Day 21, Tuesday, May 12, 2020

Jack-in-the-Pulpit photo provided by Barb McKittrick, Kane County Forest Preserve District

​To a certain degree, much of the geologic history of the Chicago Wilderness region begins and ends with glaciers. The giant ice sheets operated at a scale that is hard to comprehend--acting as gargantuan road-graders, leaving behind the famously flat land we have today. 

To the discerning eye, though, there are quirks in the terrain all around us. Moraines may be the most visible, the low hills found in places like the Palos region southwest of Chicago. Sand dunes, kettle lakes and bogs are others. Eskers are among the subtlest of the subtle, though. Eskers are winding ridges of gravel and rocks created by a river of water flowing underneath a melting glacier. Again, hard to comprehend. 

This Jack-in-the-Pulpit was found on an esker at Bliss Woods Forest Preserve in Kane County. Jack-in-the-Pulpits stand out among our ephemeral wildflowers because of their curious structure. They prefer to grow in sun-dappled, mesic woodlands, like those thriving on the acres and acres of glacial landforms that dot this corner of the world.