- Latin Name: Symplocarpus foetidus
- Appearance: The flowering part of this plant emerges before the leaves. The tiny petalless white flowers are on a club-shaped spadix, which is covered with a deep purple spotted hood known as a spathe. After the flower, leaves burst into large cabbage-like foliage. You may smell this plant before you see it because skunk cabbage emits a foul, skunky odor to attract pollinators such as flies, gnats, and beetles.
- When: February - April
- Locally found: Rock Cut State Park, Severson Dells
- Habitat: wet, marshy habitats.
- Fun Fact: Skunk cabbage is usually one of the first plants to sprout in early spring, even through ice and snow! This is because the flower carrying spadix produces heat that can melt the surrounding area for its emergence.
FIELD NOTES BLOG
Spring Wildflower Spotting
Sydney Sherbitsky
April 10, 2025
There are so many signs of spring around us this time of year. The world feels like it is waking up again when you feel the sun on your face, spot birds flying north, and perhaps see the prettiest sign: wildflowers. Between our prairie, forest, and aquatic habitats at Severson Dells and beyond, there will be countless wildflower blooms to discover within a few weeks. To point out these fantastic flowers by name, you will need to know some identifying features. To help you on this quest, you can start by familiarizing yourself with some of the fundamental components of flowers in the diagram below. Once you are a flower anatomical expert, you can read about some of our local wildflowers and how each one is uniquely beautiful!
Skunk Cabbage
White Trout Lily
- Latin Name: Erythronium albidum
- Appearance: Trout lilies have downturned white flowers at the end of a thin stem. The flower has 6 petals outturned from the 6 stamens in its center. The green leaves are sometimes marbled green and brown and are gathered around the base of the plant.
- When: March - May
- Locally found: Along the Kishwaukee River Forest Preserve and surrounding preserves, Aldeen Park, Alpine Park, Severson Dells
- Habitat: damp deciduous woodlands and openings in eastern North America
- Fun Fact: This plant’s name, Trout Lily, comes from the leaf appearance being similar to that of a brook trout.
Wild Ginger
- Latin Name: Asarum canadense
- Appearance: This plant has large heart-shaped leaves that may even cover this interesting bloom. If you have the chance to see the bell-shaped flower, its 3 outturned purple-brown petals will surely make you want to take a closer look.
- When: April - June
- Locally found: Blackhawk Springs Forest Preserve, Kishwaukee River Forest Preserve, Atwood Park, Severson Dells Nature Center
- Habitat: Shaded and moist forests in eastern and central North America
- Fun Fact: Its color is meant to look like decomposing flesh to lure in pollinating flies looking for the leftovers of an animal that did not survive the winter. Additionally, its seeds are primarily dispersed by ants, who take them back to their nests to eat the outside elaiosome structure and discard the seed into the soil, where it may germinate into a new plant.
Sharp-lobed Hepatica
- Latin Name: Hepatica acutiloba
- Appearance: This low-lying flower has 6 - 10 small petals ranging from white to blue to pink, with tiny yellow stamens forming a dome shape in the center. Once the flowers disappear, the thick 3 three-lobed liver-shaped leaves appear and stick around all winter. This leaf shape is where this plant gets its other name, ‘liverleaf’.
- When: March to early May.
- Locally Found: Rock Cut State Park, Kishwaukee Gorge North Forest Preserve, Atwood Center, Severson Dells Nature Center.
- Habiat: Shaded woodland slopes in eastern North America.
- Fun Fact: Various colored flowers can occur within a single colony of this plant.
Bloodroot
- Latin Name: Sanguinaria canadensis
- Appearance: The flower has 8 white petals surrounding a bright yellow center. The small flower sits upon a red-brown stem. The large lobed and veiny leaves circle the stem.
- When: mid-March to mid-April
- Locally Found: Roock Cut State Park, Blackhawk Springs Forest Preserve, Anna Page Park, Severson Dells Nature Center.
- Habitat: deciduous woodlands in eastern and midwestern North America.
- Fun Fact: Native Americans used the orange-red sap from the rooting rhizomes for dye, which relates to its name!
Dutchman's Breeches
- Latin Name: Dicentra cucullaria
- Appearance: The v-shaped flowers resemble upside-down pants or ‘breeches’ hanging on a leafless stalk with 4- 10 flowers per stalk. These flowers can range in color from white to light pink. The leaves look similar to that of a fern.
- When: March to April
- Locally Found: Kings Bluff Forest Preserve, Flora Prairie Nature Preserve, Severson Dells Nature Center
- Habitat: moist, shaded woodland areas in Eastern North America.
- Fun Fact: Due to this flower’s unique shape, its most effective pollinators are long-tongued bumblebees that emerge in the early spring when this plant blooms.
Virginia Waterleaf
- Latin Name: Hydrophyllum virginianum
- Appearance: Each small bell-shaped flower will have 5 petals and 5 stamens in the center that change from yellow to purple with age. The petals can be white, pink, blue, or purple. This flower grows in groups of 8-20 flowers at the top of a stem that rises above the leaves. The leaves form a triangular shape with 3-7 sections and a toothed edge. The first emerging leaves will develop white spots on their green background that resemble water drops.
- When: May- June
- Locally Found: Oak Ridge Forest Preserve, Rockford Rotary Forest Preserve, Severson Dells Nature Center.
- Habitat: moist and shady woodlands of eastern North America.
- Fun Fact: This wildflower can form large colonies that grow 1-2.5 feet tall.
Prairie Trillium
- Latin Name: Trillium recurvatum
- Appearance: Prairie trillium is recognizable by its 3 leaves and 3 petals. The 3 red-wine-colored, diamond-shaped petals curve toward the center, where there are 6 dark stamens. The three broad tapering leaves have smooth edges but appear wrinkled due to their veins and mottled coloration.
- When: April - May
- Locally Found: Rock Cut State Park, Aldeen Park, Alpine Park, Blackhawk Springs Forest Preserve and surrounding preserves, Severson Dells Nature Center
- Habitat: Central and eastern United States in partially shaded woodlands and oak savannas.
- Fun Fact: The word prairie in its name is a misnomer because this plant does not prefer to live in prairies.
Virginia Bluebells
- Latin Name: Mertensia virginica
- Appearance: The small downturned clusters of pink buds change to sky blue trumpet-shaped flowers when they bloom due to an increase in pH in the flower as its acidity decreases. The leaves are smooth and oval. This plant’s stalks grow up to 2 feet tall.
- When: April - May
- Locally Found: Spencer Park, Anna Page Park, Deer Run Forest Preserve, Severson Dells Nature Center.
- Habitat: moist woodlands and floodplains in eastern North America
- Fun Fact: Bluebells are associated with fairie folklore, where they are called fairy flowers.
Common Blue Violet
- Latin Name: Viola sororia
- Appearance: Leaves are heart-shaped with a scalloped edge and connect at the base of the plant. A singular purple, blue, or white flower with a white center stands at the end of a hairy stem.
- When: March - June and sometimes again in the fall
- Locally Found: Rock Cut State Park, Deer Run Forest Preserve, Spencer Park.
- Habitat: Moist, shady areas including woods, meadows, and along streambeds in eastern North America.
- Fun Fact: This is Illinois’s state flower!
Mayapple
- Latin Name: Podophyllum peltatum
- Appearance: This plant is recognizable for its distinctive 2 umbrella-shaped leaves with a single white or light pink flower where the two leaf stems meet. This plant also produces small yellow fruits.
- When: April - May
- Locally Found: Rock Cut State Park, Aldeen Park, Indian Springs at Blackhawk Forest Preserve, Severson Dells Nature Center
- Habitat: Eastern United States in sandy or peaty woods and clearings with acidic soils.
- Fun Fact: The only non-toxic part of the plant is the ripe fruit, commonly eaten by box turtles. However, foraging for Mayapple fruits is not permitted at Forest Preserves.
Cut-Leaved Toothwort
- Latin Name: Cardamine concatenata
- Appearance: This plant species is most commonly characterized by its thin leaves with serrated or pointed teeth-like edges in groups of 3. The small white blooming flowers are approximately 1 foot from the ground at the top of each stem.
- When: March - May
- Found Locally: Rock Cut State Park, Oak Ridge Forest Preserve, Severson Dells Nature Center
- Habitat: In eastern North America, this plant can be found in sloped forests where it prefers a thick layer of leaf litter and organic matter.
- Fun Fact: There is only one known population of this plant in Maine, but it is much more abundant in other areas of the U.S.
Pasque Flower
- Latin Name: Pulsatilla nuttalliana
- Appearance: The bell-shaped flowers held up by fuzzy stems consist of 6 to 8 blue or purple petal-like sepals surrounding the 150-200 yellow stamens in the center. After blooming, this plant develops a feathery seed head. The leaves are silky, fern-like, and have a silvery-green color.
- When: March - May
- Locally Found: Harlem Hills Nature Preserve, Flora Prairie Nature Preserve.
- Habitat: Prairies, open slopes, and woods in the Northern Hemisphere
- Fun Fact: ‘pasque’ comes from the French word for Easter.
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Sources
Ohio Department of Natural Resources - Skunk Cabbage
University of Texas Wildflower Center - White Trout Lily
U.S. Forest Service - Wild Ginger
Grow native Missouri Prairie Foundation - Sharp-lobed Hepatica
Britannica - Bloodroot
U.S. Forest Service - Dutchman’s Breeches
Wisconsin Horticurture - Virginia Waterleaf
The Moron Arboretum - Prairie Trillium
Cornell Botanic Gardens - Virginia Bluebells
NC State Extension - Viola Sororia
Cornell Botanic Gardens - Mayapple
U.S. Forest Service - Cut-leaved Toothwort
Montana Field Guide - Pasqueflower
iNaturalist - Observations Map
RECENT ARTICLES
When I started at Severson Dells nearly two years ago, I never would have believed I’d still be here today. What was supposed to be a short detour turned into one of the meaningful positions I have served. These years have flown by, and as I sit down to write this farewell, I keep circling back to my early days here. It feels important to revisit that beginning, because in so many ways, it shaped everything that followed.
While my time at Severson Dells is coming to an end, my time and experience as a junior naturalist is just beginning. When I accepted this job position, I was a recent college graduate who was ready to get into the environmental work force but didn’t know where to start. Here I am, a year later, and I feel ready and excited to take on whatever comes my way. Last September, when I first started working here at Severson Dells, I didn’t know what to expect. I had never been an educator before and I was nervous about my skill-set, but I pleasantly surprised myself. I found myself enjoying teaching, and the goofy experiences and questions that came with it. When I started here, my biggest goal for myself was to become better informed about the ecology of Rockford, and being more aware and able to identify what’s growing around me. A year later, I am proud of myself and how much I have learned. Because of my schooling background being in geology, I already had a familiarity with looking at the outside world in a different lens. I know how to look at the geology and the basic layout of an area to understand the depositional environment, or what the land most likely looked like back in the day. However, being at Severson Dells for the past year has shown me how to appreciate nature and the outdoors in a new way, in a biological sense. I now know how to look at the ecology of an area and see how the plants are working together, and how this compliments what the birds and the bugs are doing, and how the trees play a role too, and this cycle keeps going. I knew forests were interconnected, but I feel like I truly get it now. It’s helped me to connect the pieces of nature that I wasn’t aware of before, and put them all together now to see a new, bigger picture. Severson Dells is a place I will always hold dearly to me. The experiences I had, the challenges I overcame while being here, and the personal growth I’ve been able to experience: all of this helps shape my love for this lovely forest preserve here in Northern Illinois. I want to be sure to express my appreciation for the staff here at Severson Dells Nature Center, and the kindness they always treat everyone with. The people here are always so willing to help me with learning new skills, diving into intimidating science topics, and trying to help foster that curiosity that everyone has inside of them. As I close this chapter, I feel inspired and grateful for the connections I’ve made, and ready for what the future has in store for me.
I’m sitting at my desk listening to the distant chatter of kids outside and the excited murmuring of my coworkers. I am surrounded by tokens of memories - a sticker from the rot museum and a walnut shell owl I made with campers. On my computer screen, a half edited video about the Grove. In my desk drawer, a stack of lesson plans I once felt nervous to teach, but I now know by heart. Next is the bigfoot code from the cryptid hike, handwritten notes from my coworkers, and the spot where my notebook lives. This notebook has been with me from the start of this position and is full of the many things I have learned at Severson Dells. As my time here comes to a close, I flip back through the pages and reflect on what the past year has taught me…
