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Environment Videos

Clean Water: Water Conservation at Home

Conserving water can be simple with the right items in place and a few small habit changes. We all know the obvious “turn the water off” ways to save water, but what about considering water quality and how you can save some of the energy it takes to get water to your tap? This webinar originally...

Everyday Environment: All About Clouds

In All About Clouds, see various types of clouds, including unique clouds only seen in a few locations and what weather is expected with each variety. The Everyday Environment online webinar series, presented by University of Illinois Extension energy and environmental experts, helps individuals...

How to Identify Yellow Foxtail

Yellow Foxtail, Setaria pumila, is a non-native summer annual found across Illinois in disturbed habitats. It grows between one and three feet tall and its stem is a bit flattened. The leaf sheaths are keeled, looking like they have a crease from being folded in half. Sometimes you can...

How to Identify Velvet Grass

Velvet Grass, Holcus lanatus, is a non-native cool season grass found in scattered counties in Illinois in moist, disturbed habitats. This grass grows three to four feet tall and its defining trait is its hairiness. Velvet Grass is densely covered in short, white, velvety hairs, giving...

How to Identify Timothy

Timothy, Phleum pratense, is a non-native, cool season grass found in every county in Illinois. Used as a forage grass, it prefers growing in fields and other disturbed habitats. It grows two to four feet tall and its foliage has a gray to blue-green appearance. Its leaves are broad and...

How to Identify Tall Fescue

Tall Fescue, Schedonorus arundinaceus, is a non-native, cool season grass found in fields, disturbed habitats, and planted as a lawn grass. Tall Fescue is a bunchgrass that grows two to five feet tall. Its leaves are stiff and sharply angled at the collar to be held about 90 degrees...

How to Identify Smooth Brome

Smooth Brome, Bromus inermis, is a non-native, cool season grass found throughout Illinois. It grows between two and four feet tall, and it produces rather weak, broad leaves that have an m-shaped crimp across the blades, which you can feel if you run the blade between your fingers. It...

How to Identify Side Oats Grama

Side Oats Grama, Bouteloua curtipendula, is a native, warm season grass found throughout Illinois. It is a bunchgrass that grows two to three feet tall, and the young leaves have a distinctive trait. Along the edges of the leaf blades look for small glands, each with a single hair on top of them...

How to Identify River Oats

River Oats, Chasmanthium latifolium, is a native, cool season grass found in moist woods and along streams in large colonies. It is also a popular landscape grass. It typically grows two to four feet tall and it has wide leaf blades that taper to a point. There is also a short hairy...

How to Identify Purpletop

Purpletop, Tridens flavus, is a native, warm season grass that can be found in savannahs, fields, and roadsides, and grows three to five feet tall. Its stems, rachis, and spikelets are covered in a thin layer of an oily substance, leading to its other common name of Grease Grass. At the...