Dryopteris

Wood Fern (Dryopteris sp.) at Turkey Run State Park.  Along Trail 1.  Possibly Dryopteris intermedia.

Photo taken Dec. 21, 2016

Link to Dryopteris intermedia:

Link to Dryopteris:

Walking fern in winter

Walking fern (Asplenium rhizophyllum) along Trail 1 at Turkey Run State Park, Dec. 21, 2016.

Link to previous post on walking fern:

Link to Turkey Run State Park:

Sugar Creek at Turkey Run State Park

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Sugar Creek, looking east, at Turkey Run State Park on winter solstice day, Dec. 21, 2016.  Sycamore trees on the north bank.

Frost aster

A bank of frost aster (Symphyotrichum pilosum) along the Cumberland Avenue roadside, looking east towards the intersection with US 231, West Lafayette.  My own reason for calling this frost aster is because you often see it flowering in early winter while snow or frost is covering the ground.  Photos taken October 8, 2016.

Link to Symphyotrichum pilosum:

Link to Symphyotrichum pilosum:

Link to Symphyotrichum pilosum:

Solidago flexicaulis

Zig-zag goldenrod (Solidago flexicaulis) at McCormick Woods, West Lafayette.  Tippecanoe County,  Photo taken Sept. 24, 2016.

Link to Solidago flexicaulis:

Link to Solidago flexicaulis:

Imperial moth

This male imperial moth (Eacles imperialis) showed up inside the house.

I took it outside and got this second photo of it.  At West Lafayette, July 17. 2016.

Link to Eacles imperialis:

Ranunculus fascicularis with morel mushroom

Morel mushroom (Morchella, either esculenta or cryptica).  The yellow flowers in the photo are buttercup (Ranunculus fascicularis).  In sandy soil, Tippecanoe County, May 1, 2016.

Link to Ranunculus fascicularis:

Link to Morchella:

Link to previous post on Morchella:

Link to previous post on Morchella:

Blackhaw flowering

Blackhaw (Viburnum prunifolium).  This photo taken April 28, 2016, at Prophet's Rock Woods, Tippecanoe County.

Blackhaw (Viburnum prunifolium).  I found this blackhaw along Cumberland Ave. in West Lafayette, where the new road cut through the old woodlot.  April 29, 2016.

Link to Viburnum prunifolium:

Link to Viburnum prunifolium:

Ramps near Chicago

Found these ramps (Allium tricoccum) in Cook County, Illinois.  Allium tricoccum provided the name for the city of Chicago.  In Algonquin language, -shikm- means something stinky, and was the word for this plant.  If you were talking about an animal, you might use the word -shikm- for the animal we call a skunk.  This language uses GO to denote a place, so -shikm-GO was the place name for the flat swampy land where the river goes into Lake Michigan, as it was habitat for and had a considerable population of Allium tricoccum.  Now this place is downtown Chicago, and likely not any habitat suitable for ramps.  Probably there is a wild remnant population of ramps somewhere within the Chicago city limits.

Link to ramps in Chicago:

These ramps in this photo are at Chippewa Woods, a Cook County Forest Preserve, which seems to be just outside the actual Chicago city limits.

Photo taken April 19, 2016.

Links to Chippewa Woods:

http://fpdcc.com/downloads/maps/pdf/ChippewaWoods4_13.pdf

http://fpdcc.com/downloads/maps/trails/english/FPCC-Des-Plaines-Trail-Map-10-15.pdf

Link to previous posts on Allium tricoccum:

http://lafayettereport.blogspot.com/2009/04/allium-tricoccum.html

http://lafayettereport.blogspot.com/2009/09/ramp-seeds.html

http://lafayettereport.blogspot.com/2009/05/ramp-with-bulb.html

Scilla siberica

I found this patch of Scilla siberica growing wild in the woods at Cumberland Park.  Scilla siberica is not native but is commonly planted in people's gardens as an early spring flower, but I didn't see that it had been planted anywhere in the park.  As these woods are declared as Michaud-Sinninger Nature Preserve, it can be considered an invasive.

Photos taken March 30, 2016.

Link to post on Scilla at Clegg Garden:

Link to Scilla siberica: