Every fall, nature lovers from around the state lace up their hiking boots and head out into the field for the annual Master Naturalist State Conference. The gathering is a chance for Illinois Extension staff and volunteers to share ideas and gain new skills, tools, and programs they can bring home...

Pokeweed (Phytolacca americana) is a showy plant that makes you stop and ask questions about it whenever it is stumbled upon - whether in your garden or along a hike. From its impressive height, sometimes up to 10 feet tall, to its distinctive reddish-purple stems - you stop and ask...

“Forty-two pounds of Edible Fungus In the Wilderness a-growin’ Saved the Settlers from Starvation,   Helped the founding of this Nation.”                 - Robert McCloskey, 1943 While this song telling of the miraculous feats of edible mushrooms was part of a...

By the time February rolls around, many of us are longing for springtime.  Spring brings a renewal of plant life in our forests, the arrival of the first batch of neotropical birds migrating back from their southern winter homes, and the awakening of reptiles and amphibians that have been long...

When we think of the bawdy, overbearing characteristics of alien invasive species, often what first comes to my mind is their early-to-rise, late-to-bed season of growth. By emerging earlier than our natives, invasive species leaf out, scoop up all that precious sunlight and moisture, then quickly...