Download CHAS - Chicago High School for Agricultural Sciences

Growing plants for the
Cook County Forest Preserve
Why forest preserves matter
• Offer a home for rare animals and plants
• Reduce climate change
• Protect water quality and reduce flooding
• Give people a chance to recreate and
connect with nature
What is
“ecological restoration”?
People and nature - Working together
This
Lacking fire, this oak woodland became choked with buckthorn.
With buckthorn gone, an oak woodland is revealed.
Now there’s room for normal plants to return.
Three years later, the woodland is thriving.
With increased sunlight and seeding of native plants, this area is recovering.
What do volunteers do?
Remove invasives (bad plants) to create room
for native plants.
Pulling garlic mustard
Cutting down buckthorn
What do volunteers do?
Harvest native seeds.
Seeds harvested by volunteers for you to grow:
• Wafer ash
• Prairie milkweed*
• Butterfly milkweed
• Rose milkweed
• Wild rye
• Rattlesnake master
• Burr marigold
• Mountain mint
• Blazing star
• Switch grass
• Yellow coneflower
• Prairie sunflower*
• Wild cucumber*
* Rare
Wafer ash
• Ptelea trifoliata
• This is the only woody
plant among the seeds
given to CHAS.
• Twisted shrub that birds
love to perch in.
• Also called the “hop tree”
because it may have been
used in making beer.
Prairie, butterfly, and
rose milkweed
• Host plant for monarch
butterfly.
• Lots of insects love it!
• Prairie milkweed is rare in
Illinois and only grows in
high-quality prairies.
Virginia wild rye
• Elymus virginicus
• The wild cousin of the rye
used to make bread and
whiskey.
• Provides nutritious food for
animals and birds.
Rattlesnake master
• Eryngium yuccifolium
• Up to 5” tall
• The spikey balls are
actually clusters of small
flowers.
• In the carrot family.
• Native Americans used it
as a snakebite remedy.
Burr marigold
• Bidens aristosa
• Common native flower
• Its seeds stick to
passersby.
• Its nicknames include
beggars ticks, black
jack, cobbler's
pegs, Spanish
needles, stickseeds, and
tickseeds.
Mountain mint
• Pycnanthemum muticum
• Strong minty smell
• Lots of pollinators love this
plant.
• Leaves can be used to
make mild tea. Native
Americans used this plant
for treatment of fevers,
colds, stomach aches, and
other minor physical
ailments.
Blazing star
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•
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Liatris spicata
Likes wet prairies
Pollinators love this plant.
4” tall
Switch grass
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Panicum virgatum
Classic prairie grass
Turns gold in fall
Seeds are small and hard,
like sesame seeds
Yellow coneflower
• Ratibida pinnata
• Grows to be 4” tall
• Prefers prairies
Prairie sunflower
• Helianthus pauciflorus
• The flowers attract
bumblebees, miner bees,
leaf-cutting bees, bee flies,
butterflies, and skippers.
• Found in prairie remnants.
Wild cucumber
• Echinocystis lobata
• Grows along the edges of
woods; rare
• Vine
• Related to—you guessed
it—cucumbers!
Healthy preserves depend on volunteers.
•Restore the conditions that support healthy nature
•Maintain the diversity of plants