Services

Contact Chris Benda at botanizer@gmail.com or 217-417-4145.

Botanist

Naturalist

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Presenter

Program and Workshop Options

A Day in the Life of a Field Biologist
 Ever wonder what life is like as field biologist?  Join botanist Chris Benda as he presents a program about the challenges and rewards of working outside in nature for a living.  

Best of Illinois Botanizer's Nature photos of 20xx
 Chris Benda (aka Illinois Botanizer) travels the state each year and photographs the wonderful diversity of plants and animals that make their home in Illinois.  He will present a program with his best nature images from the current calendar year.  

Botanical Humor: You Never Knew Plants Were So Funny
  Join Chris Benda (a.k.a. Illinois Botanizer) for a delightful presentation about plants.   Chris has been teaching about plants for over 10 years and during that time has developed a unique teaching style that includes lots of puns, jokes, and whimsical pop culture references.   This presentation will be sure to keep you entertained and equipped with fun ways to teach others about plants. 

Botanical Names Demystified
    "The beginning of wisdom is to call things by their rightful names."  Botanists communicate about plants using scientific names, but they are often difficult to spell and pronounce.  This presentation will teach you the importance of botanical names, how to pronounce them, and what their names mean in a fun and informative way.  

Botany 101 (designed for Master Naturalist training)
  This workshop is designed to introduce participants to plant identification, with emphasis on native plants in Illinois.  After introducing botanical terms and concepts, the instructor will offer a classroom activity, as well as hands on field instruction.  

Butterfly Host Plants
   Learn how to attract butterflies to your home garden by providing food sources and breeding grounds for our native butterflies and other pollinators. Chris will inspire you to incorporate beautiful, native plant species in the home landscape and will discuss which host plants are specific to certain butterflies and other insects.

Ecology of Spring Ephemeral Wildflowers
  The onset of spring brings beautiful wildflowers to the woodlands of Illinois and Illinois is home to a rich variety of common and rare spring ephemeral wildflowers.  They are called "ephemeral" because the flowers typically only occur for a couple weeks in the spring before disappearing for the rest of the year.  These plants deploy an amazing array of strategies to deal with the challenges of living on the forest floor.  This talk will cure your winter blues by discussing the myriad of adaptations by these interesting plants.

Flora of Grantsburg Swamp Ecological Area
  Grantsburg Swamp Ecological Area in Johnson County is a natural area managed by the Shawnee National Forest and is home to a rich assemblage of plants and animals.  Botanist Chris Benda will highlight some of the marvelous diversity found in this high quality swamp.

Flora of the Illinois Coastal Plain
  Extreme southern Illinois is the northern extension of the Coastal Plain Natural Division, a plant communtity comprised of various types of bottomland forests and swamps.  Many plant species occur at the northern edge of their range here including Bald Cypress and Water Tupelo.  The presence of this natural community type in Illinois adds hundreds of species to the state's flora. Join botanist Chris Benda as he presents a slideshow of rare and unusual plants present in this area. 

Flora of Kinkaid Lake (Illinois)
    There is a lot of public land to explore around Kinkaid Lake in northwestern Jackson County, Illinois and many botanical treasures await the intrepid naturalist.  Over 670 plant species were observed during a survey in 2019.  Come listen to botanist Chris Benda highlight the neat plants and interesting animals found in this area.

Flora of One Horse Gap Lake
     This diverse area in Pope County was the site for a floristic inventory in 2023.  It includes the recreational lake and a natural area called Leisure City Barrens Ecological Area.  Come learn more about the plants that inhabit this remote area near the small settlement called Lusk, Illinois.  

Hidden Natural Treasures of Illinois
  Illinois is large and biologically diverse with many pristine natural areas located across the state.  Join botanist Chris Benda for a tour of the unique natural areas and rare plants that can be found in the 14 different natural divisions in Illinois.  This program will highlight places you never knew existed, with emphasis on the plants and animals of Illinois.

Hiking the River to River Trail Across Southern Illinois
 In December 2018 Chris hiked the River to River trail from Elizabethtown on the Ohio River to Grand Tower on the Mississippi River and blogged about it as he hiked.  Join him as he explains the challenges of this thru-hike, as well as the ecology of the land and plants observed along the trail.    

Illinois Pioneer Cemetery Prairies
  Despite being called "The Prairie State" Illinois has very little pristine prairie remaining.  A majority of the highly productive black soil prairie has been converted to agricultural uses.  Many small high quality examples currently exist in pioneer cemetery prairies and some are protected as Illinois Nature Preserves.  Learn about this priceless component of Illinois' natural heritage during this program by botanist Chris Benda.  

Plant Blindness: What is it and what can we do?
  Humans owe their survival to the existence of plants, yet this group of organisms is largely ignored by the public. For instance, children can recognize some conspicuous animals, as well as many corporate logos, but typically only very few plants, if any. This program will introduce the concept of "plant blindness," which is the inability to pay attention to and understand the amazing diversity of plants that surround us every day.

Plants of Concern: A Rare Plant Monitoring Program
  The unglaciated terrain of extreme southern Illinois is home to a variety of plant species not found in the rest of the state, making many of them rare in Illinois.  Yet the resources available to monitor and protect them are more limited.  To alleviate this, the Plants of Concern (POC) program based out of the Chicago Botanic Garden seeks volunteers to help monitor rare plants.  Housed in the Gibson lab at Southern Illinois University, coordinator Chris Benda organizes volunteer community scientists to monitor rare plants and report population data to POC, and ultimately, the natural heritage division at the Illinois Department of Natural Resources.  Join us as Chris explains the goals of the program and hopes for the future of the effort.

Rare and Showy Plants of the Chicago Region and the Habitats that Support Them
  Despite intensive urbanization and development, the Chicago Region is a center of biodiversity in North America.  A wide variety of natural communities exist across the spectrum from prairie to savanna to woodland, with numerous types of wetlands interspersed among them.  Discover the many rare plants and showy wildflowers unique to this area, along with the habitats in which they occur.

Rare Plants of Southern Illinois
  There is tremendous biodiversity in southern Illinois.  And much of that biodiversity is rare, especially when it comes to plants, as an estimated 20% of plant species that occur in southern Illinois are at the edge of their range.  Join botanist Chris Benda for a program featuring photos of rare plants and interesting information about their ecology, distribution, and status on the Illinois Threatened and Endangered Species list.

Rare Plants and Their Common Lookalikes
   There are over 400 species of rare plants known from Illinois, but many of them look similar to more common species.  This presentation will discuss the identification of rare plants and explain how to differentiate them from their related counterparts.

Updating the Illinois Big Tree Register (IBTR)
    The Illinois Big Tree Register (IBTR) is a statewide outreach program that seeks to discover, record, recognize, and appreciate the largest individuals of our native tree species. Chris Benda will discuss his role in updating the IBTR in 2021/2022 and show photographs of some of the most impressive trees in the state.

Understanding Floristic Quality Analysis (FQA)
    Knowing the vegetation present on your property can guide management and land practices.  This program will explain the power of using floristic quality analysis (FQA) to interpret the landscape, including a discussion on coefficient of conservatism values and natural quality indicators.

Winter Tree Identification
  Identifying trees and shrubs in the winter when their leaves are gone can seem difficult, but all the parts necessary to know them are there if you know what to look at. Learn how to see trees naked (without leaves) by looking at bark, bud, and twig characteristics and you will be able to identify trees any time of the year on your own!

Wild Ferns of Southern Illinois
  Over 50 native fern species can be found in unglaciated southern Illinois.  This presentation will introduce basic fern terminology with photos and identification tips to identify them in the field.

Wild Illinois: A Selection of Nature Encounters
  In this presentation, Chris Benda will highlight his nature experiences in Illinois with beautiful photography and inspiring quotes. He has extensive knowledge of plants and animals throughout Illinois and will share stories and photos of the most exciting encounters of his career in Illinois and beyond in the past 20 years. 

Wild Orchids of Illinois
 Illinois is home to over 50 species of orchids and many are very rare.  This program will discuss the natural history of orchids and present photos of all the species native to Illinois.  

Wild Orchids of Missouri
 Missouri is home to over 37 species of orchids and many are very rare.  This program will discuss the natural history of orchids and present photos of all the species native to Missouri.  

Wildflowers for the Home Garden
  With so much of the state converted to agriculture and urbanized areas, it is ever so important that homeowners create mini-refuges on their properties when possible.  Native wildlife need native plants to survive and there is a lot the average person can do to create habitat for these organisms in their own yards.  Botanist Chris Benda will take the audience on a tour of Illinois by region, highlighting the many showy and interesting wildflowers that can be found in each region of the state.  Emphasis will be on easy to grow species that are available in the nursery trade.

Slideslide presentations viewable on slideshare