Indiana Dunes Flower Quest—SEPTEMBER

There’s an autumn chill in the air on September mornings in the Indiana Dunes, but the beautiful wildflowers blooming this month dazzle like a ray of sunshine! Take another journey on the Indiana Dunes Flower Quest and see how many treasures you can spot as summer fades away.

How many of these fleeting wildflowers can you find? We’ve created an online reference below for you to track your progress. In the interest of being environmentally friendly, we encourage you to keep a mental note of your progress or take notes using your smartphone.

Be sure to tag @indianadunes and use #dunesflowerquest.

Need some help identifying your discoveries? Try identify.plantnet.org.

Black-eyed Susan

These yellow daisy-like flowers, with their distinctive dark centers, and native to North America. They are loved by pollinators, which feast on the flower’s nectar, and by birds, which eat the seeds. It’s not only beautiful: extracts from this common wildflower can be used in antibiotics!

Reference the Quest Map to help guide you to this flower.

Hot Spots

Closed Gentian

As the name suggests, this lovely flower actually stays shut when it blooms! It can blossom all the way into October, with distinctive “bottle”-shaped flowers of purple and sometimes white. It’s named for an ancient king, King Gentius, and bees seeking the flower’s nectar have to force their way inside!

Reference the Quest Map to help guide you to this flower.

Hot Spots

Fringed Gentian

Unlike its “closed” cousin, this beautiful blue flower opens its four fringed petals in the sunlight, only to close them again at night. The plant thrives in the wetlands and sandy soil of the Indiana Dunes, and is becoming more rare in places where such habitats are threatened.

Reference the Quest Map to help guide you to this flower.

Hot Spots

Goldenrod

These yellow flowers can grow from 3–6’ in height and can spread rapidly, overwhelming other plants and leading some to misidentify goldenrod as a weed. This native flower is very useful, however, attracting birds and pollinators, including native bees. Its distinctive color even served as the inspiration for a distinctive yellow crayon!

Reference the Quest Map to help guide you to this flower.

Hot Spots

Ironweed

Ironweed can grow up to eight feet tall, and its beautiful purple flowers will dazzle during the month of September. Each plant has a multitude of tube-shaped flowers with five petals, growing in clusters at the top of the tall stems. A butterfly favorite, ironweed has light seeds that spread in the wind.

Reference the Quest Map to help guide you to this flower.

Hot Spots

Nodding Beggartick

With their bright yellow blossoms, these flowers somewhat resemble their taller cousins, the sunflower, particularly as they grow and “nod.” They do well in the damp habitats of the Indiana Dunes, and they are beneficial to native bees. These little bursts of sunshine will also bloom all the way into October!

Reference the Quest Map to help guide you to this flower.

Hot Spots

Nodding Lady Tresses

These beautiful white flowers grow in spiraling rows to form a spike of blossoms at the top of the plant. Their spiraling shape has inspired some to say the flowers resemble a staircase. The nodding lady tresses are truly an Indiana Dunes treasure, as they are a member of the orchid family, and can bloom throughout the fall season!

Reference the Quest Map to help guide you to this flower.

Hot Spots

Polarplant

This bright yellow flower is also commonly called the compass plant, a name that comes from the way the plant’s large leaves are oriented north and south in order to maximize sunlight during the morning and evening. The flower can grow up to eight feet in height, and are said to have helped early travelers navigate the prairies. While the height is impressive, the polar plant’s roots can grow almost twice as long, stretching up to 15’ below ground!

Reference the Quest Map to help guide you to this flower.

Hot Spots

Purple False Foxglove

These lovely pink or purple flowers do well in moist, sandy soil like that found in the Indiana Dunes. The five delicate petals have fine hairs on their edges, and the center of the flower is white with purple spots. This beautiful plant is also parasitic, gaining nutrients not only from photosynthesis, but through preying on the roots of other plants!

Reference the Quest Map to help guide you to this flower.

Hot Spots

Spotted Touch Me Not

With its spotted orange petals, these flowers stand out in a crowd. Blooming into the fall, they are favorites of hummingbirds, and traditionally they were thought to be a poison-ivy remedy! Their name comes from their “explosive” seed pods, which can burst at the slightest touch.

Reference the Quest Map to help guide you to this flower

Hot Spots

Stag's Horn Sumac

These shrubs can grow almost as large as trees, and they get their name from the fact that their hairy branches can resemble velveted antlers. Their flowers grow in tight clusters at the ends of their branches, and the yellowish petals give way to deep red berries that can last even into the winter!

Reference the Quest Map to help guide you to this flower.

Hot Spots

Swamp Aster

As the name suggests, these flowers thrive in wetlands, and they are important plants for pollinators. And that’s not all–wild turkeys will dine on their seeds, and everything from caterpillars to white-tailed deer will munch on their leaves. Each plant will have several flowers, and every flower can have as many as SIXTY petals!

Reference the Quest Map to help guide you to this flower.

Hot Spots

Umbellate Aster

An important food source for birds, animals, and a large variety of pollinators, the umbellate, “flat-topped” aster, has flowers with anywhere from 2 to 15 petals. These petals are not evenly spaced, so the flowers sometimes look like they are missing petals! Their centers first appear yellow, but they very quickly turn pale and brown.

Reference the Quest Map to help guide you to this flower.

Hot Spots

A Note on Invasive Wildflowers

The Indiana Dunes are home to so many beautiful wildflowers. Unfortunately, not all of them belong here. Over the years, non-native species have taken root in the region, crowding out native species that are crucial for supporting fragile ecosystems. The parks, non-profit organizations, and volunteers work diligently to restore these areas.

If you spot an invasive species, please leave it be: it takes careful oversight to remove these plants without damaging the area, and poison ivy, ticks, and sometimes even toxins from the plants themselves can be a hazard.

Black Locust

Not all invasive plants have to come from overseas. Black Locusts are native to some parts of Indiana, but they don’t belong everywhere! These fast-growing trees spread so aggressively that they can quickly crowd out the local plants. Their bright flowers also compete with native plants for the attention of pollinators, while their towering branches prevent sunlight from reaching other plants.

Japanese Honeysuckle

These sweet-smelling plants have tough, woody vines that spread rapidly and survive through the winter. They thrive in wetland habitats like those found in the Indiana Dunes, forming thick mats that choke out other plants and wrapping around native trees and shrubs, shredding their protective bark in a process called girdling.

Mugwort

Also known as wormwood, this invasive plant can grow up to five feet tall! A single plant can produce as many as 200,000 seeds, and its dense underground root structure allows it to spread quickly and makes it very hard to remove. It smells bad when crushed, meaning animals like deer avoid grazing on it!

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