Missouri’s Mini Desert

The Show-Me State doesn’t have sandy, cactus-filled deserts, but it does have rocky, sun-scorched sites where plants and animals must be tough to survive. These hot spots are called glades. And while glades indeed get toasty, the plants and animals that live there are super cool.

Where to Go

You can find glades scattered throughout the Ozarks. Just look for rocky, treeless openings on the south or west sides of hills. Or, visit these public areas, which are known for their spectacular glades.

• Danville Conservation Area
• Valley View Glades Natural Area
• Hughes Mountain Natural Area
• Indian Trail Conservation Area
• Taum Sauk Mountain State Park
• Stegall Mountain at Peck Ranch Conservation Area
• Caney Mountain Conservation Area
• White River Balds at Ruth and Paul Henning Conservation Area
• Wildcat Glade Natural Area

Know Before You Go …

Glade plants and animals are adapted to hot, sunny habitats. Humans? Not so much. So slather on some sunscreen, wear a shady hat, and bring plenty of water.

Ticks like glades, too. Keep the bloodsuckers at bay by wearing long pants and spraying yourself with insect repellent.

Wildflowers abound in glades. Pack a field guide to help you learn what you’re looking at.

You may be tempted to turn over rocks to see what’s hiding underneath or pick pretty wildflowers. Please don’t! It harms the plants and animals that live in these unique habitats. Take photos instead.

Gobs of Glades

Missouri has five different kinds of glades. Each is named for the underlying rock that the glade forms on top of: limestone, dolomite, chert, igneous, and sandstone. Because each kind of rock contains slightly different nutrients, different kinds of plants are adapted to grow on each kind of glade.

Hiding in Plain Sight

Chances are, you’ll look right at a lichen grasshopper and fail to see it. The inch-long insect’s amazing camouflage makes it all but invisible while it rests on a lichen-covered rock. But when a hidden hopper takes flight, its orange wings give it away. Watch where it lands — it won’t fly far — and approach slowly for a closer look. Can you spot the lichen grasshopper in this photo?

Shiny Speed Demons

Keep your eyes peeled, and you may spot a tiny, shiny insect racing across the rocks. Tiger beetles are harmless to humans, but bugs better beware. The six-legged predators use powerful, pinching jaws to snatch and dispatch caterpillars, ants, beetles, and spiders. Thanks to their long, strong legs, some tiger beetles can cover 120 body lengths per second!

Flash of Feathers

Only cartoon roadrunners go beep, beep. Real roadrunners make a soft cooing call that sounds a bit like a dove or pigeon. The long-legged birds run better than they fly, sprinting across rocky terrain at nearly 20 miles per hour. They use their speed to run down prey, like collared lizards, small snakes, and scorpions.

Sunny Singer

Look for prairie warblers perched in shrubs at the edges of glades. The energetic little birds nervously flick their tails up and down. Males sing two types of songs. A buzzy zee-zee-zee-zee-zee-zeeee is sung to attract a mate. Clear whistles with harsh notes at the end are sung to warn rival males to stay away.

Missouri’s Most Colorful

You probably won’t see an eastern milksnake when you visit a glade. The shy, secretive serpents spend most of their time hiding under rocks. They venture out occasionally to hunt for lizards, mice, and small snakes. Milksnakes are members of the kingsnake family, and like other kingsnakes, are immune to the venom of Missouri’s copperheads, cottonmouths, and rattlesnakes.

Lounging Lizards

If you come across a colorful collared lizard, stop and quietly watch what it’s doing. How many of these behaviors can you spot?

Basking

Lizards are cold-blooded. That means their body temperature changes with the temperature of their environment. On cool mornings, they bask in the sun. When it’s blazing hot, they hide under a cool, shady rock.

Pushups

Male collared lizards do pushups to show off for females and to let other males know that this part of the glade is already occupied.

Head Bobbing

From mid-May to early June, a male tries to get a girlfriend by bobbing his head up and down as he prances around.

Running Upright

At the first sign of danger, a collared lizard will streak away to hide under a rock. You might even see one stand up on its hind legs so it can run faster.

Let’s Chat

The yellow-breasted chat is well named. It does, indeed, have a sunshine-yellow breast. And it does, indeed, love to chat. In the spring, listen for it chattering away in brushy areas at the edges of glades. Males string together a nearly endless variety of whistles, squeaks, squawks, cackles, rattles, chuckles, burps, and even catlike meows.

Spooky Spiders

If you want to see Missouri’s hairiest — and some may say, scariest — spider, visit a glade after dark. Shine a flashlight on the rocky ground. If you’re lucky, you might spy a Texas brown tarantula’s eight eyes shining back at you. During the day, these large but harmless insect-hunters hide in silk-lined burrows.

Fire Away!

You might see ashes or black soot when you visit a glade. This is likely the result of a fire that was set by biologists to keep the glade healthy. Without fire every few years, glades become overgrown with cedars and other trees and shrubs. Unlike trees, glade plants regrow quickly after a fire. And don’t worry about the animals. They escape the flames by taking shelter deep under the rocks.

Bigger than Baltimore

From May through July, Baltimore checkerspots can be found sipping nectar on glade wildflowers. They’re especially fond of yellow coneflowers. Most of these strikingly colored butterflies live north and east of Missouri. The ones found fluttering around our Ozarks tend to be darker and larger than those found elsewhere.

Tough but Beautiful

Plants that live on glades have adaptations to help them survive hot, dry conditions. Many bloom only in the spring and fall, when it’s cooler and wetter, and go dormant during the sweltering heat of the summer.

Prairie dock has 10-foot-long roots that wind through cracks in the rock, seeking water deep in the ground. The plant’s heart-shaped leaves are as big 
as elephant ears and feel as rough as sandpaper.

A compass plant’s lower leaves grow with their edges pointing north and south. This way, less of the leaf is facing the hot, moisture-stealing sun.

Hoary puccoon blooms from March to June. The low-growing plant’s leaves are covered with dense hairs that help prevent water from escaping.

The blossoms of Missouri evening primrose last only a day. The flashy flowers unfurl in the late afternoon, bloom through the night, and wilt the next morning.

The yellow-and-orange flowers of prickly pear unfurl in June. Once they fade, egg-shaped red fruits appear. The fruits, called pears, are edible — if you can get past the prickles.

You can tell a glade coneflower from lookalike pale purple coneflowers by the color of its pollen. Glade coneflowers have yellow pollen; pale purple coneflowers have white pollen.

The showy flowers of purple beardtongue bloom from April to June. The dark stripes on the flowers help guide bumblebees and other pollinators to the sweet nectar inside.

Life on the Rocks

Brush your hand over a crusty lichen (lie-kin), and you’ll be touching two kinds of living things at once. Lichens are made of a fungus and a plant living together in a tangled-up tango. The fungus absorbs water and nutrients and shares them with the plant. In return, the plant makes energy 
from the sun and shares it with the fungus.

Terrible Tails

If you explore a glade after dark, the beam of your flashlight might surprise a striped bark scorpion prowling around. To subdue prey or defend itself from predators, this inch-long hunter whips its stinger-tipped tail over its body to stab the victim. Although a scorpion’s sting can be painful, their venom is almost never dangerous — unless you’re an insect.