Happy Holidays

publish or perish?

Illinois Audubon published an article I wrote about Illinois' native orchids, in their fall 2008 issue. Since that article, one more orchid species has gone extinct in Illinois, the small whorled pogonia, Isotria medeoloides. They are federally listed as threatened, recently downgraded from endangered because of new population discoveries, but the populations are so small and intermittent, they're hard to locate and monitor.

John Schwegman, noted state botanist, had been monitoring the tiny population for many years and a friend of his had even purchased the piece of property the plants were on, to save them from the ravages of development. So it goes, sometimes...