• Young people floating past yellow flowers

    Ozark

    National Scenic Riverways Missouri

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  • Closings and service reductaions due to Federal Budget Cuts announced.

    The public will experience reduced hours and services provided by Ozark National Scenic Riverways due to the budget cuts that became effective March 1, 2013. Please check back often for further details or changes. List of closed facilities, click "MORE." More »

Plants

Nature and Science

Cardinal flower

At the junction of the eastern hardwood forest, southern pine forest and Great Plains biomes, the Ozarks has a diverse plant population. Prickly pear cactus and paw paw trees grow nearly side by side in forests dominated by white oaks. Some species are relicts from the last Ice Age, holding on in cooler pockets around cave mouths while their nearest relatives are hundreds of miles to the north. Others are desert species, left behind on dry rocky glades by similar climate changes. In the springtime, the forest floor blooms with the many "spring ephemerals", the trilliums, bloodroot, trout lilly, jack in the pulpit and others who live out their life during the short interval between the onset of warm weather and the growth of tree leaves that cut off the forest floor from much needed sunshine. In summer, the open areas and roadsides are blooming with pale purple coneflower, butterfly weed, and an array of asters, daisies, wild carrot and others.

Did You Know?

thick stand of rivercane, which looks like bamboo.

Cane brakes are thick stands of rivercane, which is much like bamboo. The endangered Swainson's Warbler nests in these thickets. Many stands have been lost to reservoir impoundments throughout the South, but many stands are protected at Ozark National Scenic Riverways. More at www.nps.gov/ozar More...