NEBRASKAland Magazine is dedicated to outstanding photography and informative writing with an engaging mix of articles and photos highlighting Nebraska’s outdoor activities, parklands, wildlife, history and people.
Issue link: http://mag.outdoornebraska.gov/i/654753
APRIL 2016 • NEBRASKAland 41 T he wooded hills of Omaha's Lauritzen Gardens are a world apart from the windswept heights of Scotts Bluff. Separated by 400 miles and 3,600 feet of elevation, the only thing these places would seem to have in common is that they occur within the borders of Nebraska. But they do share a botanical connection. Both places are adorned with phlox. The genus Phlox is composed of about 60 species of wildflowers which, with two exceptions, are all native to North America. These species are related to one another by the distinctive shape and structure of their flowers. Termed salverform, a phlox flower has a long slender tube that spreads abruptly into five petal-like lobes. Phlox species occur in an amazing array of habitats across North America, from southern forests to alpine meadows and from desert grasslands to the Arctic Coast. And they often own these habitats, in an ecological sense. In a number of plant communities, a species of Phlox is one of the more common wildflowers present and in some cases so abundant (and showy) that ecologists designate it as a principal indicator species of that plant community. The genus has two centers of diversity, an eastern one in the Appalachian Highlands and a western one in the Rocky Mountains and Great Basin. Located in the middle of the country, Nebraska has a modest but respectable total of six species, two easterners and four westerners. Eastern Phlox Where I work at Lauritzen Gardens in Omaha, timber phlox (Phlox divaricata) is one of the joys of an early spring walk in the woods. This species is a familiar sight in deciduous forests and woodlands from the Atlantic Coast to the eastern edge of the Great Plains. In Nebraska, timber phlox mostly clings to the wooded corridor of the Missouri River where it occurs in oak-hickory forest. Timber phlox is a spring ephemeral, meaning it flowers in early spring as trees begin to put out their new leaves, then goes dormant as the canopy fills in and shade increases on the forest floor. It usually begins to bloom around mid-April in eastern Nebraska. The flowers are sometimes said to be blue, but the color is more of a violet-purple. Our other easterner is prairie phlox (P. pilosa), which also reaches the western limits of its range in Nebraska. A species of grassy savannas in the eastern United States, it is associated with tallgrass prairie in the Midwest. It blooms later than timber phlox, typically beginning around mid- May. The flower color tends toward pink, but can range from rose-pink to white with the center or "eye" of the flower often a slightly different hue, either darker or lighter in color. Some early descriptions of the tallgrass prairie mention encounters with vast fields of prairie phlox, stretching off to the far horizon. Today, prairie phlox is limited to scattered remnants of this once-oceanic grassland, including a number of tallgrass preserves in eastern Nebraska. Western Phlox You can still experience horizon-to-horizon sweeps of grassland in the Nebraska Sandhills and much of the Panhandle, and these plant communities harbor their own suite of phlox species. Plains phlox (P. andicola) is a somewhat shrubby, tufted plant (up to 4 inches tall) that prefers sandy soils. It occurs in the western part of the Nebraska Sandhills and in the sandsage prairie region of southwestern Nebraska. It also occurs in association with outcrops of sandstone bedrock in the Nebraska Panhandle. Plains phlox typically begins flowering in May and in years of abundant precipitation will produce a scattering of clean white blossoms well into the summer. It can spread into small colonies from its underground stems, but more often just pops up in open spaces between clumps of prairie grasses. Phlox A Nebraska Sampler By James H. Locklear TIMBER PHLOX in Nebraska are found in the wooded corridor of the Missouri River in oak-hickory forests. PHOTO BY JIM LOCKLEAR