April 2023
The onset of spring brings beautiful wildflowers to the woodlands of Illinois and Illinois is home to a rich variety of common and rare spring ephemeral wildflowers. They are called “ephemeral” because the flowers typically only occur for a couple weeks in the spring before disappearing for the rest of the year. These plants deploy an amazing array of strategies to deal with the challenges of living on the forest floor. This talk will cure your winter blues by discussing the myriad adaptations by these interesting plants.
Chris Benda is a botanist and past president of the Illinois Native Plant Society (2015-2016). Currently, he works as a researcher at Southern Illinois University, where he coordinates the Plants of Concern Southern Illinois Program and teaches The Flora of Southern Illinois.
Besides working at SIU, he conducts botanical fieldwork around the world, teaches a variety of classes at The Morton Arboretum and leads nature tours for Camp Ondessonk. He has research appointments with the University of Illinois and Argonne National Laboratory and is an accomplished photographer and author of several publications about natural areas in Illinois. Chris is also known as Illinois Botanizer and can be reached by email at botanizer@gmail.com.