The first location we went to at Battelle-Darby Metro Park was the Watts wetland prairie. This ecosystem is dominated primarily by grasses with a few shrubs and trees sparsely dotting the landscape. A signature plant of this prairie and many others is the big bluestem grass also known as Andropogon gerardii. Sneezeweed (Helenium autumnale) is a prominent wildflower but not as abundant in this prairie as the bluestem grass. Forbs and graminoids are the most common plant types in the prairie.
This photo captures the expanse of the wetland prairie. On the left side you can see that there are small clusters of trees throughout the prairie. A natural history note about the prairie is a catchy phrase that helps differentiate different plant types, “Sedges have edges”. This phrase refers to the stem of sedges as being edged while grasses have round stems.
This image is of an American sycamore (Platanus occidentalis). This was the only tree I managed to photograph from the prairie but it is one of the few tree species we saw there. It can be recognized by it’s broad leaves with recognizable stipules. The eastern cottonwood is another tree species out on the prairie that I was not able to photograph.
This picture is of the big bluestem I mentioned earlier. This grass dominates the prairie not just in number but also in size, as it stands taller than most of the other plants.
This not the most perfect example of sneezeweed but it is a perfect example of forbs in the prairie.
The second location visited was a forest within the park.