PUBLIC PARKS OP IOWA 235 



THE DISAPPEARANCE OF NATIVE PLANTS IN IOWA. 

 By J. A. Spurrell. 



I think all will admit that it is desirable to preserve our native plants, 

 because some of them are indispensable in medicines and must be culti- 

 vated if they become rare; some deserve preservation because of their 

 beauty; some because of possible economic utility; all deserve it because 

 they show present day lowans small portions of the glories of the un- 

 molested forest, the unbroken prairie, and the undrained marsh of a 

 former Iowa. 



To preserve our native plants two things are necessary, a place to 

 grow and protection of flower and seed. The sentiment: "It is better 

 to admire the beauty of our native flowers, where they grow, than it is 

 to pluck them to wither in a vase," should become universal in Iowa. 



Unfortunately, many of our rare flowers will be extinct long before 

 our people can be educated to this ideal, if such an ideal state can ever 

 come, therefore, other means must be adopted. 



From a preservation point of view, our native plants may be divided 

 into three classes, with differing needs of protection according to habitat, 

 the forest plants, the prairie plants and the plants that grow in the 

 water in swamps. 



There is no woodland near my home, so I know little of the needs 

 of these plants, but if forest reserves were created in Iowa by state action, 

 as they should be, our trees and shade loving plants could be amply 

 taken care of. 



Almost the only places left where prairie plants grow are the road' 

 sides and railroad rights-of-way. The greater the distance from towns the 

 more abundant are the common prairie wild flowers, and the more num- 

 erous are the rare species, showing that urban people need more educa- 

 tion on wild flower preservation than the farmers who would miss the 

 roadside flowers were they gone, although rightly regarding many of 

 them as weeds in their fields. The roa'dsides are owned by so many 

 people that little practical preservation is possible on them. However, 

 they furnish splendid places for our native grasses and legumes to grow. 

 If not destroyed by plowing, too close grazing, or so frequent mowing that 

 they cannot mature seed,, these plants will hold their own against all 

 invaders, and will come in again as soon as the land is left undisturbed. 

 I have seen big and little bluestems (Andropogon provincialis and sco- 

 parius), side oats grama (Bouteloua raoemosa), slough grass (Spartina 

 cynosuroides), and other grasses do this. Big bluestem grows on our 

 town school ground, which is deserted during the summer. Vetch (Vica 

 americana), vetchling (Lathyrus venosus), ground plum (Astragalus 

 caryocarpus) and other native legumes also grow well where undis- 

 turbed. Some of the fertility of Iowa soil is due to the former abundance 

 of these plants. 



On the railroad right-of-way our native plants have only the annual 

 mowing and unlimited flower plucking to contend with. They could be 

 preserved here by co-operation between the railroads and a permanent 

 Iowa Conservation Commission or Board, not now in existence, but much 



