Fall is here, and while some days feel much more fall-like than others, you can’t deny that trees are putting on their fall colors, herbaceous plants are fading away, asters are blooming, and many warm-season grasses are in their prime. One of my favorite grasses to appreciate in the fall is...

Warm-season grasses are in full bloom right now, putting on their fall display. If you go on a hike in the woods, you might find Wood Reed, Cinna arundinacea. Wood Reed is a native warm-season grass that grows in semi-shaded woodland areas. It can be found in nearly every county in the...

A year ago my family moved. As a gardener, I was looking for a house with a big yard with lots of potential to plant huge gardens. We found a home with almost a blank slate of a yard – after spending a few weeks removing invasive trees and shrubs we were ready to establish landscape beds and get...

About a month ago I was in the Chicago region for a conference, and I took the opportunity to stop by Volo Bog. If you’ve never been, this unique spot is home to an open-water quaking bog, which you can see if you hike the boardwalk loop. While hiking I found some clumps of Bluejoint Grass, which...

The first time I saw Beakgrass was at the Missouri Botanic Garden in a parking median. I was struck by the attractive mass of this grass, which was bowed to one side from the weight of its seed heads. I mentally filed this grass away as one that I wanted to make sure I added to my landscape one day...

The first Saturday in June is recognized as National Prairie Day. Prairies hold a special place in my heart, since my work in prairies jumpstarted my love of plants and eventual path to graduate school and my current job. I’ll never forget my environmental studies class in college when we...

Over the past two months, I’ve been working with Master Gardener and Master Naturalist volunteers to sort, clean, and package seeds of native plants we collected from pollinator gardens in the fall. We plan to give away these seeds at local programs that focus on supporting pollinators. It’s always...

Before the first hard frost came at the end of October, I planted many native plants around our new house. I brought some of my favorite plants with me in our move and was determined to get them planted this fall. One of the pots I brought with me had a Little Bluestem plant in it that I have been...

If someone asked me to name the most iconic plants of the tallgrass prairie, I would start with the grasses. Who could talk about a prairie without mentioning grass? The top three grasses that scream “tallgrass prairie” are Big Bluestem, Indian Grass, and Switchgrass. Why? These are all robust,...

A few weeks ago I was leading a plant identification hike in a restored prairie. Naturally in a prairie system, there are a lot of grasses to identify! We saw some tallgrass species as well as some weedy grasses. We also saw one of the 30+ species of Panic grasses that we have in Illinois, ...

As someone who pays close attention to plants, weeding becomes an interesting chore. Instead of just looking for plants that are different than what I am trying to grow, I find it fun to identify all of them (and photograph them!). Talk about making a simple task more complicated! While weeding a...

This time of year, I start getting emails with questions about how to identify grasses that people find growing in their yard. After reviewing pictures, oftentimes the grass they want to know more about actually turns out to be a sedge. Sedges are grass-like plants, but they have some distinct...

Even during the coldest of winter days, one grass continues to boast green foliage – Giant Cane. Giant Cane (Arundinaria gigantea) is a unique grass because it is the only native species of bamboo found in Illinois. Once widespread throughout the bottomland forests of southern Illinois,...

As we enter December, you’re likely not thinking about going outside to work on your grass identification skills. However, that doesn’t mean it isn’t a good time to pay attention to grasses! Certain grasses stand out during the dormant seasons of the year for one reason or another, and over the...

You may have heard the phrase “leave the leaves” when it comes to deciding what to do with your trees' fallen leaves in autumn. But what about the herbaceous plants and grasses in your home landscape? Should you leave them standing over the winter or cut them down? Let’s take a closer look at the...

Each year when autumn rolls around, I enjoy hiking through the woods or walking through the neighborhood to find the prettiest trees. It really is a spectacular display of color, from yellows to oranges, reds, and purples. While I have my favorite fall trees, I also find that grasses come into...

Most pictures and drawings of the tallgrass prairie feature one grass – Big Bluestem. This grass is a quintessential prairie grass that once covered Illinois. Also called Turkeyfoot, it’s likely that even if you aren’t familiar with grasses, you’ve seen this one. Today used extensively in prairie...

While driving from one end of Illinois to the other and back this past week, I enjoyed seeing the abundance of Indiangrass carpeting the median strips. The blue-green foliage is topped with golden-orange panicles of smooth, soft spikelets. Indiangrass (Sorghastrum nutans) is one of my...

While driving to work today, I scanned the sides of the road to see what grasses are in bloom. I was happy to see large patches of a grass with purple inflorescences. These dark purple grass spikelets belong to Purpletop (Tridens flavus). Ah, a common name that accurately describes...

I’m sure many of us have been hiking in the woods and been able to make general plant identifications – I know that’s a maple over there, here’s an oak, that’s definitely a hickory. But what about taking the next step to find out which type of maple, oak, or hickory? Getting an identification down...

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...