Appreciate nature in all its seasons.
Rice Native Gardens
This exhibition is alive and changing every day.
Exhibition Summary
Included with General Admission
All ages
Alert
Did you know one of our biggest exhibition spaces is outside and free to visit year-round? Stroll down winding paths, pause on a bench to enjoy a conversation, and take a closer look at the life all around you in the Rice Native Gardens. Framing the museum’s exterior, the gardens are home to a variety of native plants—over 100 species in total. In addition to colorful flowers and tall grasses, you can spot a variety of animals: birds, bats, grasshoppers, butterflies, and much more. They all play a role in this ecosystem, from pollinating plants to creating healthy soil.
The exhibition is presented in both English and Spanish. La exhibición está presentada en inglés y español.
Exhibition Highlights
Image slideshow
Gallery
Monarch caterpillars, with their distinctive stripes, appear in the garden in the spring. You might see them eating the leaves of milkweed plants.
Adult monarch butterflies can be spotted around the garden in the summer. In addition to milkweed, they eat the nectar of flowers like coneflower, or Echinacea.
Field staff prepare to raise one of two houses for Purple Martins, which migrate to Illinois in the spring.
If you look closely, you’ll spot wildlife everywhere in the garden—like this grasshopper resting on a milkweed leaf.
Purple prairie clover is a native plant that does well in the sun and attracts pollinators with its brightly colored blooms.
Screen reader users can skip the following slideshow buttons by using heading navigation. All slides have been displayed above.
Monarch caterpillars, with their distinctive stripes, appear in the garden in the spring. You might see them eating the leaves of milkweed plants.
Photographer(s):Katharine Uhrich(c) Field Museum
Field Guides
You can browse hundreds of Field Guides developed by museum experts. Use these visual guides to identify the plant and animal species you see in local nature. Field Guides are available for downloading and printing.
Summer in Chicagoland Field Guide
Get to know the plants and animals that are also spending summer in your Chicago neighborhood.
Colors in the Rice Native Gardens Field Guide
The Field Museum invites you to awaken your senses as you venture through the Field Museum’s Rice Native Gardens and experience the beautiful colors of the natural world.
Rice Native Gardens Field Guide
This guide highlights plants found in the garden's sustainable landscaping and native to Illinois—the same species that grow wild in our prairies and woodlands.
Related Events and Activities
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Wednesday, July 22
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Wednesday, June 24
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Monday, June 22
Content to explore
Research in the Gardens
The Rice Native Gardens serves as an active research site for Field Museum scientists in the Nagaunee Integrative Research Center, Gantz Family Collections Center, and Keller Science Action Center. Below is more information about some of the research being conducted in the garden this year.
Rice Native Gardens Birds Resurvey Project
Starting in August 2025, ornithologists Doug Stotz and Cameron Rutt began a year-long effort to re-survey the garden’s birds, comparing what we find presently with baseline data that were collected back in 2014, before the gardens were installed.
Insect Communities of the Rice Native Gardens
This project documents how insect communities are responding to the Rice Native Gardens as native vegetation replaces areas once dominated by turfgrass. The inventory is designed to track which insects are using the gardens, how those communities change through time, and how urban habitat restoration supports biodiversity in the middle of Chicago.
Pollinator Community Science Project
Join the Field Museum in documenting pollinators and the flowers they feed on in our gardens. We invite museum members, guests, and park visitors to contribute.
Why native plants?
Native plants are ones that thrive in a certain region and evolve over time as a key part of the environment. Here in Illinois, many of our native plants are found in prairies: flat, open grasslands that are suited to cold winters and hot summers. But there weren’t always native plants in our backyard. When the Field Museum was first built, it was surrounded by hard clay and landfill. After that, it was a grassy lawn for many years. Envisioning a beautiful landscape that reflects the region’s ecological makeup, we set about creating the native gardens you see today. The process included biodiversity surveys to provide baseline data, studies of plants that thrive nearby, and conversations with community partners. Today, the gardens are a unique site where research happens alongside educational programs and cultural celebrations. Native plants help keep the soil healthy, provide food and home for native animal species, and retain water—which prevents runoff into nearby Lake Michigan. Field researchers can also study changes over time by analyzing soil samples, documenting the species found in the gardens, and tracing the effects of climate change. Learn more about our commitment to sustainability with We Are Still In.
Nature in Chicago
Get a bird's-eye view of the gardens on iNaturalist. Use their website or mobile app to see what other people have spotted in the garden and submit your own sightings, too!
Land acknowledgment
We acknowledge that the Field Museum resides within the traditional homelands of many Indigenous nations:
- Hoocąk (Winnebago/Ho’Chunk), Jiwere (Otoe), Nutachi (Missouria), and Baxoje (Iowas)
- Kiash Matchitiwuk (Menominee)
- Meshkwahkîha (Meskwaki)
- Asâkîwaki (Sauk)
- Myaamiaki (Miami), Waayaahtanwaki (Wea), and Peeyankihšiaki (Piankashaw)
- Kiikaapoi (Kickapoo)
- Inoka (Illini Confederacy)
- Anishinaabeg (Ojibwe), Odawak (Odawa), and Bodéwadmik (Potawatomi)
The Field Museum recognizes and is grateful for the Original Peoples who laid the foundation for the City of Chicago, and for the diverse Indigenous nations that reside in Chicago today. Our history as a museum began in 1893, and the Field’s collection, research, and community partners continue to tell a story about nature and culture that is vast and complex. The ways we tell stories are always evolving and are enriched by what we learn from listening to many different voices. We are committed to bringing Native American voices to the forefront as we transform the Native North America Hall here at the Field. As part of an ongoing effort to celebrate and tell the histories and contemporary experiences of Native American people, we also recognize the Native American presence on the land where our building is located.
Acknowledgments
The Rice Native Gardens are made possible through the generosity of the Daniel F. and Ada L. Rice Foundation.
