Back in July of this year, I was walking with some friends on a trail at Rend Lake. At a wide spot in the trail we stopped to look around, and I noticed this unusual flower:
I wish I knew the name of it. I thought the shape of it was pretty cool. We don’t have too many exotic flowers in Illinois, so spotting this seemed rather special.

Hey! Do you know that whenever you send out messages, I don’t get the pics with them? There’s just this big black box with a red X over it.
Anyways. Cool flower!
Well, that’s good to know! Thanks for telling me. It’s because I’ve been using a method to prevent piracy of my images by other websites; but unfortunately it affects web-based email too. I’ll fix it, and hopefully find a better solution before long.
My friend Eva says:
“It’s passion fruit flower.
Pretty cool for Southern Illinois.”
i found this same flower in fort massac