CHIWAUKEE PRAIRIE WALKS

July 17, 25, and 27, 2019

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Hypericum prolificum – Kalm’s St. John’s Wort - 4 Silphium integrifolium – Rosinweed - 20

Asclepias tuberosa – Butterfly Milkweed - 6 Clinopodium arkansanum – Low Calamint - 22

Phlox glaberrima interior – Smooth Phlox - 8 Liatris pycnostachya – Prairie Blazingstar - 24

Veronicastrum virginicum – Culver’s Root - 10 Euphorbia corollata – Flowering Spurge - 26

Monarda fistulosa– Bergamot - 12 Lithospermum canescens – Hoary Puccoon - 28

Silphium terebinthinaceum – Prairie Dock - 14 Arnoglossum plantagineum – Prairie Indian Plantain- 30

Achillea millefolium – Common Yarrow - 16 Asclepias hirtella –Tall Green Milkweed- 32

Dalea purpurea – Purple Prairie Clover - 18 Platanthera leucophaea – Prairie White-Fringed Orchid- 34

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NOTE ON SOURCES

Unless otherwise noted, information regarding pollinators and beneficial insects was taken from

Pollinators of Native Plants: Attract, Observe and Identify Pollinators and Beneficial Insects with Native Plants (Pollination Press, 2014) and

Bees: An Identification and Native Plant Forage Guide (Pollination Press 2017)

both by Heather Holm

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Hyper icum prolificum – Kalm’s St. John’s Wort

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Hyper icum prolificum

• Five-parted yellow flowers

• Flowers from late June to August

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Asc lepias tuberosa – Butterfly Milkweed

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Asc lepias tuberosa

• Orange 5-parted flower

• Flowers from early June to early August

• Attracts metallic green sweat bees, small resin bees, leafcutter bees, cuckoo bees, small carpenter bees, and small sweat bees

• Larval host plant for monarch butterflies, Queen butterfly, and Milkweed Tussock moths

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Phlox glaberr ima inter ior – Smooth Phlox

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Phlox glaberr ima inter ior

• Each flower has 5 petal-like lobes

• Green, hairless slender stem

• Flowers from late spring to late summer

• Attracts butterflies, skippers, and moths

• Rabbits, groundhogs and deer will eat smooth phlox

http://www.illinoiswildflowers.info/prairie/plantx/sm_phloxx.htm

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Veronicastrum virginicum – Culver’s Root

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Veronicastrum virginicum

• Small, white, 4-parted tubular flowers in spikes

• Whorled leaves (3-7 at each node)

• Blooms from early July to mid-August

• Flowers develop from the bottom up for a long blooming period

• Attracts small sweat bees, yellow-faced bees, sweat bees, leafcutter bees, long-horned bees and bumble bees.

• Attracts a number of other insects including thread-waisted wasps, great golden digger wasps, great black wasps, syrphid flies, tachinid flies, red admiral butterflies, azure butterflies, and eastern tailed blue butterflies.

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Monarda fistulosa– Bergamot

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Monarda fistulosa

• Pale pink to purple, 5-parted tubular flower in a cluster

• Blooms from early July to September

• One of the best forage plants for bumble bees

• Larval host plant for hermit sphinx moth and snout moths

• The black sweat bee Dufourea monardae is a specialist

• Attracts eastern tiger swallowtail, silver spotted skipper, monarch, great spangled fritillary butterflies

• Attracts snout and hummingbird clearwing moths

• Attracts long-horned, cuckoo, green sweat, wool carder, small resin, leafcutter, an

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Silphium terebinthinaceum – Prairie Dock

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Silphium terebinthinaceum

• Yellow flowerheads on stalks 3’ to 10’ tall

• Blooms late summer to early fall

• Taproot can penetrate up to 12’

• Large basal leaves with sandpapery texture up to 18” long and 12” wide

• Attracts honeybees, bumblebees, and Miner bees.

• Attracts the ruby-throated hummingbird.

https://www.illinoiswildflowers.info/prairie/plantx/pr_dockx.htm

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Achil lea mil lefol ium – Common Yarrow

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Achil lea mil lefol ium

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• White, 4 to 6-parted, ray florets and 10-30 cream-colored disc florets in a corymb

• May have hybridized with European populations introduced to USA

• Attracts small sweat bees, small carpenter bees, leafcutter bees, mining bees, and cuckoo bees.

Dalea purpurea – Purple Prairie Clover

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Dalea purpurea

• Pink or purple, 5-parted bisexual flowers in dense spike

• Flowers develop from the bottom

• Attracts many bees including bumble bees, metallic green sweat bees, smallsweat bees, and cuckoo bees.

• Specialists include Colletes aberrans, C. albescens, C. robertsonii, C. sussanae, C. wilmattae, and Perdita perpallida.

• Need to be protected from rabbits until established

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Silphium integr ifol ium – Rosinweed

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Silphium integr ifol ium

• Yellow flowers of disk florets surrounded by ray florets

• Blooms mid-summer to fall

• Opposite leaves up to 5” long

• Attracts long-tongued bees such as honey bees, bumble bees, Little Carpenter bees, Cuckoo bees, Miner bees, and large leafcutter bees.

• Cows eat the flowers and foliage

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http://www.illinoiswildflowers.info/prairie/plantx/rosinweedx.htm

Clinopodium arkansanum – Low Calamint

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Clinopodium arkansanum

• Pale lavender trumpet-shaped corolla flower

• Blooms from early to late summer

• Leaves have prominent central veins

• Smells like mint when it is crushed so probably avoided by herbivores

• Flowers probably cross-pollinated by bees

http://illinoiswildflowers.info/prairie/plantx/low_calamint.html

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Liatr is pycnostachya – Prairie Blazingstar

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Liatr is pycnostachya

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• Pink to purple 5-lobed, 5-10 disc florets on terminal spike

• Flowerheads open from the top down

• Larval host plant for bleeding flower moth and blazingstar borer moth

• Attracts bumble bees, leafcutter bees, long-horned bees, bee flies, and syrphid flies

• Attracts tiger moth and monarch butterflies

Euphorbia corollata – Flowering Spurge

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Euphorbia corollata

• White flowers of 5 petaloid bracts

• Foliage has a toxic white latex

• Blooms from June to September

• Attracts Halictid bees, masked bees, Crabronid wasps, paper wasps, Five-bandedtiphiid wasp, sphecid wasp, cuckoo wasp, syrphid flies, bee flies, tachinid flies, flesh flies, and the Karner Blue butterfly.

• Wild turkey, Bobwhite quail, Mourning dove, Horned Lark, and Greater Prairie Chicken eat the seeds.

http://www.illinoiswildflowers.info/prairie/plantx/flw_spurgex.htm

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Lithospermum canescens – Hoary Puccoon

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Lithospermum canescens

• Bright yellow to orange yellow corolla flower with 5 lobes

• Blooms from mid-spring to early summer

• Attracts bumble bees, digger bees, cuckoo bees, mason bees, bee flies,butterflies, and skippers.

• Foliage has pyrrolizidine alkaloids so somewhat toxic to herbivores

• Was once a source of reddish dye for pottery and basketry

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Arnoglossum plantagineum – Prairie Indian Plantain

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Arnoglossum plantagineum

• Each flowerhead consists of 5 bracts, greenish white to white and has 5 perfect disk florets

• Blooms from early to mid-Summer

• Attracts Halictid bees, five-banded tiphiid wasp, bronze copper butterfly and false milkweed bug

http://www.illinoiswildflowers.info/prairie/plantx/silverweed.html

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Asc lepias hir tel la – Tall Green Milkweed

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Asc lepias hir tel la

• 30-100 flowers in each greenish white umbel

• Blooms from mid to late summer

• Attracts honey bees, bumble bees, and leafcutting bees.

• Larval feeders include caterpillars of Monarch, Unexpected Cycnia, and Delicate Cycnia butterflies, and milkweed tiger moth.

• The eastern goldfinch uses the silky hairs of the seeds to construct nests.

http://illinoiswildflowers.info/prairie/plantx/tg_milkweed.htm

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Platanthera leucophaea – Prairie White Fringed Orchid

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Platanthera leucophaea – Prairie White Fringed Orchid

• Endangered

• Blooms early July to August

• Flower is a showy raceme with white or creamy petals

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