Penn-Sylvania Prairie

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The last Sunday in April was a great day to visit Missouri Prairie Foundation’s Penn-Sylvania Prairie – the temperature was comfortable and wildflowers were blooming. A fellow Missouri Master Naturalist led the hike, another person used Seek to record what we were seeing, and my daughter did the driving…I simply enjoyed the hike and took pictures! Before we started our hike we all took precautions for ticks. I got one on me – when I took a picture of the sign! – but brushed it off quickly and didn’t find any more on subsequent tick checks.

The list for the day included:

  • Canadian Lousewort Pedicularis canadensis

  • Prairie Blue-eyed Grass Sisyrinchium campestre

  • Bastard Toadflax Comandra umbellata

  • Small skullcap Scutellaria parvula

  • Eastern Shooting Star Primula meadia

  • Carolina Rose Rosa Carolina

  • Sampson’s Snakeroot Orbexilum pedunculatum

  • Ohio Spiderwort Tradescantia ohiesis

  • Cowpoison Nothoscordum bivalve

  • Mead’s Sedge Carex meadii

  • Prairie Phlox Plox pilosa

  • Pale-spiked lobelia Lobelia spicata

  • Painted-cup Paintbrush Castilleja coccinea

  • Goat’s Rue Tephrosia virginiana

  • Pail Beardtongue Penstemon pallidus

  • Common Yarrow Achillea mallefolium

  • Green Antelopehorns Asclepias viridis

  • Violet Woodsorrel Oxalis violacea

  • Cream wild indigo Baptista bracteate

  • Golden Alexander Ziza aurea

  • Leadplant (not blooming yet) Amorpha canescens

  • Rattlesnake master (not blooming yet) Eryngium yuccifolium

  • Smooth sumac (not blooming yet) Rhus glabra

Most of the pictures were of plants…although I did manage one butterfly – probably an American Painted Lady. We saw larger bubble bees (maybe queens since it is the season for them to be flying) and some black swallowtails and grasshoppers. There were a few smaller bees/wasps that we photographed on plants.

I used two different cameras: 1) my phone (iPhone 15 Pro Max with Bluetooth shutter remote) for when I could easily get close to the plant. The flowers that were blooming were low so I frequently opted to use my other camera to avoid being brushed by vegetation (tick perches).   

2) my bridge camera (Canon Powershot SX 70 HS) has good zoom capabilities so I could stand up to photograph rather than being down in the vegetation.

After we left the prairie, we continued along gravel roads to check on a Killdeer nest that had been seen at the edge of the road. It was still there and the bird stuck with her nest while we took some photos.

After lunch at the Hanger Kafe we headed home from our field trip.