Katie Holm
ESE 360
Paper 1
Walking in a Prairie Wonderland
Illinois has long been known as “The Prairie State,” and with the University of Illinois being the second oldest public University in Illinois as well as located in Central Illinois, it should come as no surprise that prairie plants are often incorporated into the landscape of the Champaign-Urbana university campus.
One such example of prairie landscape on the University of Illinois campus is the Florida-Orchard Prairie located in Urbana in front of the Horticulture Field Laboratory. The prairie plot is roughly 2.7 acres of native tall-grass prairie species and assorted wildflowers commonly found in prairies. I, along with my class, had the privilege of touring this area, with Jamie Ellis as our guide. Ellis is a botanist at the Illinois Natural History Survey and the board president of Grand Prairie Friends. When I asked how many plants he knew, he said that he can identify anywhere between 4,000-5,000 different species of plants. That’s about 4,000-5,000 more than I can identify (at least before the tour with Jamie). Needless to say though, the tour was very informative.
Upon arriving to the prairie plot and stepping out of my car, I already started sweating. It was a hot and humid day yet again in C-U at around 88 degrees Fahrenheit. We started our tour first in the area surrounding the prairie grasses. This area was basically lawn. It was plain green grass with tall deciduous trees and a very distinct line could be seen all around the designated prairie area separating this lawn from the prairie plants. There were plants on the edge of the prairie that looked in pretty rough shape, and Jamie Ellis explained that this was probably due to chemicals the neighboring lawn blowing over and disturbing the grasses. The neighboring lawn, by the way, happens to belong to the University of Illinois’ President’s house. Anyways, since we were not yet in the prairie we were able to stand under the towering trees growing in the lawn and have some shade/relief from the heat. It was hard not to notice all of the insects and animals flying over and diving in and out of the prairie grasses. It was quite obvious that there were more in the prairie than where we were standing. It was also quite a sight to see the plethora of plants in just this 2.7 acres! There were ten-foot-tall golden rods, two-foot-tall New England Asters, and more. Purples, yellows, light blues, whites, and all shades of green were melded into this one prairie scene almost like a watercolor painting. Jamie Ellis told our group that there were around 45 different grasses and a large number of flowers all in this one area. That amount of plants can support a pretty large ecosystem.
Almost immediately after entering the prairie the temperature seemed to rise again. There was no airflow with all of the tall plants and no shade from trees to help. Wandering through the prairie on a narrow dirt path we could see even more types of plants and animals. Jamie was kind enough to answer all of my questions about almost everything I saw. I asked a lot about the different types of wildflowers, and he informed me that there are thousands of plants in the aster family, only a few types of which were growing in the Florida-Orchard Prairie. Some of those types included the New England Aster and the Black-Eyed Susan. There were goldfinches, monarch butterflies, bumblebees, and a multitude of other animals flittering and floating around us. Animals such as bison and elk are common in a prairie environment, but since this was such a small area when it comes to prairie environments and we were in the middle of neighborhoods and a university campus, we of course did not see any. There are usually rabbits and mice running around in the prairie we toured, but we most likely scared them off so were not able to see those either. We did see a red tail hawk soaring way above the grasses, possibly looking for the rabbits and mice we scared into hiding (sorry, hawk!).
Once again stepping off of the path of the prairie and onto the lawn again was somewhat shocking. There were no longer tall grasses surrounding me every which way or scores of bugs whizzing around (which I did not mind to be honest), just regular lawn grass under my feet and the large Horticulture Field Laboratory in front of us. The sun was still beating down on us though. There was a stark contrast between the feeling of being in the prairie and being on the outskirts of it. I felt like I had gone into a different area outside of Champaign-Urbana completely, and then had stepped right back into it after walking out of the Florida-Orchard Prairie. This difference was made even clearer after I had gotten back into my air-conditioned car and drove to the corner of Florida Avenue and Orchard Street. I saw the cars zooming by and the busses rumbling past the peaceful prairie I had visited minutes ago.
Work Cited
Ellis, Jamie. Personal Interview. 8 Sept. 2015.