Despite their bleak, brown-gray appearance, these sturdy organisms survive in the biting cold. The blooms that in the spring, summer and fall draw the eye with a flourish of purple, blue and yellow attracted a group of nature enthusiasts to the Monee Reservoir last weekend.
Naturalist Emily Thiel took the group on a frosty hike for a hands-on lesson about wildflowers. The hour-long program, to take place weekly until the end of February, is offered by the Will County Forest Preserve District.
Exhibiting a sort of above-ground hibernation, the limp-looking plants she displayed are in a passive state. Cupping a tired 3-foot-tall Blue Vervain with her hand, Thiel advised, “They’re not dead. They’re alive in the roots.”
Thiel uncovered the hidden safeguards against annihilation of one particular species of wildflower. The thistle, with its 2-inch-long thorns surrounding the cotton-like bloom in the summer, is one of nature’s more obvious agents against intruders, she said.
One beginning gardener, Victoria Kolkebeck of Park Forest, said she was interested in expanding her year-old wildflower garden and was looking for tips.
Meanwhile, introductions to species such as the Black-eyed Susan, Queen Anne’s Lace or the weepy looking, 3-foot-tall dogbane were no surprise to amateur gardener Claudia Zekas of Park Forest. Zekas, who has spent a lifetime learning about the environment and its natural entities, enjoys home gardening. “Each year, I try to get more and more information about natural, native plants,” she said.
After the chilly hike, participants were allowed to select one favorite wildflower and used it to make a sun print on chemical-coated paper. While capturing the memory on paper, University Park’s 6-year-old Darren Nelson explained what he learned.
“I learned that one kind of flower grows year after year and others grow for only two years. Some grow for only a year,” he said.
