Central Corn Belt Plains

The Central Corn Belt Plains take in northern Illinois and northwestern Indiana, including the western and southern suburbs of Chicago, Rockford, Joliet, and Bloomington. This was tallgrass prairie long before it was farmland, and the deep black soil underneath it was built by that grass over thousands of years. Natives like prairie milkweed, eastern beebalm, and yellow gentian are the plants that made that soil, and they hold their own in the open sun and wind of a suburban front yard.

Conditions: Deep black prairie soils, 34–40 inches of rain, cold windy winters and warm humid summers, very little natural shade.

Cities and areas: Chicago, Rockford, Joliet, Aurora, Naperville, Bloomington.