Mark Twain National Forest's Wildflower Viewing Areas

By jan schultz on Jul 7, 2012

Where to find rare native plants and flowers on the Mark Twain.

Wildflower Viewing Areas are sites of high botanic interest selected by botanists for the native plants and flowers found within them. Four of these areas can be found on the Mark Twain National Forest. Consider visiting these sites during your next trip to the forest. Don't forget your camera!

Glade Top Trail (Ava-Cassville-Willow Springs District): The Glade Top Trail is Missouri's only National Forest Scenic Byway. The 23-mile trail weaves through narrow ridge tops above the surrounding rolling countryside. Along the trail are seven overlook "pull-outs" that provide panoramic views that reach to the Springfield Plateau twenty miles to the northwest and forty miles south to the Boston Mountains in Arkansas. More on this Wildflower Viewing Area…

Grasshopper Hollow Natural Area (Salem District): Grasshopper Hollow Natural Area contains the largest known fen complex in un-glaciated North America. A fen is a rare natural community where soils are saturated from the upwelling of mineral-rich groundwater, creating spring rivulets and ooze areas. At least 15 different fens of various types (Forested Fen, Ozark Fen, and Prairie Fen) and 9 state-listed plant and animal species are found at Grasshopper Hollow. More on this Wildflower Viewing Area…

Greer Spring Trail (Eleven Point District): Access to Greer Spring is via a 0.9 mile trail that descends about 250 feet in elevation along a gentle gradient from the trailhead at Missouri Highway 19. The trail starts in a pine/oak-hickory forest and ends at Greer Spring. Along the way the trail passes through several forest types containing oaks, hickories, shortleaf pine, basswood, yellow poplar, flowering dogwood, and sugar maple. Spring wildflowers are in abundance from March through mid-June. Jacob's ladder, Virginia waterleaf, hepatica, harbinger-of-spring, Jack-in-the-pulpit, and yellow trout lily are but a few of the spring wildflowers that can be seen along the trail and in the deep valleys surrounding Greer Spring. On the ridgetops wildflowers such as Indian pipe, bird's-foot violet, downy phlox, and firepink can be seen scattered throughout the forest. More on this Wildflower Viewing Area…

Western Star Flatwoods (Houston-Rolla District): Western Star Flatwoods is a 180-acre upland oak savannah that occurs on a flat, upland ridge between the incised drainages of the Gasconade and Current rivers. An assemblage of oak trees, principally post oak (Quercus stellata) and white oak (Quercus alba) dominates the site. It also has a diverse understory consisting of both obligate wetland plants, and prairie forbs and grasses that require drier soils. Western Star Flatwoods is developed and maintained in cooperation with the National Wild Turkey Federation. More on this Wildflower Viewing Area…

Contact person: Brian Davidson briandavidson@fs.fed.us or (573) 341-7414.