Plant Life in Missouri
Missouri lies at an ecological crossroads. Its habitat blends Midwestern prairies and savannas with eastern forests suggestive of the Appalachians and some of the northernmost examples of Atlantic/Gulf Coastal Plain species. For the plant lover, this makes for fruitful adventuring.
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Prairies
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Much of northern and western Missouri once supported substantial acreage of tallgrass prairie, now severely reduced. Grasses such as little and big bluestem provided a rich bed for a variety of wildflowers like rattlesnake master, compass plant, Indian paintbrush and rough blazing star. Often prairies existed in mosaic with oak savannas and woodlands.
Upland Forests
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Missouri has a number of substantial upland regions, not least the Ozark Plateau and associated highlands, which rise to better than 1,500 feet in the St. Francois Mountains. These ancient hills support extensive woodlands. Oaks dominate, but mix with the short-leaf pine--the state's only native pine--especially to the southeast. The long-lived white oak is one of the most dominant species. Reaching heights of 100 feet and a diameter of 4 feet, it is one of the largest North American oaks.
The Ozarks mark a meeting ground between a number of ecological regions, including eastern hardwood forests, southern pine forests and western prairies. This makes for diverse plant communities. For example, the 960-acre Thorny Mountain preserve, managed by the Nature Conservancy, supports more than 250 species of native plants, among them prickly pear cactus.
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Bottoms
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Much of Missouri's original bottomland forest has been cleared, but remnants persist. Historically, portions of the Mississippi Alluvial Plain ecoregion in southeastern Missouri supported swamps of tupelo, baldcypress and other deciduous riparian trees, along with grasslands on adjoining sand terraces. The Current and Jacks Fork rivers protected in the Ozark National Scenic Riverways support eastern cottonwood, sweetgum, maples and the massive American sycamore, which can attain diameters of 10 feet.
Viewing Missouri Vegetation
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Despite extensive cultivation and urbanization of Missouri's landscape, large swaths of undeveloped land remain, including good chunks of publicly accessible land. The Ozark National Scenic Riverways protects more than 130 miles along the Current and Jacks Fork rivers, their many spring inflows and surrounding uplands, making for good country for botanists. The Mark Twain National Forest spans some 1.5 million acres of Ozark highland forest of pine, hickories and oaks, prairies, bottomland woods, wetlands, and rock glades. The forest service recommends the Greer Spring Trail for wildflower enthusiasts. The Nature Conservancy administers 12 sites in Missouri as of 2010, including the tallgrass remnants of Wah' Kon-Tah Prairie and the Bennet Spring Savanna.
Exotic Plants
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Like most places in the world, Missouri has seen a flush of "exotic" plants--those introduced intentionally or unintentionally through the action of human beings. While gaining footholds in an emerging new ecology, they often threaten the vitality of native plants--typically considered to be those inhabiting the area before European colonization. Garlic mustard, for example, which originally hails from Eurasia, can out-compete native plants in some parts of Missouri, especially in human-modified landscapes.
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References
Resources
- Photo Credit Indian Paintbrush image by Slapper from Fotolia.com
