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Ravine Park
Ravine Park is a community park located in Lake Bluff, Illinois. Measuring roughly 14 acres (5.7 ha) in area, it is dominated by a ravine formed by an ephemeral stream that flows after heavy rainfall and consists of a series of muddy ponds otherwise. The park's main attraction is a small system of nature trails. Ravine Park is one of the only officially protected ravines in all of Lake County, Illinois and offers a refuge for nature in the densely inhabited suburbs of Chicago. Geology Ravine Park, as its name suggests, comprises one of the thirty or so ravines lining the North Shore of Chicago. The ravines formed as water drained from the high moraine bluffs north of Chicago into Lake Michigan after the retreat of the area's last glacier roughly 12,000 years ago. In general, the ravines of northeastern Illinois are as deep as and can extend up to inland from the lake. The ravine occupying Ravine Park in particular is roughly in length and about deep at its deepest. H ...
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Lake Bluff, Illinois
Lake Bluff is a village in Lake County, Illinois, United States. Per the 2020 census, the population was 5,616. History The first settler family to claim land within the area now part of Lake Bluff arrived in 1836. They claimed 100 acres of land extending from the lake west to the Green Bay Trail. In 1849, a few residents left to seek their fortune in the California gold rush. In 1837, William and Mary Dwyer claimed the land just north of the former Central School. They opened and operated a stage coach stop and tavern along the Green Bay Trail. Some of the other early settlers were Henry and Angeline Ostrander, James Cole and William Whitnell. In 1855, the first railroad through Lake County was completed, running from Chicago through the county line. Henry Ostrander owned the land where the depot was to be placed, and he agreed to donate the site if the depot were called "Rockland." Therefore, this area, known previously as the Dwyer Settlement and Oak Hill, became Rockl ...
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Invasive Species
An invasive species otherwise known as an alien is an introduced organism that becomes overpopulated and harms its new environment. Although most introduced species are neutral or beneficial with respect to other species, invasive species adversely affect habitats and bioregions, causing ecological, environmental, and/or economic damage. The term can also be used for native species that become harmful to their native environment after human alterations to its food webfor example the purple sea urchin (''Strongylocentrotus purpuratus'') which has decimated kelp forests along the northern California coast due to overharvesting of its natural predator, the California sea otter (''Enhydra lutris''). Since the 20th century, invasive species have become a serious economic, social, and environmental threat. Invasion of long-established ecosystems by organisms is a natural phenomenon, but human-facilitated introductions have greatly increased the rate, scale, and geographic range of ...
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Botanical Garden
A botanical garden or botanic gardenThe terms ''botanic'' and ''botanical'' and ''garden'' or ''gardens'' are used more-or-less interchangeably, although the word ''botanic'' is generally reserved for the earlier, more traditional gardens, and is the more usual term in the United Kingdom. is a garden with a documented collection of living plants for the purpose of scientific research, conservation, display, and education. Typically plants are labelled with their botanical names. It may contain specialist plant collections such as cactus, cacti and other succulent plants, herb gardens, plants from particular parts of the world, and so on; there may be greenhouses, shadehouses, again with special collections such as tropical plants, alpine plants, or other exotic plants. Most are at least partly open to the public, and may offer guided tours, educational displays, art exhibitions, book rooms, open-air theatrical and musical performances, and other entertainment. Botanical gard ...
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White-tailed Deer
The white-tailed deer (''Odocoileus virginianus''), also known as the whitetail or Virginia deer, is a medium-sized deer native to North America, Central America, and South America as far south as Peru and Bolivia. It has also been introduced to New Zealand, all the Greater Antilles in the Caribbean (Cuba, Jamaica Jamaica (; ) is an island country situated in the Caribbean Sea. Spanning in area, it is the third-largest island of the Greater Antilles and the Caribbean (after Cuba and Hispaniola). Jamaica lies about south of Cuba, and west of His ..., Hispaniola, and Puerto Rico), and some countries in Europe, such as the Czech Republic, Finland, France, Germany, Romania and Serbia. In the Americas, it is the most widely distributed wild ungulate. In North America, the species is widely distributed east of the Rocky Mountains as well as in southwestern Arizona and most of Mexico, except Baja California peninsula, Lower California. It is mostly displaced by the black ...
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Hamamelis Virginiana
''Hamamelis virginiana'', known as witch-hazel, common witch-hazel, and American witch-hazel, is a species of flowering shrub native to eastern North America, from Nova Scotia west to Minnesota, and south to central Florida to eastern Texas. Description It is a small, deciduous tree or shrub growing up to 6 m (rarely to 10 m) tall, often with a dense cluster of stems from its base. The bark is light brown, smooth, scaly, inner bark reddish purple. The branchlets are pubescent at first, later smooth, light orange brown, marked with occasional white dots, finally dark or reddish brown. The foliage buds are acute, slightly falcate, downy, light brown. The leaves are oval, long and broad, oblique at the base, acute or rounded at the apex, with a wavy-toothed or shallowly lobed margin, and a short, stout petiole long; the midrib is more or less hairy, stout, with six to seven pairs of primary veins. The young leaves open involute, covered with stellate rusty down; when full grown, ...
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Trillium Grandiflorum
''Trillium grandiflorum'', the white trillium, large-flowered trillium, great white trillium, white wake-robin or french: trille blanc, is a species of flowering plant in the family Melanthiaceae. A monocotyledonous, herbaceous perennial, the plant is native to eastern North America, from northern Quebec to the southern parts of the United States through the Appalachian Mountains into northernmost Georgia and west to Minnesota. There are also several isolated populations in Nova Scotia, Maine, southern Illinois, and Iowa. ''Trillium grandiflorum'' is most common in rich, mixed upland forests. It is easily recognised by its attractive three-petaled white flowers, opening from late spring to early summer, that rise above a whorl of three leaf-like bracts. It is an example of a spring ephemeral, a plant whose life-cycle is synchronised with that of the deciduous woodland which it favours. White trillium often occurs in dense drifts of many individuals. The G. Richard Thompson ...
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Podophyllum
''Podophyllum'' is a genus of flowering plant in the family Berberidaceae, native from Afghanistan to China, and from southeast Canada to the central and eastern United States. The genus was first described by Carl Linnaeus in 1753. Taxonomy The taxonomic status of the genus has varied. Some sources transferred all but ''Podophyllum peltatum'' to other genera, such as ''Dysosma'' and ''Sinopodophyllum''. , Plants of the World Online regarded these genera as synonyms of ''Podophyllum''. Species , Plants of the World Online accepted the following species: *''Podophyllum aurantiocaule'' Hand.-Mazz. *''Podophyllum cymosum'' (Michx.) Christenh. & Byng *'' Podophyllum delavayi'' Franch. *''Podophyllum difforme'' Hemsl. & E.H.Wilson *''Podophyllum emeiense'' (J.L.Wu & P.Zhuang) J.M.H.Shaw *''Podophyllum glaucescens'' J.M.H.Shaw *'' Podophyllum grayi'' (F.Schmidt) Christenh. & Byng *''Podophyllum guangxiense'' (Y.S.Wang) J.M.H.Shaw *''Podophyllum hemsleyi'' J.M.H.Shaw & Stearn *'' Podop ...
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Mertensia Virginica
''Mertensia virginica'' ( common names Virginia bluebells, Virginia cowslip, lungwort oysterleaf, Roanoke bells) is a spring ephemeral plant in the Boraginaceae (borage) family with bell-shaped sky-blue flowers, native to eastern North America. Description Virginia bluebells have rounded (ovate) and gray-green leaves, borne on stems up to tall. The leaves are up to long, smooth (entire) along their margins, petiolate at the bottom of the flower stem, and sessile at the top. The inflorescence is a nodding group, or cyme of flowers located at the end of the arched stems. The flower buds are pink, and the opened flowers are usually light blue, but occasionally pink and rarely white. The flowers have 5 shallow lobes fused into a tube at the base of the flower, five stamens, and a central pistil (carpel). Distribution and habitat ''M. virginica'' is native in the United States from Kansas in the west, to Mississippi, Alabama, and Georgia in the south, and to Maine in the northe ...
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Acer Platanoides
''Acer platanoides'', commonly known as the Norway maple, is a species of maple native to eastern and central Europe and western Asia, from Spain east to Russia, north to southern Scandinavia and southeast to northern Iran. It was introduced to North America in the mid-1700s as a shade tree. It is a member of the family Sapindaceae. Description ''Acer platanoides'' is a deciduous tree, growing to tall with a trunk up to in diameter, and a broad, rounded crown. The bark is grey-brown and shallowly grooved. Unlike many other maples, mature trees do not tend to develop a shaggy bark. The shoots are green at first, soon becoming pale brown. The winter buds are shiny red-brown. The leaves are opposite, palmately lobed with five lobes, long and across; the lobes each bear one to three side teeth, and an otherwise smooth margin. The leaf petiole is long, and secretes a milky juice when broken. The autumn colour is usually yellow, occasionally orange-red. The flowers are in ...
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List Of Quercus Species
The genus ''Quercus'' contains about 500 species, some of which are listed here. The genus, as is the case with many large genera, is divided into subgenera and sections. Traditionally, the genus ''Quercus'' was divided into the two subgenera ''Cyclobalanopsis'', the ring-cupped oaks, and ''Quercus'', which included all the other sections. However, a comprehensive revision in 2017 identified different relationships. Now the genus is commonly divided into a subgenus ''Quercus'' and a sugenus ''Cerris'', with ''Cyclobalanopsis'' included in the latter. The sections of subgenus ''Quercus'' are mostly native to the New World, with the notable exception of the white oaks of sect. ''Quercus'' and the endemic Quercus pontica. In contrast, the sections of the subgenus ''Cerris'' are exclusively native to the Old World. Legend Species with evergreen foliage ("live oaks") are tagged '#'. Species in the genus have been recategorized between deciduous and evergreen on numerous occasions, alt ...
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Tilia Americana
''Tilia americana'' is a species of tree in the family Malvaceae, native to eastern North America, from southeast Manitoba east to New Brunswick, southwest to northeast Oklahoma, southeast to South Carolina, and west along the Niobrara River to Cherry County, Nebraska. It is the sole representative of its genus in the Western Hemisphere, assuming ''T. caroliniana'' is treated as a subspecies or local ecotype of ''T. americana''. Common names include American basswood and American linden. Description The American basswood is a medium-sized to large deciduous tree reaching a height of exceptionally with a trunk diameter of at maturity. It grows faster than many North American hardwoods, often twice the annual growth rate of American beech and many birch species. Life expectancy is around 200 years, with flowering and seeding generally occurring between 15 and 100 years, though occasionally seed production may start as early as eight years. The crown is domed, the branches s ...
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Acer Saccharum
''Acer saccharum'', the sugar maple, is a species of flowering plant in the soapberry and lychee family Sapindaceae. It is native to the hardwood forests of eastern Canada and eastern United States. Sugar maple is best known for being the primary source of maple syrup and for its brightly colored fall foliage. It may also be known as "rock maple", "sugar tree", "birds-eye maple", "sweet maple", "curly maple", or "hard maple", particularly when referring to the wood. Description ''Acer saccharum'' is a deciduous tree normally reaching heights of , and exceptionally up to . A 10-year-old tree is typically about tall. As with most trees, forest-grown sugar maples form a much taller trunk and narrower canopy than open-growth ones. The leaves are deciduous, up to long and wide, palmate, with five lobes and borne in opposite pairs. The basal lobes are relatively small, while the upper lobes are larger and deeply notched. In contrast with the angular notching of the silver mapl ...
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