FLORA OF THE GRAND FALLS CHERT 



BARRENS.* 



Ernest J. Palmer. 



Several years ago while botanizing near Joplin, Mis- 

 souri, I came upon an interesting locality in the valley 

 of Turkey Creek where several plants were growing that 

 I had not noted or collected previously in the vicinity, and 

 subsequent visits to the same spot have been rewarded 

 by the discovery of a number of other uncommon species. 



At this point, on the north side of the creek, just west 

 of the Girard branch of the Frisco Railway, along the 

 Joplin-Belleville wagon road, the erosion of the stream 

 has laid bare a massive bed of chert or flint, the rugged 

 but generally horizontal surface of which forms the floor 

 of the valley over an area of several acres. The thin 

 layer of rich soil gathered in the local depressions of the 

 rock, subjected to sharply contrasted conditions in regard 

 to moisture at different seasons of the year, serves to 

 support a flora in many respects peculiar and interesting. 



Some time later, having extended my explorations to 

 Shoal Creek in the northern part of Newton County, I 

 was surprised to find much more extensive outcrops of 

 the same chert formation, upon which a number of the 

 peculiar plants collected at the Turkey Creek locality, 

 several miles north in Jasper County, were growing un- 

 der practically identical conditions. This was in the 

 vicinity of Reding 's Mill, about four miles south of Jop- 

 lin. On both sides of the stream, near the bridge that 

 spans it at that point, the chert is well exposed and good 

 examples of the barrens may be seen. During the past 

 few years I have made several trips to this region, ex- 

 ploring the barrens on both sides of the creek as far 



* Presented by title to The Academy of Science of St. Louis, November 

 21, 1910. 



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