Get Your Botany On!

I recently posted the following plant quiz... ******************** Name that plant... Photo taken in September in northcentra...

Despite having a wide distribution in Indiana, Spotted Wintergreen is not very easy to find, though it can be locally frequent where it occu...

Good call, Scott! It is Viola pedata , Birdfoot Violet, a denizen of the dry country. It's especially at home in dry sand among a thin g...

Good call, "Euphorb!" It is Epigaea repens , Trailing Arbutus. At home on acid slopes, this tiny native shrub stays green all win...

The french fur trappers who came through the Great Lakes region called this delightful little subshrub Petit the de bois meaning "litt...

Yes, in fact it is about time that I compose another post for Get Your Botany On!, as it's been nearly two months since my previous post...

Clear water is an unusual phenomenon in northern Indiana, but this stream flows clear even after heavy rains. It is my hope that landscape d...

Good call Nick! It is Oenothera laciniata , Ragged Evening Primrose, a common native plant of bare sandy soil. These leaves seem a bit too l...

Last summer while botanizing a railroad in Porter County, Indiana I noticed a dense, reddish colony of a short grass that from a distance ...

This tiny, floating aquatic fern is occasional on quiet backwaters in northern Indiana. It usually bears a reddish color, making it stand ou...

The indefatigable Pete Grube has identified this plant correctly. It is Arabis lyrata, the Lyre-leaved Rock Cress, or whatever they call it ...

Last spring, after a few lectures on the wonders of photosynthesis, I had my students each write a haiku about this magical process. Here i...

My friend Ellen in upstate New York is selling her beautiful country home and native plant nursery. The price is a bargain, especially when ...

Abby recently sent me the quote and picture of an engraving below, which reminded her of her first summer of monitoring with Tony and me.  I...

One of the most attractive goldenrods in the Chicago region, Solidago sempervirens , just happens to be introduced from the Atlantic and Gul...

Last night, I posted the following plant quiz... It's hard to believe we've let nearly three months go by without a plant quiz!  T...

If you are a regular follower of this blog, you may remember my post about an odd Penthorum sedoides individual that I saw at a mitigation ...

A few weeks ago Pete Grube and I were scouting for unusual plants in a swamp forest at the Indiana Dunes State Park and Pete discovered a co...

The magnificent rock cliffs and canyons of central Indiana support a nice variety of pteridophytes. Walking Fern, shown below, grows on damp...

If you go into a wet prairie remnant and spend 5 hours crawling through dense vegetetion looking for Thismia americana, and if you run afoul...