One of my favorite grasses started blooming during this past week – Side Oats Grama. I planted some in my garden last fall and am thrilled to see it blooming. Side Oats Grama is one of four grama grasses that can be found in Illinois, and by far the most common. The other three look much more like...

I spent a lot of time exploring restored grasslands during grad school while collecting data for my research. I had become familiar with the most common grasses in the area, but one day I ran across something that didn't look super familiar. I didn’t know what to think at first, because it looked...

When you are at the plant nursery, have you ever noticed that plants often have two names listed on the tag? One is a common name, such as Switchgrass. The other is the scientific name, in Latin, Panicum virgatum. Why the two names? Is just knowing the common name okay? Time for a quiz...

With warmer weather and spring rains, grasses have begun to grow. Looking around my yard, my lawn grasses are rapidly greening up, some even flowering between our routine mowing. Other grasses in my landscaping are just starting to put out new leafy growth. Why the difference in growth rates? Cool...

When I hike in the woods during the spring, I’m always excited to see my favorite spring ephemerals in bloom. I can recognize Celandine Poppy by the sunshine yellow flowers with four petals, Yellow Trout Lily by the recurved, yellow petals forming an upside-down cup, and Pawpaw by the maroon...

What do you see when you look at a grass? Green leaves in a bunch? The cause of your allergies? A plant that constantly needs to be mowed? Grasses do not invite easy identification. They are missing the number one useful identification feature – a colorful flower! But that’s not to say that they...

I never thought I’d be called “the grass lady.” When I started getting into plant identification, I too looked at grasses as a group of plants that only the best of the best could identify – and that was most definitely not me. And then I found myself in an internship where I needed to tell...