I went to the north unit of Illinois Beach State Park on Saturday afternoon. My quest: flags (wild iris). They differ from hybrid iris in that they grow at water's edge. They come in purple/blue and yellow. I got a distance photo (see the upper right in the collage). I also found other wildflowers -- a hybrid iris at the shoreline (how'd that get there?!), phlox, lupine, coreopsis, fringed puccoon, shooting star -- and a mushroom.
When I was driving out of the park I saw a superb stand of yellow flags on the edge of Sand Pond.
It turns out that the yellow variety is an invasive species The blue ones are native.
Such a sweet flower, the iris! I wish they lasted longer in the season.
ReplyDeleteBeautiful flowers. I didn't know about "flags"; I just call them wild iris ... or maybe that's something else altogether different ...
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