Woodland Finds
Nearly the eye of Sauron.
Public Land Survey
Fall Prairie at Jay Woods
One of the brightest prairie flowers blooming right now is New England aster (Symphyotrichum novae-angliae), here with the ellipsoid (egg-shaped) seed heads of grey-headed coneflower (Ratibida pinnata), whose seeds, by the way, smell pleasant enough to rid your hands of snake musk if you ever happen to be looking to remove that particular odor from …
Illinois Public Land Survey Field Notes
I spent a few hours at the UIC Daley Library last week looking at maps and trying to decipher the handwritten field notes of land surveyors from their treks throughout Illinois in the early to mid 1800s. The field notes were used to create maps depicting areas generalized with broad descriptions like “timber,” “slough,” “prairie,” …