Promoting Prairie

 Today, June 4, is National Prairie Day. At least it is in the USA, but hasn't been recognized as such in Canada yet, which is unfortunate since tallgrass prairie is a significant habitat type throughout many provinces. Regular readers will know that I am a huge fan of tallgrass prairie.

The first three photos are representative of some of the 100+ prairies I have explored in the mid-western US, mostly in Missouri.

Diamond Grove Prairie

Golden Prairie

Treaty Line Prairie

These next two are from southwestern Ontario.

Island Prairie, Walpole Is

The following photo is of a small patch that occurs at Rondeau, and features an impressive stand of Butterfly Weed. It could arguably be called part of a Black Oak Savanna. The large Black Oak with its spreading limbs certainly fits the savanna theme.

Prairies are becoming increasingly recognized for their value beyond the species diversity they support. Certainly grassland birds are becoming quite rare, as are some of the multitude of invertebrates inhabiting them. But even more so, old growth grasslands, which means grasslands that have never been plowed, store huge amounts of carbon. An old growth grassland has enormous amounts of herbaceous material below the surface. Some high quality species have root systems that go 6 metres or more below ground.

Some of the rarest plants in Ontario occur in tallgrass prairie, or the closely related oak savanna. This first one, Tall Green Milkweed, only occurs in one location in Ontario.

Eastern Prairie White-fringed Orchid is technically not limited to prairie, but usually has its greatest abundance there. It is a Species At Risk (SAR).

Closely related, but now gone from Canada, is the Yellow-fringed Orchid.

Giant Swallowtails, at one time considered a candidate as a SAR is seen feeding on Ironweed, a species limited to prairies.

Ironweed

An endangered species and therefore a SAR, is Slender Bush Clover.

Rough Blazing-star is a SAR.

Its more common relative, Tall Blazing-star, can be quite dominant in some limited prairies.

Another orchid, Purple Twayblade, is a SAR.

Pink Milkwort, next, is limited to only a couple of prairie sites in Ontario.

Goat's-rue is also a SAR, being limited in Ontario to only a couple of places.

This next photo shows one of the largest populations of a rare prairie species, Colicroot. Unfortunately this prairie patch was completely destroyed to allow for an expanded highway development.

A Cylindrical Blazing-star meadow graces some of the beach dune area of Rondeau. Although technically not a tallgrass prairie in the normal sense, it is a variation of it, and supports mostly tallgrass prairie plant species.

Prairie and savanna can occur in the same area, as is the case for this scene from Ojibway Prairie Provincial Nature Reserve in Windsor, which features a tall candelabra type plant called Culver's root

A little more on the oak savanna side of things is this scene featuring a Black Oak savanna at Rondeau Provincial Park.

Tallgrass Prairie and Black Oak Savanna: two of the most endangered habitats in Ontario. I encourage you to get out to explore and appreciate them!

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