The arrival of spring also signals the return of the burn season! If you’ve walked through our woodlands in the past months, you might have noticed (and smelled!) the charred ground and wondered whether this means we will be seeing fewer of our favorite spring plants.

🧪 Happy Arbor Day!

🧪 A rare habitat can make for rare seed, and a unique challenge for seed banking and restoration.

As soon as spring arrives, we’re hit with a flurry of flowers. Some of them are gone as suddenly as they appeared: it’s spring ephemeral madness!

🧪 Native seed is in high demand and short supply—@chicagobotanic has helped launch the Midwest Native Seed Network to close the gap and help restore prairies, woodlands, and wetlands across the region. 📸 by Jeff Carrion

🧪 Research on orchids at the garden is almost as diverse as the orchid family itself!  There are nearly 30,000 different species of orchids, which require a wide range of pollinators, fungi, and environmental conditions to thrive. 📸 Hannah Ryu, Eli Frank

🧪 Skunk cabbage sighting‼️

🧪 In honor of the @chicagobotanic orchid show, we’re highlighting the important work our scientists do to protect orchid populations year-round!

🧪 It’s National Invasive Species Awareness Week, and @ChicagoBotanic is on the lookout for potential threats to natural areas.

🧪 Restoration practitioners try their best to get back to a healthy ecosystem resembling what existed pre-disturbance—but what do they do when there is no going back? 📸 by Casey Beidelman, Erin Snyder

🧪 Seeing a blooming Agave oteroi @chicagobotanic may seem unusual, far from its native Oaxaca.

🧪 February 2nd is World Wetlands Day! Wetlands are areas that are saturated or flooded by water, either seasonally or permanently. They include rivers, marshes, swamps, and our very own Garden lake system.

🧪 When selecting seeds and plants to use in a habitat restoration, it’s important to think ahead. It doesn’t matter how well those initial plants grow if they don’t reproduce successfully.

🧪 Growing new plants from seed isn’t as simple as sticking them in soil and crossing your fingers.

🧪 That’s not a beehive or a nest– it’s an inflorescence (cluster of flowers) belonging to Artocarpus annulatus, a tree related to jackfruit!

🧪 Seeds take quite the journey to get from collection to restoration!  📸 by Jeff Carrion

🧪 As we approach the new year, @ChicagoBotanic is resolving to rebuild some mussels 💪

🧪 Things may look pretty dead out in @chicagobotanic’s Dixon Prairie, but they’re far from boring! As you stroll through the prairie, plenty of fascinating variation in the dried vegetation is still on full display.

🧪 Doing good science starts with training good scientists. Here at @ChicagoBotanic, our researchers are teaming up with Lake Forest College to do just that!

🧪 Thanks to advances in DNA sequencing, we can now tell which flowers a bee has visited based on the pollen they’re carrying! 🐝 📸 by Jane Ogilvie

December 5th is World Soils Day! 🤎 The UN declared today World Soils Day back in 2014 to promote greater awareness of humans’ reliance on healthy soils and the need for action to stop the degradation of our soil.  Illustration by Liz Anna Kozik, Ph.D.

Fire in the natural areas @ChicagoBotanic isn’t cause for alarm—prescribed burns are a crucial land management strategy with a centuries-long history. 🔥

🧪 🍁 As fall approaches, so does the end of the research field season! Our field site in Mettawa, IL, is home to several projects with the New Roots for Restoration Biology Integration Institute (BII).

Turns out trees in urban spaces do a lot more than just provide shade— they can be important reservoirs of genetic diversity 🧬.

🧪 Great news for fans of the rusty-patched bumblebee: conservation can start right in your backyard! 🐝 📸 of rusty patched bumblebee by Terry Miesle

🧪🏝️ If you’re on the hunt for a taste of the tropics right here in the Midwest, look no further than pawpaw!

🧪 Carnivorous plants get a spooky edit in the media, but are they friend or foe?

Learn more here: www.theguardian.com/environment/... 🧪

When it comes to feeding bees, are all flowers created equal?🌷🌻  No, according to a long-term study from @ChicagoBotanic scientists. By documenting how flowers vary in nutritional value and attract different bees, we can be more strategic in what we plant to support bee populations. 🐝

🧪Apply to join Bees on the Block: a collective planting project! Applications accepted until October 24th at this link: https://www.hostplant.net/bees-on-the-block.html

Congratulations to Ian Roberts on successfully defending his master’s thesis for the Northwestern University / Chicago Botanic Garden Graduate Program in Plant Biology & Conservation: “Impacts of Prescribed Fire on Ground Nesting Bees” under the guidance of Dr. Stuart Wagenius! 🧪

On Chicago’s Southeast Side, a wetland scarred by decades of steelmaking has yet to heal. But against the odds, a single endangered lakeside daisy has bloomed here. 🧪 www.chicagobotanic.org/blog/plant_s...

Congratulations to Teagan Levar, who completed her combined bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the Northwestern / Chicago Botanic Garden Graduate Program in Plant Biology and Conservation. 🧪

Clint Stevens spends his weekends gathering clues to save rare plants. As a volunteer with Plants of Concern, he’s part of a dedicated team of nature enthusiasts trained to monitor threatened species across Illinois. Protecting rare plants = protecting healthy habitats. chgobg.org/3K2pSv3 🧪

Congrats to Northwestern University / Chicago Botanic Garden Ph.D. student Andrew Davies, who is studying magnolia trees in Ecuador for 10 months on a Fulbright Open Study/Research Award. Learn more about the newly discovered magnolia species they'll focus on: https://tinyurl.com/rare-magnolia 🧪

Congratulations to Emma Fetterly, who is wrapping up her master’s thesis: “Evaluating drivers of flower color polymorphism in Castilleja coccinea,” with the Northwestern/Chicago Botanic Garden Graduate Program in Plant Biology and Conservation. 🧪

🍂 We all know what that chill in the air means… It’s time to collect native seeds! We’re keeping a close eye on our native seed beds at Windy City Harvest’s Rodeo Farm, waiting for the perfect time to harvest. Learn more about our native seed efforts: https://tinyurl.com/cbg-natse 🧪

Congratulations to Dr. Drake Mullett on successfully defending his dissertation, “Effects of Root and Stem Hemiparasitic Plants on Tallgrass Prairie Plant Species,” advised by Dr. Stuart Wagenius with the Northwestern / Chicago Botanic Garden Graduate Program in Plant Biology and Conservation. 🧪

From collecting data to monitoring ecosystems, the Walder Foundation Undergraduate Interns at the Chicago Botanic Garden are contributing to plant conservation alongside their staff and grad student mentors. Discover their impact: www.chicagobotanic.org/blog/plant_s... 🧪

Congratulations to Max Jones on completing his combined bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the Northwestern/Chicago Botanic Garden Graduate Program in Plant Biology and Conservation! 🧪

Congrats to Dr. Haley Carter, who completed her Ph.D. from the Northwestern/Chicago Botanic Garden Graduate Program in Plant Biology and Conservation last year: “Causes and consequences of floral scent diversity in a rare evening primrose,” co-advised by Dr. Krissa Skogen and Dr. Norm Wickett!

🐝 Bumble bee self-care: groom… nectar… groom… Gretel Kiefer, manager of the Plants of Concern program, found this half-black bumble bee (Bombus vagans) visiting low bindweed (Calystegia spithamaea), a rare Illinois native plant. 🧪

Congratulations to our graduate, Camille Reinoso, for earning her combined bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Northwestern/Chicago Botanic Garden's Graduate Program in Plant Biology and Conservation!

That thing where the endangered bee visits the endangered plant. Pictured: A federally endangered rusty patched bumble bee (Bombus affinis) visiting an Illinois endangered Kankakee mallow (Iliamna remota) at Chicago Botanic Garden. 📷: @beesearcher.bsky.social 🧪

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🌸🌀 Discover how the spirals, stripes, and spots in plants reveal nature’s clever balance of beauty and biology.

🐝 Congratulations to Dr. Jackie Fitzgerald, who recently defended her PhD: “Dimensions of Difference: Multi-Scale Consequences of Trait Variation in Bumble Bees” under the guidance of Dr. Paul CaraDonna!

Welcome to Sedge Way—a section of turfgrass transformed into a thriving native sedge habitat at the Chicago Botanic Garden!

timeline cleanse, look at this beautiful, federally-endangered angel from some fresh angles

🌿 We’re always glad to get our hands dirty with @urbanrivers.bsky.social ! Our Stewardship and Ecology of Natural Areas technicians removed weeds, planted native species, and inventoried wildlife at the Wild Mile’s floating gardens. Thanks to Urban Rivers for the continued partnership!