On Thursday, I took a field trip out to E. Riley. My first impression was that it
was a very small prairie. It’s a rectangular plot about 50m by 15m. One of the
long sides is bordered by a corn field and the other, a gravel road. There wasn’t
much evidence of it being a native prairie. I think they must have dug out the
ditch in order to build the road. I saw lots of Echinacea angustifolia. In fact,
there were over 100 heads along the 50 meters. The most common flowering
plants were the prairie rose and alfalfa. There weren’t any trees in the remnant,
but I saw and heard some bird flying overhead. I also saw a gopher standing on
the road for awhile. Overall, it was a cute prairie that surprised me with it’s large number of echinacea.
