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Geocarpon (Geocarpon mininum)

One of the world's rarest plants, geocarpon grows only in western Missouri and at a few sites in Arkansas and Louisiana. Because it is only one and one half inches tall and has inconspicuous flowers with no petals, geocarpon is seldom noticed except by careful observers. It survives on sandstone bedrock in pockets of pebbly sand that are too shallow for most other plants to live. Geocarpon flowers in early spring, when glades are typically wet, completing its life cycle before the habitat becomes desert-like and hostile to plant growth. The Conservation Department is helping to protect sandstone glades where geocarpon