WILDFLOWERS COLOR ILLINOIS INTERSTATES

CAIRO, Ill. -- The Illinois Department of Transportation is giving motorists traveling the interstate highway system something more to look at than mile markers and exit signs.

Through the state's "Corridors of Tomorrow" program, selected interchanges along Interstates 24, 57 and 64 have been planted with colorful wildflowers and prairie grass.

The reds, yellows, purples, pinks and oranges of fall have already emerged in the wildflower plots.

The colors will change into "burned oranges and browns later in the fall and into the winter," said Glenn McLernon, landscape architect with the Illinois Department of Transportation in Southern Illinois.

The fall colors may be observed at the I-57 interchange at Cairo, across the Mississippi River bridge from Missouri, and the I-24 exit near Metropolis, across the Ohio River from Kentucky.

"We have planted plots totaling more than 700 acres throughout the state this year," said Charles Gouveia, state roadside maintenance manager.

The program, Gouveia said, is in its second year.

"We have planted about 1,500 acres the past two years," he said. "Our goal is 4,500 acres by the end of the century."

Last year's plantings were at Cairo, Metropolis and the Interstates 55 and 24 intersection near Marion, and an area near the East St. Louis area.

"The program is really a prairie grass restoration project," McLernon said. "Wildflowers were planted initially in the plots to get color into the program."

The wildflowers, found at exits near Metropolis, Cairo and Marion contain a number of wildflowers, with about 50 percent of them perennial flowers.

Included in the arrangements are orange butterfly, milkweed, black-eyed Susan, purple cone feather and long purple spike.

The prairie grasses, which will provide the burned orange and browns are established and will provide some winter color when everything else is gray.

The program will be continued each year with more plantings, including the Anna exit along I-57.

"Our department has been doing this on a small scale for the past 15 years," McLernon said. "But, with some new enhancement funds under the highway bill, we have money to do it on a larger scale."

The program, in addition to adding beauty along the highway, also provides a cost-saving measure.

"We don't have to mow these areas," McLernon said.