Prairies offer glimpses of rare flowers
Visitors come to Floyd County to see the Coosa Valley Prairies.
Dozens of wildflowers enthusiasts tip-toed across the Coosa Valley Prairies west of Cave Spring. The large group had to watch virtually every step to avoid tromping down colonies of endangered and threatened flowers that brought them to the prairies from Atlanta to Birmingham and Chattanooga.
The Georgia Botanical Society sponsored the trip that brought between 40 and 50 people to Cave Spring. They then carpooled to the remote area in an effort to reduce the impact of vehicular traffic.
The prairies are west of Cave Spring near the Alabama state line on land owned by Weyerhaeuser but under a conservation easement to the Nature Conservancy.
Georgia Conservancy Malcolm Hodges said rare species include the whorled sunflower, which is not in bloom yet; Mohr’s Barbara’s buttons, marshallia mohrii, a federally threatened species; acres of purple coneflowers; and even a large patch of yet unnamed rush which is not even described in botanical literature.
“The soils are such, there is a lot of limestone, a lot of ions in the mud and clays that make it difficult for things to grow,” Hodges said. “In the prairies no trees grow. The real thin soil areas are always where you get the rarest plants.”
Richard Ware, Garden Lakes, a self-taught botanist, served leader of Saturday’s trip for the Georgia Botanical Society. He provided genus and species names like he was reading a collegiate botany book as he led the group across a thick, wet prairie that was almost a bog. ‘Prairies in general, the whole 929 acres here, support some of the rarest flowers in Georgia,” Ware said. “The plants that grow here love fire. It stops competition from hardwood trees, it’s just a special wonderful place here.”
Ware will lead another field trip into the area to see the late summer blooming wildflowers, including the whorled sunflower, on Sept. 23. Additional information is available at www.gabotsoc.org.