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43 species of wildflowers and grasses! Trying to get a better picture of what a restored Blackland Prairie looks like?? Commons Ford Prairie Restoration Flickr page has a great archived history of Native American Seed blackland prairie planting, management, prairie plants, wildlife and more all organized by volunteer efforts. Please note it's extremely hard to use 1-photo to represent a blackland prairie as it changes throughout the seasons. Once you get an eye for diversity, a paradigm shift can occur that supports all the positive connections and functions of a healthy prairie. Thanks for your understanding!
We welcome feedback on the "perfect picture" to represent Blackland Prairie in our catalog and website. photos by Ed Fair, Commons Ford PRO.
By 1900, the Blackland Prairie was mostly under cultivation, being recognized as one of the foremost cotton producing regions of the world. Many grand old Victorian homes in the cities and towns still exist as reminders of the fortunes made in those times. Cultivation was a catastrophic disruption of the prairie ecosystem. It was a common farmer's joke to tell the story of an old Indian who, having seen a plowed field for the first time, said to the farmer, "Wrong side up". The story was taken to be an illustration of the Indian's ignorance, but in fact when the native grasses are turned under and the soil aerated, the organic matter decomposes faster. This creates a flush of nutrients available to cultivated crops, but when the crops are harvested, the nutrients are removed with the harvest, and the soil continues to be depleted year after year. Today's dependence on chemical fertilizers is evidence that perhaps there was more wisdom in that old Indian's statement than was recognized at the time. Native prairie grasses are structurally quite different than exotic pasture grasses. For example, Texas' pasturelands are primarily planted to bermudagrass introduced from Africa. This exotic pasture grass creates a dense, tangled, matted turf. Native prairie grasses, by contrast, are typically bunch forming. This characteristic allows for systems of wildlife micro-trails to occur under the grass canopy by traveling around the clumps of the root bases. Prairie birds such as quail and many small mammals rely on this structural type of prairie habitat for their basic patterns of reproduction and mobility. The over-story grass canopy provides protection from soaring hawks and other predators by keeping big portions of the micro-trails out of view. Nesting also occurs under this canopy or directly in the clumped bunchgrasses.
