowers)
Rattlesnake Master (2-4' tall, whitish flowers)
Compass Plant (6-12' tall, yellow flowers)
Purple Prairie Clover (1-3' tall, purple flowers -->)
Prairie Blazing Star (3-5' tall, purple flowers)
Purple Coneflower (3' tall, purple flowers)
Prairie Coreopsis (1-3' tall, yellow flowers)
Little Bluestem (2-3' tall grass)

Late Summer/Fall Bloomers
Smooth Blue Aster (2-3' tall, light purple flowers)
Prairie Dropseed (1-2' tall grass)
Zigzag Goldenrod  (2-3' tall, yellow flowers, light to med. shade)
Added 1 more!!  Cardinal Flower (2-3' tall, red flowers, attracts hummingbirds, likes wet soil, light shade or full sun)

Thanks to Art of Art & Linda's Wildflowers for providing the plants, signs, containers, labels, and guidance!

Oak Savannah - a Bigger Make-over Begins!

What's happening in the Oak Savannah? It looks... different, right?

We have completed the first step in a series of landscaping restoration make-overs. The invasive shrub that has been plaguing the Chicago Forest Preserves for decades has been completely cut out of our nature preserve.

The European Buckthorn shrub was brought to the U.S. by early settlers but has become a relentless invasive affecting woodland areas in Northeastern Illinois. It tends to crowd out the native grasses, flowers, and trees, hogging all of the sunlight, and competing for resources in the soil. It's also notoriously difficult to remove without the help of loppers or chain-saws, chippers and herbicide.

For the last 25 years or so students and staff have labored with cutting and prescribed burning to remove it each fall but if not consistently and heavily managed the buckthorn always seems to win! (See the previous blog post for pictures from 1992 - 2002)

Here are some shots from the last seven years of work:



Our annual fall buckthorn removal days have always been fun and rewarding. We learn how to identify the invaders so as to hopefully avoid cutting down juvenile oak trees - yikes! We familiarize ourselves with the species found in this ecosystem, we clear out trash and tennis balls, and some years we even stay motivated to the beats Maine East Rhythm Project. However, even with a turnout of 75 students and huge piles of buckthorn stacked up outside the fence, we only get to a fraction of what's there and the resprouts can be very aggressive. Realization finally struck - we needed to call in the pros. After a freshmen Tree Project fundraiser and some help from the District, a crew of professionals has gone in and removed it ALL this past weekend. Here are a few images after the cut:



You can now see the ephemeral pond from all sides :O! The dormant native seeds now have ample sunlight in order to flourish and support native critters. The young Oak and Shagbark Hickory trees are free to grow and produce mast (acorns & hickory nuts) for wildlife. The nesting pair of kestrel hawks may have more visibility and clearance to catch prey. Basically, our 3/4-acre Oak Savannah, one of the most endangered ecosystems in the world, now has another chance to rebound.

This is all very exciting and definitely cause for some celebration. However, we're not out of the buckthorn woods yet. The herbicide should penetrate into the roots and kill most, but there will be resprouts and there are countless seeds in the soil just waiting to emerge. Maintenance is key and we will work each fall to keep them at bay but this is definitely a more manageable task.

Future plans include fundraising for a new fence, path, trail signs, and deck with seating around the pond to complete our nature-lover's respite. The Ecology Club's goal is to renew this valuable resource for the benefit our students, staff, community and native critters. Imagine a place to go and learn about poetry in your English class, or capture images in Photo, count species in Biology, or analyze water quality in Geology, Environmental Science, or Chemistry.

We are on our way :)! We just might need a money tree, donations and/or fundraisers. And we might need to expand our Oak Savannah planning committee. So if you'd like to be a part of this transformation, contact Mrs. Riha, Ms. Lee, or Mrs. Gallagher about getting your department, club, or just you involved. We'd love to make this a group effort!

~S. Childress Riha

Oak Savannah: 1992 - 2004

Coming Soon!

Butterfly Garden - Pea Family Nitrogen-fixers

Land plants are believed to have co-evolved around 400 million years ago with a type of fungus that penetrates their roots and helps the plants to absorb phosphates and other nutrients in exchange for photosynthesis-derived sugar. However, more recently some plants have evolved a different symbiotic relationship which allows them easier access to nitrogen, an essential component of protein and other molecules necessary for plants to survive - this time with bacteria.

Although the air is 78% nitrogen, it is not in a form that plants can absorb. It must be fixed by special types of bacteria in the soil, many of which are free-living providers for plants. Others have evolved to provide an extra jolt to plants like legumes (pea/bean family plants) in exchange for carbon. In many of these you can dig up the roots and actually see the spherical "nodules" these bacteria call home. And then plant them again and hope they survive.

Three of the commonly planted prairie legumes are shown below. They are popular for use in prairie restoration because they increase nitrogen in the surrounding soil for other plants. And two of them are popular with grazing animals because of their high protein content.

From Butterfly Garden

Purple Prairie Clover (Dalea purpurea) is shown above and grows to about 1-3' tall. Native full sun prairie plants are hard to find this short and make nice border plants. The small purple flowers bloom from the bottom up along a 1-2" cylindrical spike. Be careful of rabbits - cages might help to get it established.

From Butterfly Garden

The White Wild Indigo (Baptisia leucantha) can grow very quickly in the Spring and can be 3-6 ft. tall by the time it blooms. The flower spikes can be up to 2 ft. long and although high in protein this one is actually poisonous to mammalian herbivores.

From Butterfly Garden

The Lead Plant (Amorpha canescens) is one of my favorites aesthetically. It blooms in early to mid-summer and grows from 1-3 ft. tall. It's very fine hairs on them stems and tiny compound leaflets make it look like it's dusted with white lead, hence the name. Rabbits love this one too but we haven't really had a problem in our garden.

Butterfly Garden - We're Back!

By: Samra Matin & Jiten Patel (class of 2011)

Due to overwhelming response from our first blog post, the witty and insightful piece about Fox Glove Beardtongue, we’re back to write another one. Yes, readers, the ME Butterfly Garden blog is quickly making its way up the most trafficked website list. Soon, it will reach the status of MySpace circa 2005. It won’t, most likely. But can FaceBook provide you with gentle commentary and unbiased reporting of butterfly gardens? I didn’t think so.

The three plants in the spotlight today are the Golden Alexander, Meadow Anemone, and Nodding Onion. Though Meadow Anemone and Golden Alexander are currently in bloom, Nodding onion is not.

The Golden Alexander can grow up to 2.5 feet and has hairless, shiny stems. The blooming period occurs from late spring to early summer, and lasts about 1 month. It grows best in full to partial sun, although light shade under trees is tolerated. The soil should be moist and loamy, and can contain some rocky material.

This plant is easy to grow and maintain. The golden-yellow flowers attract short-tongued bees, wasps, flies, and beetles. It’s a good, low-maintenance plant that can add color to your garden. At the Maine East butterfly garden, we have plenty of this plant. Ms. Childress wouldn’t mind if readers contacted her in order to dig some out and take home to plant.

The second plant, Meadow Anemone, is a short plant, growing only 12-18 inches. It has small white flowers that bloom in masses. It will grow well both sun and woodland shade but it grows and blooms faster in the sun. It can be considered invasive, as it takes over the ground rapidly. The plant is great as a ground cover and can be used to fill in bare spots between plants. We’d love it if readers wanted to dig up some of this plant and take it home, as well. All you need is a big space with partial sun. Planting it under a tree where you need lots of ground cover would be ideal.

In addition to being completely aggressive, the meadow anemone has quite a history. It was used medically by North American Indigenous peoples as an astringent and as a styptic for wounds, sores, nosebleeds, and as an eyewash. Also the root was respected by Plains tribes and used for many ailments.

And lastly, the Nodding Onion, is native to New York and grows up to 1.5 feet. The flowers are white, pink, and purple. The nodding onion is a late summer bloomer and blooms from July to August. The stem bends so the flower nods towards the ground-giving the flower its name. The nodding protects the nectar from being leached away in the rain. The plant also likes full to partial sun, and moist conditions. It doesn’t do well in hot, dry summer.

The nodding onion was used widely by Native Americans for medicinal purposes. Its juice was given to children to treat sore throats and hives. It was also applied externally for infections, sores, and swellings. The leaves of the plant, which have a strong onion flavor, can be put in salads. Additionally, the juice, applied to exposed skin, repels mosquitoes and other biting insects.

Butterfly Garden - Penstemon Digitalis (Not a pokemon)

By: Samra Matin & Jiten Patel (class of 2011)

No, this post isn’t about the Native American chief named Fox glove Beard Tongue. We actually don’t know if there ever was a chief named Foxglove Beard Tongue. It sounds plausible, but confirming it would require more research, and we’re second semester seniors. Fun fact: It took us a whole class period to come up with that witty intro.

Instead, we’re here to talk about penstemon digitalis, otherwise known as the Foxglove Beard Tongue, a gentle flower naturally occurring in meadows and prairies. It’s a very low maintenance plant that grows well during the spring months and needs a plentiful amount of sun exposure. The Foxglove plant is also self-seeding so under the right conditions, it’ll germinate in the fall and sprout back every spring. Foxglove Beard Tongue has spikes of white tubular flowers that bloom through May to July on 2 to 4 feet stems. The flowers have purple stripes to attract hummingbirds and butterflies, who visit the flowers for nectar.

The bad news? All parts of the plant are poisonous if ingested. Maybe that’s why Plants for a Future, a site that reports on medicinal uses of specific plants, has no entry for penstemon digitalis. However, the plant is pretty easy to work with and the white flowers are quite picturesque. It’s easy to grow in average, dry to medium –wet, well drained soil and is considered to be a low maintenance plant that is drought tolerant. There aren’t many serious insect or disease problems, but the foxglove beard tongue doesn’t do well in heavy clay or wet, poorly drained soil.