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Location - This site is located in northern Johnson County along Ely Road. The remnant is mainly on the east side of Ely Road, which is best reached from the town of Solon. One route is to proceed north of Solon on Highway 1 to the intersection with 140th Street. Then proceed west on 140th street for three miles, until you reach Ely Road. At this point, turn right (north) and you will be in the remnant area for the next mile. A second route is to drive northwest from Solon on Highway 382 for two miles, then turn north on Ely Road. In approximately a mile, after you have reached 140th Street, you will be in the remnant area. In the early 1900s naturalist, Bohumil Shimek, a native of this part of Johnson County, wrote of prairie fragments similar to the Ely Road site: "Comparatively little of the native prairie remains in Iowa. A few unbroken tracts are still scattered about over the state….but even these have been disturbed more or less by pasturing and cutting. The purest remnants of the prairie are often found along the right of way of the older railways which entered the territory before the original prairie was broken, and they give the most striking illustration of the persistence of prairie where it remains undisturbed. . . ." The land that this fragment occupies is characteristic of the sandy soils of this floodplain area. In spring and summer flowering Slender spike rush, Seedbox and Arrow-leaved violets may be seen here. In summer, Whorled milkwort and Prairie cinquefoil may be found. Visitors will also glimpse the Slender ladies tresses in early fall, from September and October, along with an abundance of many native cool and warm season grasses and sedges. Wild Strawberries, which grow here, were known to the Meskwaki as atei'minun (heart berries), and are found in prairies and open woodlands. The berries can be eaten raw or preserved as jam for use in the winter. The scientific name for this plant is Fragaria virginiana. "Fragaria" is a form of the old Latin word for strawberry, fraga. Also found at this location are Slender Ladies' Tresses, an orchid. The scientific name for this plant, Spiranthes lacera, refers to the spiral appearance of the flowers and its fringed or "lacerated" edges. |
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