We were at the U.S. Forest Service's (FS) District Ranger Office parking lot, in Sam Houston National Forest, controlled chaos as usual.  The people who had signed in were raring to go and those who had not signed in, and had met us in the parking lot, were scribbling as fast as they could so we could be off.  We had all come together to visit and learn about unique grasslands called blackland prairies.

Off we went, four intrepid drivers and all together 12 excited participants including Michael, Pam, Jane, Nancy, Lynn, Taylor, Corinne, Beth, Luis, Tiffany, Diana, and Brandt.  We drove across Lake Conroe, turned onto FM 149, skedaddled down FM 1791, and turned left onto Forest Road 209, just avoiding a group of bicyclists, and pulled to a stop.

I asked people if they could see in the brush and trees that filled the background a prairie.  I was given quizzical looks.  I pointed out an American Basket Flower and a beautiful bouquet of Bluebells in the ditch by the side of the road and told them that these wildflowers would not be here if a prairie was not present.  Unfortunately, the prairie was overgrown with woody plants.  In a year or two this site will have a restored prairie, the Farris Cemetery Prairie, complements of the FS, due to the Sierra Club's urging.  That is exciting progress!

We jumped back into the cars and had not gone far when I screeched to a halt. I showed our assembly a beautiful roadside mass of Prairie Blazing Star, four feet tall and full of gorgeous purple blooms.  Back into the car we went and on to the Bluebell Prairie.

As we made our way up a FS road toward Bluebell Prairie, we saw Dayflower, St. Johns Wort, Meadow Beauty, Brown-eyed Susan, Bitterweed, and the mysterious Yellow-eyed Grass, Xyris ambigua, whose presence denotes water (an obligate wetlands plant) and probably a seepage slope.  The Leopard Frog that jumped in front of us verified there was water nearby.  Michael and Jane bantered back and forth about the birds they heard including a bunting (Indigo or Painted) and White-eyed Vireo

We finally turned a slight corner and the prairie came into view.  I showed people where the Sierra Club had cut down woody plants (which unfortunately are regrowing back) to give the prairie grasses, like Little Bluestem, Silver Bluestem,  and Knotroot Bristle Grass, and herbaceous wildflowers like Missouri Ironweed, Wild Petunia, Gumweed, False Gaura, Purple Prairie Clover, White Prairie Clover, Yellow Powder Puff, Scarlet Pea, Marbleseed, Texas Vervain, and of course Bluebells, more room to grow and compete.

We wandered across the prairie and began a desent into a ravine with calciphilic plants like White Ash, Gum Bumelia, Rusty Black Haw, Hackberry, and other woody plants, when in the distance there came a running figure.  I watched as he moved quickly across the prairie and bore down on us.  I thought, what have we here?  What we had was Duc, one of our participants who had not arrived at the FS parking lot before we left.  Somehow, Duc had tracked us down and we were now 13 strong, and united!  What an incredible feat.

After we moved across the dry ravine we came out of the woods on the other side to more prairie.  We walked, stopped, and observed the effects that fire had on woody plants, like Eastern Red Cedar, on the prairie.  Little Bluestem's remnant stalks from last year waved in the wind and the green leaves from this year's growth were already six inches tall; but the summer and fall growth spurt had yet to kick in.  That is something that is really neat about prairies, different grasses and wildflowers bloom at different times of the year so you can come back 3 or 4 times and see new waves of colored magical stalks (complete with snail shells).

It was beginning to get hot as we hiked back and got into our cars.  We visited one more prairie, Muddy Prairie, where the Sierra Club is cutting down woody plants.  We also saw a motte of large, old, Post Oak trees which indicated that this area, Post Oak Savannah, originally had habitat by the same name.  The FS will restore Post Oak Savannah in an approved project in the next several years.

We left Muddy Prairie and Post Oak Savannah and headed to New Waverly.  On the way, we stopped briefly on Welch Road so people could see where “Welch Prairie” was.  Another day, we will explore this prairie.

We pulled into Waverly House Restaurant about 1 pm.  To say people were hungry, is an understatement.  In addition, the 10 of us who shared lunch, had opinions just about everything.  I could see some of the locals glance over at our table and wonder who we were.  For some of us, delicious homemade pie was the piece de resistance that capped off lunch.

We scattered to head home and by the time my car wheeled into Houston I was already thinking about when was the next time I could visit those wildflower havens, those blackland prairies, in Sam Houston National Forest.

Brandt Mannchen
July 24, 2017