rapidly. What effect the drainage had on the biota no 
one knows, as no one carefully studied these prairies 
a century ago. 
The plants of the area are typically those of the 
tall grass prairie. Big bluestem, fig. 19, is the usual 
dominant, although switchgrass and Indian grass are 
locally abundant and occasionally dominant. In the 
wettest parts of the prairie, prairie cordgrass is the 
dominant plant and densely covers the ground. In 
places of little disturbance, the prairie is a patchwork 
of a few species covering sizable areas. In some 
sites, big bluestem covers much ground, while a short 
distance away may be blazing stars, rosinweed, 
prairie-dock, compass plant, wild hyacinth, or one of 
the numerous goldenrods, as Solidago rigida. Shrubs 
in the prairie include New Jersey tea and lead plant. 
The seasonal aspect of the prairie is interesting 
to observe. In early spring the prairie is dormant and 
shows little activity until May, except for the flower- 
ing of a few cruciferous weeds, including Whitlow’s 
grass. Some of the early flowers are small and rather 
inconspicuous, as blue-eyed grass, or small and con- 
spicuous, as puccoon. The large and showy flowers of 
the beard-tongues appear in late May. In June the lead 
plant and the purple coneflower give a purple cast to 
the landscape. From then to the frosts of autumn a 
gradual but continual change of blossoms occurs, with 
the purple being replaced by yellow as the dominant 
color. Goldenrods and asters bloom profusely toward 
the close of the growing season. 
Unfortunately, many people incorrectly believe 
the coarse prairie plants to be undesirable weeds. 
Within undisturbed prairie remnants very few, if any, 
noxious weeds — the type that cause the farmer trou- 
ble — can be found. Only after the prairie has been 
plowed or tremendously disturbed do the noxious 
weeds obtain a foothold. They then remain long after 
the land is no longer cultivated and they even thrive 
in the secondary prairie type that develops. 
This prairie area between Laclede and Alma is 
owned by the Illinois Central Railroad. Efforts have 
been made by the Nature Conservancy to obtain a 
long-term lease for stretches, about 12 miles, of these 
remnants of the once vast flatland prairie. 
12. DEVIL’S PROP 
Devil’s Prop is the local name applied to a ra- 
vine area in the northwest quarter of section 25, T. 
1 S., R. 3 E., 2 miles south of Divide, a very small 
community in north-central Jefferson County. The 
ravine has been carved from the sandstone that under- 
lies the area. At one place a pillar of sandstone ap- 
pears to support the cliff, fig. 20. From this pillar, 
or prop, the locality received its name -- Devil’s Prop. 
es 
ee A 
Na 
Aa 
‘ 
Te 
Trak 
Fig. 19.-- An expanse of big bluestem. This grass is the dominant plant in many of the flatland prairie remnants of 
central Illinois. 
16 
