Prairies are grasslands. To many persons,
prairies are flat grasslands. However,
it is not topography but vegetation
that distinguishes prairies and other plant
communities. Forests occur on flat land
or on slopes. So do prairies. Grasslands,
or prairies, on pronounced slopes are hill
prairies.
The term hill prairies was first used in
1943 by a University of Illinois botanist.
Dr. Arthur G. Vestal, in his ecology
classes and seminars to characterize prairies
that occur on loess bluffs, on mounds,
on steep, rocky slopes, on steep slopes of
glacial drift, or on any other steep slopes.
With few exceptions, the hill prairies of
Illinois are not hill-top prairies; most of
them occupy only the upper west- and
southwest-facing slopes of elevations.
Publisher
Champaign : Illinois Natural History Survey
Series/Report Name or Number
Illinois Natural History Survey Bulletin; v. 026, no. 05
ISSN
0073-4918
Type of Resource
text
Language
en
Permalink
http://hdl.handle.net/2142/44741
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