A visit to a prairie in Clinton Co.

I had seen this prairie last fall while riding my bike.  I was surprised to find nearly pure stands of indian grass mixed among redcedars.  It was late fall and nearly everything was dormant and dessicated.  So I returned there today to if I could find any rare prairie forbs or even graminiods that might be more visible now that its the field season.  I Checked the soil map for this site and was encouraged by what I found.  It sits atop the opequon series, the prime soil series for XLP flora.  Unfortunatley no rarites were seen.  Forbs were commoners, limited to Solidago juncea, Desmodium candadense, Fragaria virginiana and Rosa carolina.  Below is a typical view of the forb cover for this site.

 Indian grass was dominant, Elymus hystrix, a small statured Dichanthelium and at least one Carex sp. were mixed throughout.  Below is the sedge.

 

The cedars are responsible for casting most of the shade on the prairies grasses at this site.  Exotic shrubs are in the near by woods but not in the extant prairie areas.

There are a few areas like this at the site which will produce a decent amount of indian grass seed, though you can't quite tell yet.