Category: landscape

Baptisia sphaerocarpa (Yellow Wild Indigo)

landscape, native plants

This nice patch of Baptisia sphaerocarpa was found back in May of 2021 at Rick Evans Grandview Prairie WMA in Hempstead Co., AR. Although this species is found in a few of our southwestern prairies, most consider these to be introductions and not a native plant of Missouri.

Baptisia sphaerocarpa (Yellow Wild Indigo)

Roaring River Conservation Area

landscape, native plants

I finally got to spend some time at Roaring River C.A. this past spring when Casey and I made a trip to the southwest of the state. This location is easily seen driving to and from Roaring River State Park. At this time, the Castilleja coccinea (Indian paintbrush) and Camassia scilloides (wild hyacinth) were the stars of the show, accenting the hilly glades and savannahs.

Castilleja coccinea (Indian paintbrush) in bloom at Roaring River Conservation Area.
A sepia treatment was given to this infra-red capture of the savannah at Roaring River Conservation Area.

Blanchard Springs

landscape

Casey introduced me to this location early in the spring. This is Blanchard Springs in Stone County, Arkansas. With an average daily flow rate of ~10 millon gallons per day, it doesn’t fall near the top ten of the fantastic and popular springs found in southern Missouri. However, this amount of water finding its way through a limestone rock face and plunging ten feet or more makes this a spectacular spring indeed!

Blanchard springs is a fun and easy spring to visit in north-central Arkansas.

Chasing Waterfalls in the Shawnee

landscape

Following a rainy period this spring, Casey and I visited a few spots in the Shawnee of southern Illinois. Some of these spots are well known, but can be difficult to visit. Another location is not nearly as well known, but easier to get to. The Shawnee really does canyons, large rocks and water features well. This is but a small sample of what can be found there.

Frosty St. Francois Mountains

landscape

A bluff face covered in ice along the the Little St. Francis

A few images from our recent deep freeze. Casey and I visited the St. Francois Mountains and collected some images along the Little St. Francis River and Little Rock Creek.

Nice shelf ice formed along the river. Hip boots and metal cleats, along with thinking about where you step, are all recommended.

Looking down river

Looking upstream, the ice-shrouded bluffs (~125 feet tall) can be seen through the trees.

A close up look at the frosted bluff face of this rugged river bed.

Finally, a small, ice-crowned shut-in along Little Rock Creek. More interesting shut-ins are found further upstream but those will have to wait for another day.

-OZB

Meeting new shut-ins in the St. Francois Mountains

landscape

A sharp drop of approximately 8 feet (to pool’s surface) ends one of the nicest series of shut-ins – located on private land in Madison and Iron Counties (location 1).

This year I was fortunate to be introduced to two new-for-me shut-ins in the southern region of the St. Francois Mountains. Both of these locations are currently on private land and with assistance from a couple of friends, it was quite a thrill to be able to visit and photograph these stunning geologic features.

We would of have liked to have more flowing water on our couple of visits to these shut-ins (loc. 1), however, these creeks are both partially spring-fed so there is always at least some flow.

What surprised me most about both of these locations was that they were not covered in Beveridge’s “Geologic Wonders and Curiosities of Missouri”. I am not sure if this was because he did not know of them or because he chose not to feature them for some reason. I sure hope it was the later.

This phot was taken at the same location as the previous image, but in the autumn.

Definitely wild country. We pushed through witch hazel and other streamside brush, taking deliberate steps over slick-as-ice rocks to find the next small section of cascades.

The tile-red rhyolite porphyry that makes up the majority of this streambed matches well against the warm tones of autumn foliage.

My recent delves into geology and astronomy have really been eye-opening, tying together everything else I know of natural history into place. There is so much more for me to learn, with Geology I know almost nothing, but it has been such an aid for me in remembering that most of what everyone worries over is so insignificant compared to the real that is right under our noses.

Lava-gas bubbles (lithophysae), thought to be formed by expanding gases prior to solidification into rock, can be seen on this rhyolite protrusion.

Talk about your tile-red rhyolite porphyry!

Don’t confuse this with lava flows from Kīlauea. This is ancient igneous rock that solidified approximately 1.5 billion years ago.

This creek bed at location 2 is located in Iron County. Here, the rock would be considered more of a purple porphyry and is nicely capped by royal fern (Osmunda regalis).

Found near the creek at location 2 was this splendid Lobelia cardinalis (cardinal flower) growing against a bed of Conoclinium coelestinum (blue mistflower). A nice October find.

This is all I have to share from these two locations for now. I am looking forward to visiting again with hopefully more water flow and at different season. Thanks for visiting.

-OZB