Rocky openings called glades are scattered across the mountainsides of the St. Francois Mountains, where they are significant features common throughout Taum Sauk Mountain State Park and along its trails. Thin soils and exposed bedrock create dry conditions on glades, and along with occasional fires, these conditions make it hard for most trees to survive. Park managers periodically burn glades to keep them open and grassy, and the ruggedness of these mountains has helped preserve their quality. Glades provide habitat for a wide variety of plants and animals, including species common throughout the state such as the American goldfinch, Great Plains species such as the eastern collared lizard that thrive this far east because of glades, and species specially adapted to these glades such as the lichen grasshopper and Mead’s milkweed. Wildflowers including ashy sunflower, scaly blazing star, and Indian grass suggest links to tallgrass prairies that once lapped the edge of the Ozarks, while blue-winged warblers, Missouri woodland swallowtails, eastern wood rats, striped scorpions, and other wildlife also live in or visit these open glades.
