#grassland

[ask-me-about-cynomys-please]

Daily prairie dog fun fact:

In early 1900s, the largest prairie dog town ever recorded was discovered in Texas. According to explorer and naturalist Vernon Bailey it stretched for 250 miles north from San Angelo to Clarendon, and was 100 wide. It was home to approximately 400 million of black tailed prairie dogs, which is as much as the population of China at that time. Boy do they breed, huh?

[midwestbelladonna]

green lush <3

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[aisphotostuff]

Grassland @ Oare Marshes Kent Coast by Adam Swaine Via Flickr: Fabulous walk on the otherside of the marsh full of warblers and Linnets and other small insects lurking in the tall grass a stunning place to visit.

[midwestbelladonna]

Prairie Land <3

[sscarletace]

drew something I saw on tiktok 😛

[teacupcats-landscapes]

[plantmonger]

Was performing a typical wetland and habitat survey in Miami County, KS and unexpectedly found roughly ten acres (maybe more!) of pretty pristine mesic tallgrass prairie tucked away in the margins of the site's cropfields. I had been surveying across 300 acres for eight hours by this point and the sun was starting to go down but just wandering around I found so many cool, conservative plant species. Saw three I've never encountered before, and I wasn' t even hunting for new IDs!

My bosses might not like me stirring the pot but I'm about to do everything in my power to keep these remnant chunks from being developed. I don't care if it is only ten acres, that's pretty damn big for an ecosystem that has only 1% of it's original range remaining. Time to hunt for the endangered Mead's milkweed. Get ready for an essay, USFWS.

[From top left going clockwise, pictures are of leadplant (Amorpha canescens), which I have a tattoo of, then Virginia bunchflower (Melanthium virginicum), Culver's root (Veronicastrum virginicum), and rattlesnake master (Eryngium yuccifolium).]