(Photo) Threatened plant in Illinois: Wild blue sage

Two blocks from my home in Morton Grove there is a pocket of nature on the corner of Lincoln and Frontage in adjacent to Interstate 94. For the first summer since I moved here thirteen years ago, the lawn care workers with the Illinois Department of Transportation didn't mow this spot. Oh, it is an impossibility for a vehicle to drive up to this location, so traffic safety is not a concern here. But the "public servants," at least until this year, are more interested in adding chores--and hopefully more unionized laborers on to the tax rolls.

As Illinois is broke. Kicking and screaming perhaps, but frugality might be settling in with IDOT. Finally.

Growing on this unmowed grassland is wild blue sage--which is a threatened species in Illinois.

According to Illlinoiswildflowers.info, the wildflower "has been reported from only a few scattered counties, primarily in central and southern Illinois." The range map on the site lists DuPage, which is west of Cook County, where Morton Grove is, as a place where wild blue sage can be found.

Well, Cook can be added to that list.

Unless IDOT lawnmowers slash the plants down.

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Peterson First Guide to Wildflowers of Northeastern and North-Central North America By Roger Tory Peterson Institute (Google Affiliate Ad)