Reading Pictures

Spring Run,
Marsh Marigolds,
Bur Oaks

At Bluff Spring Fen near Elgin, a dozen clear, clean streams erupt out of the springy ground. Rare little fish live in these “spring runs” year round. Some rare plants grow along their edges and few other places.

Marsh marigold may be our earliest showy flower, growing on the banks and into the seepage areas that feed spring runs. The young foliage tastes good, but even if they weren’t protected here by law, who could bear to eat more than a nibble where they are so few and so gorgeous?

The half-dozen bur oaks that frame this sunrise are part of one of the little savannas that border the site’s gravel hills. The ancient tree on the right has such a distinctive shape. Every time I pass it on a walk, I wonder about it. As the main trunk shows, long ago when it was young it grew in a graceful arc, out from under the shade of some tree no longer there. But then something happened. Since this oak is the tree farthest out into the prairie fen, perhaps a blast of wind and puff of flames from a ferocious fire burned off the top.

Whatever the case, at this point there was enough light for one branch to grow straight up for a year or two. Then begins a strange stair-step effect, perhaps in response to the growth of the companion tree just to its left. Or not.

We don’t need answers to every puzzle here. It’s just a fine place to feel the history, and power, and inspiration of life.

Photo: Mike MacDonald/ChicagoNature.com. Words by Stephen Packard
Bluff Spring Fen is owned by the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago
and theCity of Elgin and is dedicated as an Illinois Nature Preserve.
The expert volunteers of the Friends of the Fen have restored and managed the site for 25 years.