Watercolor part of an exhibit at the Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum, Chicago
This threatened species (Platanthera praeclara), the western prairie fringed orchid, is found in Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, and North Dakota in tallgrass prairies. Due to global warming, this ecosystem has reduced to less than two-percent of its formerly vast range with water shortages and increased temperatures affecting the plants life cycles. In a drier climate, plants could be under greater stress, which would allow nuisance plants such as weeds to move in, forcing native species out.