Top Spots To See Spring Wildflowers In Chicago
It's a wild world, especially when the prairie flowers push their way to the surface of the warming Midwestern soil. Take a mental, spiritual and physical hike through these nearby natural areas that await with carpets of spring color. You'll find the flowers in practically any healthy woodland in the area, but these are sure bets.
Messenger Woods Nature Preserve
13800 W. Bruce Road
Lockport, IL 60491
(815) 727-8700
www.facebook.com/Messenger.Woods
The 441-acre Messenger Woods Nature Preserve is comprised of forest, prairie, savanna, wetland, more than 60 species of birds and a breathtaking display of spring wildflowers. Ephemerals, spring's first flowers, have a two-month lifespan, so get here by early June. Feast your eyes and soul upon blue-eyed Mary, trillium, Virginia Bluebells, wild geranium, Woodland phlox, False Mermaid, Jack-in-the-Pulpit and hepatica as you walk the natural surface trail of around two miles in the oak-hickory woodland. Leave your pups at home — they're verboten because of the delicacy of this Illinois nature preserve.
McDonald Woods
Chicago Botanic Garden
1000 Lake Cook Road
Glencoe, IL 60022
(847) 835-5440
www.chicagobotanic.org
Lemon colored marsh marigold and swamp buttercup, bluebells, blooming trillium and carpets of May apples await in McDonald Woods' 400 different plant species that burst forth every spring. Boardwalks and bridges keep you out of the mud so you can focus on the sounds of winter warblers, woodland thrushes, red-bellied, downy, and hairy woodpeckers. The 100-acre oak woodland nurtures state-listed threatened or endangered plant species including forked aster, dwarf raspberry, small sundrops and dog violet. Volunteers are working to restore the area to its pre-settlement condition so you can really revel in an authentic natural place.
Fullersburg Woods
3609 Spring Road
Oak Brook, IL 60523
(630) 850-8110
www.dupageforest.com
Hike, bike or walk the pup through Fullersburg Woods, which offers a well-equipped visitors center (free wi-fi) so you can quiz the expert naturalists about which native wildflowers to look out for: the aptly named Spring beauty, toothwort, Dutchman's breeches named so because they resemble upside-down pants, delicate rue anemone, red trillium, bloodroot, yellow bellwort, violet and swamp buttercup, and may apple. There are rest stops along the trail and ramps to the waterfront. Also be sure to stop at the Old Graue Mill and dam.
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St. James Farm Forest Preserve
Winfield Road
Warrenville, IL 60555
(630) 933-7248
www.dupageforest.com
There are more than 300 native plant species among the 612 acres of woodlands, wetlands and prairies in the preserve which began as a privately-owned horse farm. See the low-growing spring ephemerals sprouting before the tree leaves block the sun beams: pink and white white hepatica, red and white flowering trillium, the carnivorous jack-in-the-pulpit, trout lily, Dutchman's breeches and May apple resembling miniature patio umbrellas. There's an entrance to the preserve from the on the Illinois Prairie Path, and consider toting along lunch to enjoy at picnic tables near the former dressage arenas.
Volo Bog Natural Area
28478 W. Brandenburg Road
Ingleside, IL 60041
(815) 344-1294
www.dnr.illinois.gov
Want to experience a floating peat mat of sphagnum moss, cattails and sedges? It's the only quaking bog in Illinois with muskrat lodges, marshes, woodlands and walking trails which reveal fern fiddleheads, bog buckbean, Blue Flag Iris, Cursed Buttercup and leatherleaf blooms. Late spring and early summer bring the orchids, songbirds, herons, sandhill cranes and other waterfowl and wading birds for a multi-sensory experience. Stop by the visitor's center to get a brochure to tote on the trail and keep track of plants you'll encounter with their checklist.
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Jacky Runice has been a columnist with the Daily Herald Chicago since grunge music and flannel was the new black. Her fingers and gray matter have been busy as travel editor of Reunions Magazine; penning a column that was syndicated around the nation via Tribune Media Services. Her work can be found at Examiner.com.
