20 September 2022.
Kansas, United States
Locality: Coronado Heights Park, Smoky View, Kansas hillsides surrounding the historic WPA circa 1932 Coronado Heights Castle located about 91 meters above the surrounding land. This plant is sporadic to common on the slopes of this site.
Coordinates: 38.6135, -97.7030
(Map it)
Elevation: 487m.
Habitat: Wild Habitat
Environment description: This plant is sporadic to common on the slopes of this site.
Habitat Notes: Plants growing in full sun, under extreme exposure, rocky, dry and thin soils of this short grass prairie habitat on the slopes surrounding the summit of Coronado Heights Park.
The underlying geology of this area is of Upper Cretaceous origin and comprised of Kiowa Shale or FM- light -gray to black illitic shale with thin coquinoidal limestone beds at the base; sandstone lenses are common. Cheyenne Sandstone-massive to cross-bedded, light-gray to buff fine-grained sandstone with lenses of gray sandy shale and conglomerate.
Source: USGS Kansas Geologic Map Data (https://mrdata.usgs.gov/geology/state/sgmc-unit.php?unit=KSKkc%3B0)
The surface soil profile of this area is Lancaster-Hedville complex, 3 to 20 percent slopes. The Lancaster series consists of moderately deep, well drained soils that formed in residuum from sandstone and sandy shales; it can be up to 200 cm deep. Slopes range from 1-20%. Hedville soils have bedrock within 50 centimeters of the surface and occur on similar hillslope positions.
Source: NRCS Web Soil Survey (https://websoilsurvey.sc.egov.usda.gov/App/WebSoilSurvey.aspx)
Number of plants sampled: 30
Associated species: Artemisia ludoviciana, Asclepias sp., Asclepias tuberosa, Bouteloua curtipendula, Cenchrus longispinus, Echinacea angustifolium, Euphorbia marginata, Gutierrezia sarothrae, Helianthus annus, Helianthus pauciflorus, Lespedeza capitata, Liatris punctata, Mirabilis nyctaginea, Muhlenbergia racemosa, Panicum virgatum, Phytolacca americana, Prunus angustifolia, Rhus aromatica, Rhus glabra, Salvia azurea, Schizachyrium scoparium, Solanum rostratum, Solidago rigida, Solidago sp., Sporobolus compositus, Swida drummondii, Symphoricarpos orbiculatus, Symphyotrichum falcatum, Symphyotrichum fendleri, Tephrosia virginiana, Toxicodendron radicans, Yucca glauca
Comment: Plants are typically 1-3-stemmed, long-lived herbaceous perennials that grow in full sun under dry to often xeric conditions. Stems are erect, glabrous, and stout with widely spreading branches; foliage and stems typically reaching 25-35 cm tall and wide. Each plant produces a single, erect, racemose terminal inflorescence, ranging from 10-40 cm above the foliage. The fruit is an oblong pod, 2.5-5.5 cm long x 2.0-3.0 cm in diameter; the terminal end of the pod bears a long, thin beak. The inflated pods turn black in maturity; each erect raceme bears 4-20, occasionally more, pods depending upon the success of fertilization.
Collector(s):