Wildflowers in the Dixon Branch Greenbelt

May 3, 2025 Amy Martin

STOP! Just stop! Pull over and get out of your car. Take a quick amble through the greenbelt off Creekmere between Overglen and Creekmere Cir. The beauty you see close up is incomparable to what’s visible on foot. In full disclosure, there are bitey bugs in the grass, so take a quick rinse off when you get home.

In my quick wandering today, I was so heartened to see results of efforts Eastwood Riparians had done years ago. Patience and fortitude is the key.

Pollinators gotta pollinate, milkweed that it. The plant is a pollinator magnet.

*Penstemon cobea. Big beautiful blooms. Weeks after they began, still going strong.*

*Prairie fleabane, tall with tiny blooms. Beetle nirvana.*

Doesn’t look like much to most people, but I, a native grass nerd, am thrilled. We laboriously dug up clumps of little bluestem from a prairie in Richardson about to be developed. It may have moved far from where it was planted, and survived too many mowings, but here it is thriving.

Some friends and I tossed these Illinois bundleflower seeds years ago. Gave up. Yet look at them now! They will make large bundles of seeds beloved by birds. As a legume, they will infuse the soil with nitrogen.

*Maybe the green milkweed seeds were in the ground waiting, or maybe these are survivors from some pitiful seedlings we planted years ago. Here they are now, a genuine plot of pollinator heaven.*

*More native grass nerd mania. Could it be, really be, a plot of big bluestem? Time will tell.*

*Ahhhh, Engleman daisy, the sunflower of spring. You simply must take a close look at and fondle these unusually shaped soft grey-green leaves.*

Habitat restoration, it’s an act of faith. No guarantees and always surprises. You do what you can when you can to the best that you can. With nature there is no control. You just try to help it find its own true self. Want to be part of this renaissance? Send your email to me to get on the Eastwood Riparians workday team. If you can’t volunteer, then donate please.