Prior to being settled by Europeans, much of Missouri consisted of oak savanna. Volunteers from the Webster Groves Nature Study Society and other organizations have been working to create a savanna in adjacent to the Kennedy Woods in Forest Park. In less than two years, what was once a patch of mowed grass beneath some old oaks has become a sea of native prairie plants. We don't know if this area was a savanna in the past, but the site is ideal; there is more than a foot of rich topsoil that appears never to have been used for agriculture.
Visible in the photos below are black-eyed susan, gray-headed coneflower, menarda, and swamp milkweed. (Click on photo for enlargement.) The photos were taken in early July of 2000.
Click here for a map showing the location of the savanna in Forest Park.
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See some more about the KWPS, with lots of photos.
Photos from February 2002 seed stomp and site inspection