I visited this prairie/barrens area today for the first time ever during the growing season with the hope of finding more PA endagered prairie plants or just some not so common species. With the exception of one forb everything I was able to detect in fall was what I saw today. The most important forb being Solidago rigida, (seen in the pic. above at middle left) a state listed limestone prairie plant. The population w/in a mile radius of this area contains several acres of grassland with abundant stands of this goldenrod throughout. This area may well be the last stronghold for this important and attractive plant in the in the region if not the state. The dominant graminoid was poverty grass. Other than that the only other native grasses were small amount of Little bluestem, a single (probably common) Dichanthelium sp. and some Tridens flavus- a PA native grass, which I'm not quite convinced occurred in this region historically.
A small colony of Rudbeckia trilobata was starting to bloom at this site. Somewhat surprisingly this species is absent from big hollow prairies but mixed throughout the prairies in the Bellefonte area. The Rudbeckia found at big hollow in great numbers is Rudbeckia hirta (see below) a very fuzzy leaved wildflower with a loosly annual to biennual lifecycle.
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| Rubeckia hirta (mostly left side) 7/8/11, Big Hollow |
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