Prairie Island

With prairie stretching toward the horizon in nearly every direction, Medicine Rocks rises like a tiny island in a vast grassy sea. Its rocky buttes, spires, and columns stand above prairie junegrass, little bluestem, and needle-and-thread, while sandstone and sandy soils create a niche for plants not commonly found across the short-grass prairie ecosystem. Rare Montana flowering plants such as silky prairie clover, Schweinitz' flatsedge, and plains phlox grow only in loose, sandy soils, often near sandstone outcrops. Around 250 plants, from trees and shrubs to herbs and mosses, have adapted to the harsh local conditions of hot summers, cold winters, little moisture, and strong wind. Blue grama has a dense, shallow root system that anchors it and readily absorbs rainfall, chokecherry twigs provide a crucial winter protein source for mule deer, narrow-leafed purple coneflower was collected by American Indians to fight infectious diseases, ponderosa pine can grow atop sandstone by sending roots through rock crevices to the soil, and pottery milkvetch bears large seed pods like egg-shaped balloons freckled with red, purple, or green.

Montana · United States