Plants
It's easy to wind up obsessing over the amazing animals of the badlands, like the bison and the prairie dogs, but if you do, you may miss out on an equally amazing variety of spectacular plants, grasses, prairie flowers, and crazy trees that seem to defy gravity by clinging to near-vertical rock faces.
You can read about the role the plants play in the ecosystem and find a few photos of representative wild flowers here. The plants of the badlands are definitely beautiful, so you'll be glad you took the opportunity to capture them in your picture journal.
Before you do that, though, you'll need to know what you're looking for and how to identify them. There are over 400 known plant species in the Theodore Roosevelt National Park! Fortunately, there are apps and field guides available to help you identify them.
APPS
BOOKS (click the links to find them at a library)
You can read about the role the plants play in the ecosystem and find a few photos of representative wild flowers here. The plants of the badlands are definitely beautiful, so you'll be glad you took the opportunity to capture them in your picture journal.
Before you do that, though, you'll need to know what you're looking for and how to identify them. There are over 400 known plant species in the Theodore Roosevelt National Park! Fortunately, there are apps and field guides available to help you identify them.
APPS
- The Audubon Wildflowers app (Android, iPhone, and iPad):
- The Audubon Trees app (Android, iPhone, and iPad):
- The Leafsnap app (iPhone and iPad)
BOOKS (click the links to find them at a library)
- Tallgrass Prairie Wildflowers: a Field Guide to the Wildflowers, Grasses, and Woody Vines of the Tallgrass Prairie by Douglas M. Ladd and Frank Oberle.
- Wildflowers of the Tallgrass Prairie: the Upper Midwest by Sylvan T. Runkel and Dean M Roosa.