Champaign Park District’s Operations Department works hard restoring natural areas >> with native plants and wildflowers. While we have parks known for their natural areas (Heritage Park, Scott Park, Porter Family Park, and Sunset Ridge Park), more parks have native plant life than you think! One of those wildflowers we’re working to protect is Spring Beauty.
Spring Beauty – Claytonia virginica
Spring Beauty is a native Illinois wildflower to covers the ground with small white/pink delicate flowers. Their long stems make them fun to watch on a breezy spring day.
While Spring Beauties are considered a common wildflower in Illinois, they are often mowed over during early spring which hinders their ability to spread and grow the next year.
Due to this, our mowing & natural areas crews work closely together to identify new patches of Spring Beauties in order to preserve and restore their population in our parks.
This year, Operations identified two new patches of Spring Beauties and are working to support their future growth.
“Oh, those beauties! Such an easy to miss flower that is such a great species to have in our open spaces. It takes like 10 years for it to produce a flower. Because of that fact, it is almost impossible to buy claytonia from greenhouse/vendors.
I ended up buying a lot of our spring beauty plugs (eight years ago) from a local bee/pollinator professor.”-Mike Davis, Natural Areas Supervisor
Learn more about how you can help protect this native Illinois wildflower with the button below!
Follow us on TikTok!
@champaignparkdist We’re working to protect Spring Beauty in our parks! Learn more about these native Illinois wildflowers on our website. #ExploreChampaignParks #Wildflower #NaturalAreas #Flowers #NativePlants #Spring #SpringBeauty ♬ original sound – Champaign Park District
