William Blackburn Consulting, Ltd.

Plants & Animals

Ninety-seven Loess Hills plant and animal species are of special interest to experts because they are either eastern species on the western edge of their range, western species on the eastern end of their range, or are among the 39 listed by the state of Iowa as endangered, threatened or of special concern.  In fact, this region has one of the largest concentrations of rare species in the state.

The grounds of the center contain a wide variety of plant species, including the following:

Trees

Shrubs

Blackberry	Chokecherry	Honeysuckle
Black Raspberry	Gooseberry	Multiflora Rose
Buckbrush	Gray Dogwood

Vines

Carrion  Flower	Poison Ivy	Virginia Creeper
Greenbrier	Moonseed

With government assistance, a number of timber and prairie improvement projects have been undertaken on the site over the last few years.  Scrub trees have been thinned and more black walnut and red oak planted.  Original prairie grasses have re-sprouted in areas where cedars were removed and where scrub trees were cut at the edge of the timber.  In 2008-2010 all tilled agricultural lands, approximately 20 acres in total, were planted in native Iowa prairie grasses and forbs (flowers). Some of the prairie and timber plants now there include the following:

Forbes/Flowering Plants

Alumroot	Ironweed	Rose Milkweed
Blackeyed Susan	Jack-in-the-Pulpit	Rosin Weed
Black Snakeroot	Joe Pye	Rough Blazing Star
Blue Flag Iris	Jumpseed	Round-headed Bush Clover
Blue Vervain	Large-flowered Beardtongue	Rugel’s Plantain
Boneset	Lead Plant	Sawtooth Sunflower
Bottle Gentian	Long-headed Coneflower	Scurf Pea
Butterfly Milkweed	Maximilian Sunflower	Showy Goldenrod
Canada Anemone	Meadow Blazing Star	Silky Aster
Canadian Milk Vetch	Motherwort	Sky Blue Aster
Catchweed Bedstraw	Mountain Mint	Small-flowered Crowfoot
Cinquefoil	Milk Vetch	Smooth Blue Aster
Compass Plant	New England Aster	Sneezeweed
Cross Cleavers	New Jersey Tea	Solomon’s Seal
Culvers Root	Orange Daylily	Spiderwort
Dotted Blazing Star	Nodding Bur Marigold	Stiff Goldenrod
Downy Blue Violet	Pale Purple Coneflower	Stinging Nettle
Downy Gentian	Panicled Aster	Tansy Mustard
Downy Yellow Violet	Partridge Pea	Thimble Weed
Dutchmen’s Breeches	Pasque Flower	Timber Phlox
Early Sunflower	Pennycress	Water Pod
Evening Primrose	Pokeweed	Wild Bergamot
False Boneset	Prairie Blazing Star	Wild Garlic
False Dragonhead	Prairie Cinquefoil	Wild White Indigo
Fawn Lily	Prairie Coreopsis	Winged Loostrife
Figwort	Prairie Larkspur	Wingstem
Garlic Mustard	Prairie Phlox	White Avens
Golden Alexanders	Prairie Sage	White Prairie Clover
Goldenrod	Prairie Spiderwort	White Vervain
Great Blue Lobelia	Prairie Violet	Whorled Milkweed
Grey-headed Coneflower	Prairie Wild Rose	Wood Betony
Hoary Vervain	Purple Meadow Rue	Wood Nettle
Illinois Bundle Flower	Purple Prairie Clover	Velvetleaf
Indian Plantain	Rattlesnake Master	Yucca

Grasses

Big Bluestem	Hard Stem Bulrush	Rice Cut Grass
Blue Grama	Indian Grass	Rough Dropseed
Brome Grass	June Grass	Sand Dropseed
Buffalo Grass	Kentucky Blue Grass	Scribner’s Panic Grass
Canada Wild Rye	Little Bluestem	Sideoats Grama
Cheat Grass	Muhlenbergia	Switch Grass
Dwarf Grama	Porcupine Grass	Virginia Wild Rye
Fowl Manna Grass	Prairie Dropseed	Western Wheatgrass
Foxtail	Prairie Cordgrass	Wool Grass
Hairy Wild Rye	Purple Top

Sedges

Aggregate or Heavy Sedge	Hitchcock’s Sedge	Stellate Sedge
Blunt Scaled Oak Sedge	Hop Sedge	Upright Sedge
Few-fruited Sedge	Long-beaked Sedge	Woodland Sedge
Fox Sedge	Owl-Fruited Sedge

Ferns

Fragile Fern

Rattlesnake Fern

Maidenhair Fern

Other

Scouring Rush (Horsetail Plant)

Torrey’s Rush

The Loess Hills host a large variety of birds and animals.  White-tailed deer, raccoons, cottontail rabbits, striped skunk, and fox squirrels are commonly seen on the center grounds. Large turkey vultures are often observed overhead riding the thermal air currents. Bob cats have been spotted there and a mountain lion was reportedly seen nearby.  Coyote, woodchuck, North American badger, and red fox are also in the territory. Seven wild Eurasian boars, an invasive species and apparently the descendents of escapees from a wild game reserve some years ago, have been caught on the property, one weighing 300 pounds.  A herd of four-horned feral goats also have been spotted on a few occasions.  Some of the birds spotted at the site include the following:

American Goldfinch	Great Crested Flycatcher	Rose-breasted Grosbeak
Baltimore Oriole	House Wren	Rough-winged Swallow
Black-capped Chickadee	Indigo Bunting	Scarlet Tanager
Blackpoll Warbler	Northern Cardinal	Tufted Titmouse
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher	Northern Parula	Turkey
Brown-headed Cowbird	Ovenbird	Turkey Vulture
Chipping Sparrow	Red-bellied Woodpecker	White-breasted Nuthatch
Eastern Towhee	Red-eyed Vireo	Whip-Poor-Will