Chicago Area Natural Community Categories

CATEGORY	Picture Name	What the picture shows/illustrates
RIVER/ FOREST	flooded TJ backwater	The Des Plaines river has some old channels called backwaters. The backwaters fill in floods and often take a long time to get dry. Trail is along high bank.
FOREST With gaps	Confluence from 8/19	Areas that flood are often devoid of trees and gaps in the tree canopy are created by disease and wind. This is how I imagine IL looked in 1800.
FOREST	Deer at GAR	Forests typically have small, medium and large trees. Little light reaches the ground.
FOREST	Hidden Valley to origin	Some people distinguish woodlands as vegetation type between forest and savanna. This woodland is along a forming ravine.
FOREST	Down trees in area B	The trunks of trees take a long time to be recycled. The many trunks in this winter picture are probably the result of high winds.
SAVANNA	A very open savanna	Woody vegetation (trees and shrubs) are able to invade prairie fairly quickly in Illinois. This scene is from the sand dunes near Lake Michigan.
SAVANNA	Black oak pioneers in Bur oak savanna	Small oaks in foreground and a grove of oak trees in the background. Black oak and Bur oak are the most common oaks in savannas
SAVANNA	Dune top to marsh	The typical pattern in areas with sand dunes is for a black oak savanna on dune and wetland vegetation between the dunes.
SAVANNA	Fire scar and low branches	Savanna oaks have little reason to grow tall as there is plenty of light a ground level. The tree is a Bur oak. The location is Burnham, IL.
PRAIRIE	Biesecker Prairie, IN	The grass is northern dropseed, the small white balls on top of stalks are rattlesnake master, the big leaves are prairie dock
PRAIRIE	Brownlee gravestone	Pioneer cemeteries are on of the places small patches of prairie have survived in IL. This cemetery is an Illinois Nature Preserve.
PRAIRIE	Hill prairie and woods	Hill prairies occur of slopes that are very steep. Usually on bluffs overlooking major rivers. Revis prairie overlooks the Sangamon river.
INVADERS	Cutting buckthorn	The precipitation levels in Chicago are sufficient for woody plants where soil is not too wet. Woody plants, such as the buckthorn shown, have invaded many natural communities.
WETLAND	Grid location D20 pointing south	The largest wetland at the Woodworth Prairie abuts Milwaukee Ave. The Woodworth Prairie is a remnant surviving in a suburban environment.
WETLAND	MIL Lysimeter	A Woodworth prairie ephemeral wetland at the time the vegetation is starting to grow. The tube (lysimeter) allows one to measure the water table.
WETLAND	Cranberry Slough	Cranberry Slough is the last remaining bog in Cook Co. Located in the Palos Forest Preserves it is an Illinois Nature Preserve.
WETLAND	Cranberry Slough Sphagnum mat	Bogs typically have a lot of Sphagnum moss. Mosses are primitive plants that form the main ingredient of peat. Sphagnum metabolism makes the water acidic.
WETLAND ephemeral	RALPH from east	In the spring this small woodland wetland has Volvox and tadpoles of frogs and salamanders.
WETLAND ephemeral	RALPH dry	In summer the same wetland is almost invisible after the water has dried.
DUNES	Fore dune Gary IN	Beach grass (Ammophila breviligulata) dominates the dunes close to Lake Michigan but is absent from other habitats.
DUNES	Beach	Sand at the edge of Lake Michigan is invaded by beach grass and cottonwood trees above the wave zone.