Flatrock Glades Cedar Glade Plant Guide for Elementary Students Flatrock Glades Cedar Glade Plant Guide for Elementary Students Compiled by Marrie S. Lasater Kim Cleary Sadler Homer Pittard Campus School Middle Tennessee State University Center for Cedar Glade Studies Department of Biology Photographs by Darel Hess, Steve Baskauf, David Duhl, and Dennis Horn

Descriptions by Thomas Hemmerly Department of Biology Middle Tennessee State University Edited by

Cover and above image © Darel Hess Elizabeth Fitch, Jeff Walck, and Thomas Hemmerly Department of Biology Middle Tennessee State University This flower guide was developed to assist elementary students as well as members of the general public to identify endemic and Kevin Fitch, former Science Director, TDEC common plant species found in Flat Rock State Natural Area located Milo Pyne, Senior Ecologist, Nature Serve in Rutherford County, Tennessee. Flowers are grouped by color for quick reference in the field. Terri Hogan, Ecologist, National Park Service Sally Rollins Palmer, Tennessee Nature Conservancy For more information visit: www.mtsu.edu/~gladectr Bertha Chrietzberg, Tennessee Native Plant Society or write: Center for Cedar Glade Studies ©2008 Homer Pittard Campus School, Murfreesboro, Tennessee MTSU Department of Biology PO Box 60 Murfreesboro, TN 37132

e-mail: [email protected]

MTSU, a Tennessee Board of Regents university, is an equal opportunity, nonracially identifiable, educational institution that does not discriminate against individuals with disabilities. AA047-0908 The limestone rocks are rich in fossils. 1 Table of Contents Introduction by

Introduction ...... 3 Dr. Thomas Hemmerly Yellow Flowers ...... 4-8 Cedar glades (also known as limestone glades) are open, grassy, Blue Flowers ...... 9, 12 rocky natural areas surrounded by eastern red cedar and other trees and shrubs. Such ecosystems occur primarily in middle Map ...... 10-11 Tennessee. Plants of cedar glades must be adapted to the thin soil covering the limestone rock. In the winter, the soil tends to be wet. Purple Flowers ...... 13-15 But, in summer the hot temperatures cause the soil to dry rapidly. Thus, glade plants must have some of the same ways of surviving White Flowers ...... 16-17 as do desert plants. Over thousands of years, glade plants have become arranged within glades according to soil depth. The zones Pink Flowers ...... 18 generally recognized include: Other, Nonflowering Plants ...... 19-20 • Zone 1: bare rock, no soil Glossary ...... ibc • Zone 2: gravelly glades, 0–2 in. soil depth • Zone 3: grassy glades, 2–8 in. soil depth

Tennessee Milk Vetch and Pyne’s Ground Plum © K Cleary Sadler • Zone 4: shrub zone, 8–12 in. soil depth • Zone 5: cedar woods, oak-hickory forest, more than 12 in. soil depth

Plants found in the more shallow soils get plenty of sun but may suffer from drying. Those living in the deeper soils have more moisture available but are usually located along the edge of the open glade and are shaded for part of the day. This means that there is no ideal zone for glade plants. Glades change throughout the seasons. Various glade plants flower at different times, with the peak of flowering in April and early May. Many glade plants are endemics—rare plants that are found only in cedar glades. Others are typical of glades but are also found in other places. All deserve our care and protection as they are national and global treasures. 3 Prickly-Pear Cactus Hoary Puccoon Opuntia humifusa Lithospermum canescens This perennial plant is in the Cactus This plant is in the Borage family. family. It is the only native cactus It is a perennial with alternate in Tennessee. The flattened green leaves. It has up to five unbranched stems (pads) are specialized for stems 4–16 inches long. The flowers water storage and photosynthesis. are showy, orange to golden yellow, The spines are really greatly re- 0.5 inches wide or less, and five- duced leaves. The plants can grow lobed. Native Americans used the and spread out to be 2 to 3 feet wide flowers as a source of yellow dye in a cluster but the plant is only 8 (“puccoon” is their word for dye). inches tall. The fruits can be eaten It flowers in April and May and or made into jelly or a cold drink. is found in rocky open areas in The flattened stems can be cooked Zones 2 and 3. and eaten as a vegetable. The plant produces large, yellow flowers with red centers from May to June. It is © Darel Hess found in Zones 2 and 3. © Darel Hess

Sunnybell Lily Nashville Mustard Schoenolirion croceum Leavenworthia stylosa This perennial plant is in the Lily The Nashville Mustard is in family. The flower has beautiful the Mustard family. Also yellow petals and blueish green known as a glade cress, the leaves that come from the base of fragrant flowers are on soli- the plant. It blooms from April to tary stalks separate from the May. The leaves are 15–24 inches small, rounded, basal leaves; long. It is found in Zones 2 and 3, the white and yellow petals always near standing water. It is are notched. The plant grows to be an endangered plant and protected 2–3 inches tall. It is found in Zone 2 by state law. Interstate construction and is endemic to the glades in the in Tennessee was once rerouted Central Basin of Tennessee. It is an around a population of rare annual that flowers from February to sunnybells. May. Another form (variety) of this plant has all yellow flowers and is shown here; however, the yellow va- © Darel Hess riety does not grow in the Flat Rock © K Cleary Sadler, insert © Darel Hess 4 State Natural Area. 5 Price’s Wood Sorrel Prairie Coneflower Oxalis priceae Ratibida pinnata A member of the Wood Sorrel This perennial plant is in the Sun- family, this perennial has leaves flower family. It is 3 to 4 feet tall typical of the genus (they resemble and very distinctive. The name showy clover leaves). The flowers “cone” refers to the center disk are yellow with red spots at the flowers, which change from green base of the petals, and they are 1/2 to dark brown. The 2-inch-long ray inch wide. This plant is endemic to petals are very reflexed; the tips cedar glades and is found in often bend back and touch the stem. Zone 2. The genus name The leaves are deeply dissected. indicates the presence of It grows in Zone 3 and flowers from oxalic acid, which makes the May to August. shamrock-shaped leaves taste sour. This is one of five plants named after Sadie Price of Bowling Green, Kentucky. It flowers © Steve Baskauf, insert © Darel Hess from April to May. © Darel Hess

Shrubby Missouri St. John’s Wort Evening Primrose Hypericum frondosum Oenothera macrocarpa This perennial plant is in the St. This showy, low-sprawling perennial John’s Wort family. It is a shrub plant is from the Evening Primrose with opposite leaves. It grows 3–4 family. It has flowers that may feet in height. The flowers have measure up to 5 inches across. five distinctive yellow petals and Leaves are narrow and may grow numerous stamens in the center. up to 6 inches long; they often have The leaves have characteristic tiny, a silvery look because of numerous translucent spots. This plant is in a tiny hairs. Blooms may be seen in group of plants with current medici- late spring (May to June). Seed pods nal applications as antidepressants. are up to 3 inches long with four It flowers from July to August and is wing-like parts. It is found in Zone 2 found in Zone 4. of cedar glades. East of the Missis- sippi River, it is found only in Ruth- erford County, Tennessee. © Darel Hess © Darel Hess 6 7 Tennessee Milk Vetch Blue-Eyed Grass Astragalus tennesseensis Sisyrinchium albidum This perennial plant is in the Bean Blue-eyed grass is not a grass at or Pea family. It is a low-growing, all but is in the Iris family. This plant that grows 4 to 16 inches tall. perennial plant grows 6 to 8 inches The compound leaves and flowers in height, and the leaves are flat, are covered with small, soft hairs. narrow, long blades. The small blue The yellowish-white flowers are flowers have three petals and three pea-like and clustered at the end of sepals that are almost identical. The the stalk; it blooms from April to flowers are born near the top of the May. The fruits are yellow, hairy plant on slender stalks. It flowers pods the size of peanuts that lay on from March to May and is found in the ground. Young Tennessee Milk Zones 2 and 3. Vetch plants that lack fine hairs and flowers resemble Pyne’s Ground Plum. It is found in Zone 3.

© Darel Hess © Darel Hess

Yellow Stargrass Glade Savory Hypoxis hirsuta Satureja glabella Yellow Stargrass is a perennial plant This perennial is a member of the that looks like grass when it is not in Mint family. It is only 3 to 4 inches flower. It is in the Amaryllis family, tall. The flower is small and delicate and the plant grows from an onion- with a prominent calyx (tube) and like structure called a corm. It is 3 to dark purple spots on the corolla 6 inches tall, with hairy, grass-like (petals). The leaves are smooth leaves. The pretty star-shaped (glabella means smooth). It is found yellow flowers occur in clusters of in limestone soils and is endemic three or more; there are three petals to the Interior Low Plateau. It is and three sepals, giving the flowers found in Zone 3 (grassy glades) their star-like appearance. It occurs and flowers from June to August. in Zone 3 of the glades and flowers The well-known herb basil is in this from April to May. same genus. A useful way to iden- tify members of the Mint family is to check the shape of the stem, as most © Darel Hess mint plants have a square stem. © David Duhl 8 9 Flat Rock Cedar Glades and Barrens Designated State Natural Area

10 11 Gattinger’s Lobelia Prairie Purple Lobelia gattingeri Coneflower This annual or biennial plant is in Echinacea simulata the Bell flower family. It is named This rare plant of the Sunflower in honor of pioneer Tennessee botanist Dr. Augustin Gattinger. Family is a cousin to the feder- This is a small plant (6 to 12 inches ally endangered Tennessee Cone- tall) with unbranched stems. The flower and although it occurs in leaves clasp the base of the stem. other states, in Tennessee it is found The flowers are on the top portion only in Rutherford County. This tall of the stem and are attached to perennial plant (24 to 36 inches) has the stem. The flowers are reflexed (drooping) pink to purple blue-purple, about 1/2 inch petals; it blooms from late May to long or less. This plant is July. Another name for this plant is endemic to the glades and the wavy-leaf purple coneflower. is found in Zone 2. It blooms from May to June. Some The tall stems and narrow leaves species of Lobelia contain alkaloid are rough and hairy. This plant is found in Zone 3. © Steve Baskauf substances and have been used © K Cleary Sadler medicinally, but some may be poisonous! Wild Petunia Tennessee Coneflower Ruellia humilis Echinacea tennesseensis Wild Petunia is in the Acanthus This perennial plant is in the Sunflow- family. It grows to be 6 to 12 inches er family. Thought to be extinct in the tall. This perennial plant has oppo- 1960s, it was found in a small glade in site leaves and blue violet trumpet- Rutherford County, Tennessee in 1968. like flowers on 1- to 2-foot trailing It is listed as a federally endangered stalks. The flower has a long tube species and is endemic to the glades. and five lobe-like petals. The flowers This plant is about 18 inches tall. The are fragrant, and the plant is com- disk flowers in the center of each head mon to glades. It is found in Zones are dark brown and spiky to the touch. 2 and 3 and flowers from May to The ray petals are purple-pink and October. narrow. The flower heads look like umbrellas that have been turned inside out; the ray petals are bent forward, just the opposite of other coneflowers. It flowers from May to October and is © David Duhl found in Zone 3. It does not grow in © Darel Hess 12 Flat Rock State Natural Area. 13 Gattinger’s Nashville Breadroot Prairie Clover Pediomelum subacaule Dalea gattingeri This perennial plant is in the Bean This perennial plant, not a true clover, or Pea family. This showy wild- is in the Bean or Pea family. It is a flower is about 6 inches tall and is low-growing plant with 5 to 7 leaflets easily identified by its palmately which are fine, dense, and very compound leaves (think of the palm pleasantly aromatic when crushed. of your hand) and dense spectacu- The elongated rose-purple flowers are lar cluster of purplish-blue flowers. on wiry, reddish stems. The plant is Endemic to the glades, it is found in found in Zones 2 and 3. This is often a Zone 3. It is called Breadroot be- dominant ground cover and is endemic cause it has a large tuber at the end to the glades. It flowers from May to of a thin root which is very starchy June. True clovers have a symbiotic and may have been used by Native relationship with certain soil bacteria; Americans for food. It flowers from they have small bumps on their roots April to May. that contain these soil bacteria that © Darel Hess take nitrogen gas from the air and © Darel Hess convert it to a form plants can use to grow. Lyreleaf Sage Pyne’s Ground Plum Salvia lyrata Astragalus bibullatus This perennial is a member of the Pyne’s Ground Plum is in the Bean Mint family. It grows to be 12 to 18 or Pea family. It grows very close to inches tall and has leaves that grow the ground and is only about 3 inches from the base of the plant. The lobed tall. The stems (3 to 6 inches) have leaves are shaped like a lyre, an smooth, compound leaves. The ancient stringed instrument. The flowers look like tiny pea flowers tubular flowers range in color from and are purple-blue in color. The fruit pale blue to lavender and radiate from is a red, fleshy pod. Protected by law, the top of a central stalk. It flowers the plant is endemic to from April to June. It is a common Rutherford County, plant in fields and clearings; even Tennessee. First collected though it is a native species, it is in 1881 near LaVergne, invasive in open habitats. It is found the species was rediscov- in Zones 3 and 4. Another common ered and named as a new species in name for this plant is Cancerweed the early 1980s by a local botanist, © Dennis Horn because it was made into an ointment Milo Pyne. It blooms from April to © Darel Hess that was believed to cure warts and May and is found in Zones 3 or 4. 14 cancer. 15 Shooting Star Large Houstonia Dodecatheon meadia Houstonia purpurea The shooting star is a perennial This perennial plant is in the plant in the Primrose family. The Madder family. Most mem- unusual flowers look like rockets. bers of this genus are tiny Five petals are swept back and are delicate wildflowers called usually white but are sometimes Bluets. In contrast, this plant pink. The flowers are on a stalk grows 6 to 12 inches in height. 15–25 inches tall. Smooth, oval- The tiny pinkish or pale violet shaped leaves form a rosette at the flowers, 1/4 inch wide, are base of the flower stalk. This plant found in clusters above the thin, ob- flowers from April to June. Some long-shaped leaves. It flowers from botanists recognize two ecotypes April to July. This plant is found in (ecological variants adapted to local Zones 2 or 3. conditions); one type occurs in full sun (Zone 3) and others in the shade of shrubs or trees (Zones 4 and 5). © Darel Hess © Darel Hess

Glade Larkspur Glade Sandwort Delphinium carolinianum Arenaria patula This perennial plant is in the But- Glade sandwort is in the Pink fam- tercup family. The name Larkspur ily. This annual plant is also known refers to the single spur formed by as Wild Baby’s Breath. A small an- one of the five sepals (they resemble nual 3 to 6 inches tall, it has thin, lin- petals). The 3/4-inch flowers are ear leaves. The white/purple petals usually offwhite or white with pink are notched and about 1/2 inch long. or mauve spurs and are clustered The photo is a ground-level view of along the upper portion of the stem the plant. It is common in limestone (stem length is 3 to 4 feet). The soils and flowers from April to June deeply dissected leaves are at the in Zone 2. base of the stem. The plant is found in Zones 2 and 3 and flowers from May to July.

© Steve Baskauf © Darel Hess 16 17 Fame Flower Eastern Redcedar Talinum calcaricum Juniperus virginiana Limestone Fame Flower is in the Actually a juniper, this tree Purslane family. This miniature is called “cedar” due to its perennial (4 to 6 in. tall) is easily similarity to the cedars of overlooked even though it may occur the Old World. This conifer- in large numbers. The curved, cylin- ous evergreen tree (up to drical leaves are only 3/4 inch long. 50 feet tall) belongs to the The flowers, with bright purplish family Cupressaceae (or, commonly, petals, are borne in small clusters cypress). It grows in the deep at the top of slender stems and are cracks in the limestone rock and only 1/2 inch wide. The flowers only commonly forms a ring around open open a few hours each afternoon. It cedar glades (Zone 5). Female trees was described as a new endemic bear small, bluish, berry-like cones. species in 1967 and is found in Zone Because of their abundance, size, 2. It blooms from May to August. and aromatic properties, redcedar trees of middle Tennessee have been © Darel Hess used for making pencils and other © K Cleary Sadler, insert © USDA-NRCS Plants useful items. Glade Stonecrop Adderstongue Fern Sedum pulchellum Ophioglossum engelmannii Also known as Lime- Another name for this perennial stone Stonecrop, this an- plant is Limestone adderstongue. nual plant is a member of This plant is classified in the the Sedum family. This Adder’s-tongue family of ferns. is a low-growing plant The name for this plant is derived from the spore-bearing stalk that (3 inches tall) with suc- resembles a snake’s tongue. The culent leaves. The tiny plant produces a single leaf-like white-to-pink flowers are arranged frond and spore-bearing stalk from on 3 to 7 curved branches. The April to May. Although it produces leaves are narrow (1/4 inch wide) spores, it primarily reproduces by and cylindrical. The plants form a underground rhizomes. Researchers mat on thin soil over limestone rock. have determined that this group of It is found in Zone 2 and flowers ferns contains the largest chromo- from May to June. some count of any living organism (some species have more than © Steve Baskauf 1,400). This plant can be found © Darel Hess growing among mosses in Zone 3 18 of the glades. 19 Reindeer Moss Cladonia sp. Glossary of Terms Despite the name moss, this is actually a lichen. Lichens are nonflowering organisms composed Alternate Endemic leaves are attached at a single plants limited to a certain region of thread-like cells of a fungus with place on the stem cells of photosynthetic algae scat- Extinct tered throughout. This species Annual no longer in existence occurs as grayish-green mounds the plant’s life cycle is completed often 6–12 inches across. It is found in one year or one season. Palmately compound in the shaded shrub Zone 4 of cedar leaves that emerge from a center glades, often along with true mosses. Aromatic point (like your fingers from the Much farther north, in the tundra plant parts (flowers, leaves, wood, palm of your hand) regions, this lichen is grazed by etc.) have a pleasant smell reindeer. Perennial Basal the plant lives for 3 or more years at the base of a plant structure © Darel Hess Photosynthesis Biennial the process by which plants and plant that lives two growing some other organisms use the en- Nostoc seasons ergy of sunlight to produce glucose Nostoc commune Calyx Ray petals This distinctive organism, previously the green petals that cover the arranged like the spokes of a considered to be a type of algae, is outside of the flower wheel now recognized as a cyanobacte- rium. Cyanobacteria are bacteria Coniferous Reflexed trees that bear cones and never with chlorophyll that are able to petals are curved backward flowers manufacture their own food by photosynthesis. This species also Rosette Corolla a circular arrangement of leaves “fixes” nitrogen; it converts free the colored petals of the flower that branch out from a center stem nitrogen from the air into nitrates needed for plant growth. These Corm Translucent organisms enrich glade soils when a short, thick underground stem light can shine through but objects the pH is balanced. When wet, that stores food in some plants cannot be seen Nostoc is gelatin-like, but it becomes hard, dark, and crusty when dry. Endangered or threatened Witches butter is another name plants that are in danger of © Darel Hess, insert© K Cleary Sadler locally used for this organism. It is becoming extinct 20 found in Zones 1 and 2. This project was made possible by a Business-Partnership Education Grant and with support from the MTSU Center for Cedar Glade Studies.