Some Habitat and Distribution Terms Used 1127 



Infrequent. See distribution of plants. 



Interdunal flats. The fiat area connecting the bases of two dunes is known as an 



interdunal fiat, which is wet during the rainy season, becoming dry in summer. 

 Knobs. This is a local name for the dissected topography of the unglaciated region. 

 Lake. A natural lake is a depression on the surface of the earth partially filled with 

 water and which never becomes dry (at least in Indiana.) It usually has both an 

 inlet and an outlet stream. The shore is usually sandy or gravelly in places and 

 mucky with spatterdock or waterlilies on the border in other places. In some part 

 it must have water too deep for the white waterlily to grow, which is usually 6 to 

 8 feet. According to origin, lakes may be divided into two types, natural and arti- 

 ficial. Our natural lakes are all located in the lake area. In the lake area are 

 several lakes made for water power purposes, such as Koontz Lake in Starke 

 County, Sylvan Lake in Noble County, and Shafer Lake in White County. In 

 recent years several large artificial lakes have been made in southern Indiana for 

 recreational purposes. See definition of ponds and sloughs. 

 Local. See distribution of plants. 



Marsh. A marsh is a wet, level, treeless area covered mostly with sedges and grasses 

 and generally fringed more or less with willows, pale dogwood, or other shrubs of 

 a like habitat. This habitat is what some authors call a meadow. Marshes have a 

 mineral or mucky soil. 

 Meadoivs. See hayfields. 

 Oak openings. See prairies. 

 Old river channels. See slough. 

 Pastures. A farm pasture is a field of any kind devoted to grazing, permanent or 



temporary. A woodland pasture is a woods of any kind that is being grazed. 

 Pond. A pond is a body of water in a natural or artificial depression of the earth, 

 except a lake or slough, that is not as deep as a lake, but which rarely, if ever, 

 becomes dry. There are several kinds of ponds and each usually has a specific name. 

 A typical pond is the nucleus part of a swamp that rarely or never goes dry. I do 

 not recall ever seeing any vegetation in them other than spatterdock, but they 

 usually have some buttonbush on their borders. There are many artificial ponds in 

 the Illinoian drift area. These are made to retain water for stock and are commonly 

 called water holes, although some are made to supply water for boilers. The vege- 

 tation in these is usually abundant, if not disturbed, usually consisting of Eleocharis, 

 Lophotocarpus calycinus, and Sagittaria. Gravel pits are cavities left on the surface 

 after some of the gravel of the substratum has been removed. They vary greatly 

 in size and depth. One in Wells County of about five acres is a true lake. I have 

 not been able to study their vegetation. Most of them are used as swimming holes 

 and are kept free of vegetation for that purpose. I know of one small pit about 

 30 years old that is full of cattails. The water in them seems to be fresh and I see 

 no reason why lake species would not come into them. Millponds are made by 

 damming a stream for power purposes. They are usually full of lake species of 

 vegetation, including spatterdock, waterlilies, pickerel weed, Potamogeton, Cerato- 

 phyllum, and Myriophyllum. 

 Prairies. Prairies are naturally treeless areas, either wet or dry. Dry prairies are 

 always dry and covered mostly with big bluestem grass. Ours are mostly eastern 

 extensions into Indiana of the Great Western Prairie. Wet prairies have a black, 

 sandy, muck soil and, during the winter months, are usually covered with water which 

 disappears by late spring. They are covered mostly with little bluestem grass and 

 prairie cordgrass which are the source of marsh hay. This type of prairie covers 

 much of the Kankakee region, and parts of Jasper, Newton, Benton, Tippecanoe, and 

 Warren Counties. Oak openings are remnants of dry prairies in northern Indiana 

 where bur oak was the invading tree species. 

 Railroads. Term applied to the right-of-way of all kinds of railroads. Ballast refers 



to the filled-in or built-up part upon which the rails are laid. 

 Rare. See distribution of plants. 



Reservoirs. Storage basins of water used mostly for city water supply. These I have 

 not studied. 



