​Common among grocery stores and ice cream sundaes, strawberries can be found through Europe, eastern North America, and parts of South America. However, not all are created equal. Fragaria virginiana, the Wild American Strawberry, is much prized for its sweet ripe fruits that the larger fruits of early Europe could not match. In the late 1800s, Thomas Laxton, now known as the father of the modern strawberry, successfully bred this sweet American strawberry with an existing European variety to create the Royal Sovereign Strawberry. This would go on to be served to England’s Royal Family and can still be found today through garden seed suppliers.
 
The plant itself can be found through much of Illinois and in varying habitats from railroad tracks, woodlands, hill prairies, and anything in between. Relying on early spring growth, the wild strawberry can withstand competition from larger plants that develop later in the year as it goes mostly dormant after setting fruit for the summer. Watering in late spring and early summer helps to encourage growth of fruits. Though smaller in size than traditionally cultivated strawberries, these wild varieties hold a more concentrated flavor. They make a great addition to any garden that receives part shade or full sun, where the plant will be allowed to sprawl along the ground and form a loose ground cover.  

​ERA is proud to announce the addition of Howard Killian to our Warrenville office as a Municipal Services Director. Howard comes to us with over 30 years of engineering and public works related experience. Howard's team is looking to grow immediately. If you are interested in a design/project engineering position, please email us your resume at hr@eraconsultants.com. 

​Eastern Skunk Cabbage (Symplocarpus foetidus)
 
This Illinois native species is highly unusual in many aspects from the inflorescence, the growing season, the look, and certainly the smell. Eastern Skunk Cabbage is an herbaceous perennial that grows in a rosette clump and features large bright foliage reminiscent of Jurassic Park. The plant is generally found in wet organic soils nearby flowing water. It is associated with fens and hillside seeps where calcareous ground water emerges and begins a stream. 
 
The common name of “Skunk Cabbage” was given for more reason than one. For starters, the unique inflorescence is not dissimilar to the corpse flowers often featured in botanic gardens around the country as the plant draws in flies to its flower by emitting an odor of rotting meat. Even more bizarre is that skunk cabbage is the first spring wildflower to bloom. The plant blooms so early, in fact, that it generates its own heat because of rapid cellular growth to melt surrounding snow, thus attracting more potential pollinators. Not only does the flower smell—bruising the leaves of the plant can also emit an odor much like that of a skunk!

Bloodroot
Sanguinaria canadensis

​A member of the poppy family, the native Bloodroot is not only a beautiful spring wildflower highly coveted by native plant gardeners, but it is also an important food source for early emerging pollinators in woodland habitat. The common name “Bloodroot” comes from the red juice that is concentrated in the roots and stems. The juice was used by Native American tribes as a dye and is also known to have antibacterial properties.
 
Emerging as early as the first week of April, the plant takes advantage of the early spring sunshine before surrounding trees have begun to leaf out and shade the ground. The first notable feature is an attractive, white, daisy-like flower before unfurling a large compound-lobed singular leaf that will persist through summer. This early emerging flower is joined by other spring wildflowers—Spring Beauty, Trillium, Mayapple, and Trout Lilies—in serving such animals as the federally endangered Rusty-Patched Bumblebee, who emerge from burrows in the ground before many common plants have begun to show signs of growth for the year.
 
This plant is native to most of Illinois and can be found in woodland habitats that have not succumbed to overgrowth of Buckthorn and Honeysuckle, which shade the ground and prevent the sun from warming the soil to signal Bloodroot to begin growth for the season. The plant spreads though underground rhizomes and a method of seed dispersal called ‘Myrmecochory’, seed dispersal by ants. Ants are a common method of seed dispersal for woodland flowers as wind speeds are slowed by the canopy. This is achieved through a fleshy appendage on the seed known as an ‘Elaiosome’ which may appear in the form of a small translucent hat on the seed. The seeds are then taken into ant hills where they await germination in the coming years.
 
Those in the Chicagoland Suburbs may find bloodroot blooming at such locations as John J. Duerr Forest Preserve in St. Charles, Bliss Woods in Sugar Grove, Lyman Woods in Downers Grove, and several other local forest preserves.

​Climate change is increasing the frequency and intensity of storms, but our communities were not built to withstand the amount of rainfall we now get. Flooded streets cause travel delays, safety issues, and costly repairs. In this new video from the Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning, learn how flooding impacts communities — and steps our region can take to address it.