How long will prairie and savanna forbs last in southern Wisconsin in the absence of restoration or weed control?
There is very little “on-the-ground” data on the character
of southern Wisconsin prairies and oak savanna before restoration work began. By chance I discovered an early detailed report of the spring flora for
1936 for an area that is contiguous with Pleasant Valley Conservancy (PVC). This
report (found in the UW-Madison Herbarium documents archive) was prepared by a
group of students taking Norman Fassett’s Spring Flora of Wisconsin course. The
lead author was Edith Seymour Jones, who was a plant pathologist and experienced
plant taxonomist. The location of this study was the Sevenson farm in Section 8
of the Town of Vermont. PVC is in the adjacent Section 5. Our bluffs and the
bluffs surveyed are identical in geology, soils, and aspect. (The photo below from 1936 shows PVC as the hill in the left in the distance. The road in the foreground is County Highway F.)
Pleasant Valley Conservancy is the hill seen in the distance |
Considering that this is just a “spring flora”, done around
the middle of May, the species diversity is quite high.
The species list has over 50 species, of which the ones
shown in the accompanying table are the most noteworthy. As the table shows, most
of these species have also appeared at PVC after restoration, and many of them
were in the species list before any restoration work had started. As far as it
is known, these species first arose in PVC without the agency of external
seeding.
It is encouraging to learn that so many prairie and savanna
species survived from 1936 until 1998 (32 years) when restoration work at PVC
began in earnest.
Check list for 1936 flora in
Section 8; Town of Vermont
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Latin name
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Common name
|
Also present in 1998 PVC list
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Achillea millefolium
|
Yarrow
|
x
|
Anemone cylindrica
|
Prairie thimbleweed
|
x
|
Anemone patens
|
Pasque flower
|
x
|
Anemone quinquefolia
|
Wood anemone
|
x
|
Antennaria neglecta
|
Field pussytoes
|
x
|
Aquilegia canadensis
|
Wild columbine
|
x
|
Arabis lyrata
|
Sand cress
|
x
|
Aralia nudicaulis
|
Wild sarsaparilla
|
x
|
Arenaria stricta
|
Sandwort
|
x
|
Campanula rotundifolia
|
Harebell
|
x
|
Ceanothus americanus
|
New Jersey tea
|
x
|
Celastrus scandens
|
Climbing bittersweet
|
x
|
Comandra umbellata
|
False toadflax
|
|
Cypripedium calceolus pubescens
|
Large yellow lady-slipper
|
x
|
Dicentra cucullaria
|
Dutchman's breeches
|
x
|
Dodecatheon meadia
|
Shooting star
|
x
|
Erigeron philadelphicus
|
Marsh fleabane
|
x
|
Fragaria virginiana
|
Wild strawberry
|
x
|
Galium aparine
|
Catchweed
|
x
|
Geranium maculatum
|
Wild geranium
|
x
|
Heuchera richardsonii
|
Prairie alum-root
|
x
|
Hypoxis hirsuta
|
Yellow star-grass
|
x
|
Iris virginica shrevei
|
Wild iris
|
x
|
Lathyrus venosus
|
Forest pea
|
x
|
Lithospermum canescens
|
Hoary puccoon
|
x
|
Orchis spectabolis
|
Showy orchis
|
x
|
Osmorhiza claytoni
|
Hairy sweet cicely
|
x
|
Oxalis violacea
|
Violet wood-sorrel
|
x
|
Pedicularis canadensis
|
Wood betony
|
x
|
Phlox pilosa
|
Prairie phlox
|
|
Podophyllum peltatum
|
May-apple
|
x
|
Polemonium reptans
|
Jacob's ladder
|
x
|
Polygala senega
|
Seneca snakeroot
|
x
|
Potentilla canadesis
|
Dwarf cinquefoil
|
|
Ranunculus abortivus
|
Small-flowered buttercup
|
x
|
Ranunculus fascicularis
|
Early buttercup
|
x
|
Rosa sp.
|
Rose
|
x
|
Scutellaria parvula
|
Small skullcap
|
x
|
Senecio pauperculus
|
Balsam ragwort
|
x
|
Senecio plattensis
|
Prairie ragwort
|
x
|
Silene antirrhina
|
Sleepy catchfly
|
x
|
Sisyrinchium campestre
|
Blue-eyed grass
|
x
|
Smilacina racemosa
|
False Solomon's seal
|
x
|
Smilacina stellata
|
Starry false Solomon's seal
|
x
|
Stellaria longifolia
|
Stitchwort
|
x
|
Taenidia integerrima
|
Yellow pimpernel
|
x
|
Triosteum perfoliatum
|
Tinker's weed
|
x
|
Uvularia grandiflora
|
Bellwort
|
x
|
Viola pedatifida
|
Prairie violet
|
x
|
Viola soraria
|
Door-yard violet
|
x
|
Zizia aurea
|
Golden Alexanders
|
x
|
1 Comments:
When you started restoration, did more good plants reside in areas of steep topography where cattle were less prone to spend time grazing, or were the really nice areas the ones farthest from the farm? It appears that the level area on top of the ridge was more open which kind of suggests that cattle spent more time grazing there and suppressing the oak grubs and native flora. I was just wondering if this open area had less good plants than the steep south facing slope.
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