Botany Department

Prairie Walk

Of Gumbo Lilies and Goldenrods

By Cris Fulton, Botany Department

If you really want to see the prairie, you have to get out of your vehicle and walk upon it. So it is with our native plant gardens, and that is why they are called the Prairie Walk. Only by walking will you be able to see the tiny flowers of blue-eyed grass, or wild onions, for instance, or the spectacular blossoms of a ball cactus.

The Dakota prairies are the stuff of legend. Vast herds of buffalo, earth lodge villages, Sitting Bull and his Lakota warriors, cowboys, homesteaders, sheepherders, and pioneers all contributed to the rich and colorful history of this region. It was the prairie that drew them here, and it was the prairie that sustained them. The prairie truly is our one common heritage.

In the course of settlement, the animals, the people, and the prairies themselves went through many changes. Today the prairie exists only in scattered remnants, and is much different from its original condition. Our mission with the Prairie Walk is to re-create a small sample of our shared natural heritage. It is one thing to read about a prairie, it is another thing to walk through one. We want to share the living beauty of the prairie firsthand with area residents and visitors alike.

The prairie gardens follow the rhythm of the natural world. First to arrive after a long winter are the pasque flowers, moss phlox, and wild parsley. Then the show begins in earnest, and every week of the growing season brings new leaves, buds, and blossoms to discover.

Springtime comes alive with the new leaves and blossoms of buffaloberry, chokecherry, golden currant, and wild plum bushes. June brings the delicate swaying of blue flax, and the beautiful pink blossoms and sweet scent of wild roses. July follows with a profusion of prairie coneflowers and pricklypear cactus blossoms. In August, horsemint dots the landscape with purple, and goldenrods, sunflowers, and snakeweeds are ablaze with their golden colors. By September, prairie asters and bee spiderflowers have added their acts to this annual production, and ripened grasses and berries glow in the late light of day, in the late light of the prairie season.

The southwest corner of North Dakota is shown as either shortgrass prairie or mixed-grass prairie, depending on which map is used. Boundaries are flexible, and depend on the amount of precipitation and soil moisture each season. Blue grama, little bluestem, and buffalo grass, yucca and sagebrush are typical components of the local prairie.

This region is also home to the famous Badlands of North Dakota. These beautiful, strangely sculpted hills have their own unique vegetation. One of my favorite plants out there is the gumbo lily (Oenothera Caespitosa). Its delicate white flowers open at sunset, bringing a touch of elegance and grace to the most barren of slopes.

We have tried to make Prairie Walk gardens representative of our native prairie. There are approximately 80 different kinds of flowers, grasses, trees, and shrubs. Each different plant is labeled with both its common and scientific name. Every year we try to expand our selection of plants, we have quite a few yet to add.

Paths are made of a baked clay material from nearby hills. Large boulders of the same material (locally called scoria) and chunks of petrified wood are placed throughout the gardens. In 2000 we added benches and solar lights to the landscape. The gardens are a work in progress, we have many future plans, including a water fountain over a boulder, an outdoor learning circle, interpretive signs, engraved labels, and picnic areas. The museum grounds cover one city block, and are the home for an old country church and a building for antique machinery. Our goal is to landscape the entire block with native materials.

...while I know the standard claim is that Yosemite, Niagara Falls, the upper Yellowstone and the like afford the greatest natural shows, I am not so sure but the prairies and the plains, while less stunning at first sight, last longer, fill the esthetic sense fuller, precede all the rest, and make North America's characteristic landscape. Indeed, through the whole of this journey, what most impressed me, and will longest remain with me, are these same prairies. Day after day, and night after night, to my eyes, to all my senses, the esthetic one most of all, they silently and broadly unfolded. Even their simplest statistics are sublime.

Walt Whitman, Specimen Days, 1879

The native plant gardens were started on the south side of Pioneer Trails Regional Museum in 1994. Louise Oberfoell, a keen prairie observer since 1960, was the original gardener. She has an extensive slide collection of prairie flowers, and has compiled a photograph album of just about everything that grows in this corner of the state.

In 1995 I began working on the gardens also, extending them to the west, north, and east sides of the museum. The gardens were a natural addition to the work I'd been doing on the Native American Exhibit inside the museum. As I studied native plants and how they were used by the Plains tribes, and went out in the field to photograph them and gather specimens for display, I became an ardent admirer of the prairie.

We hope you will stop by Pioneer Trails Regional Museum in Bowman someday and experience the Prairie Walk for yourself!

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