Love Those Flint Hills of Kansas Along with their Native Plants

Is there anything more beautiful in spring, than the lush, green, rolling Flint Hills of Kansas?

I grew up in the northeast corner of the Flint Hills, known for their native grass pastures, dotted with cattle.    I haven't lived in the Flint Hills of Wabaunsee County, Kansas for nearly 40 years, but I think of them as "home."   Since leaving Kansas in 1978, I've lived in Idaho, Wisconsin, Oregon, Indiana, Texas and California, and as a native Jayhawker I'm usually either teased about Dorothy and Toto or about how  the individual hated driving across flat, dull, Kansas on their way too or from the Rocky Mountains.

I can agree with the flat part, if you're thinking about the western half of the state, but how could anyone say that about Eastern Kansas.   In fact, I was raised at Maple Hill, Kansas which is with in sight of Buffalo Mound, one of the tallest hills in Kansas at 1,269 ft above sea level (isn't Google wonderful!!)

I took this photograph of Buffalo Mound looking southeast across the pastures of the Imthurn Cattle Company.   There is nothing more beautiful than Flint Hills pastures in June when the grasses are at their greenest and the wildflowers are coming into bloom.

In my youth, I climbed Buffalo Mound many times, along with half the population of Maple Hill.  I've fished the pond in the Adams pasture on the east side of Buffalo Mound, where  Warner and Emma Jean Adams and I spend happy hours catching bass and bull heads, which Emma Jeanne prepared delectibly.

The wild strawberry plant looks just like the tame varieties, but the berries are much smaller and a great deal sweeter.   Perhaps that is because you don't pick them until they have reached ripeness on the vine.
  

When my wife and I were first married, we picked wild strawberries in the Adams pasture with Emma Jeanne Adams.   Wild strawberries are very small compared to tame berries but their taste is so sweet and succulent there's no comparison to what you buy in the grocery store today.   We were picking strawberries and I heard a shriek from my wife who announced, "A rattle snake just went between my legs!"    That was our last trip to pick wild strawberries, but they were plentiful and good on the slopes of Buffalo Mound.

Mill Creek, the largest stream in Wabaunsee County, and runs along the north base of Buffalo Mound.  The stream is so beautiful because it drains most of the county's pastureland and rainwater is filtered through the native grasses.  Col. John C. Fremont camped on top Buffalo Mound when his expedition crossed what later became Buffalo Mound in 1842.    Pioneers reported for many years that a large mound of stones, erected to hold Fremont's American flag, was visible until the early 1900s.  

We don't think of otters playing in Mill Creek today, but Fremont reported that the resident Native Americans (probably the Kanza) called the stream "otter creek" because there was so many of these long, brown sleek animals playing along the stream banks.

One of my favorite past times when visiting "home" is to take long drives through Wabaunsee County and enjoy the dirt roads, verdant vistas and many wildflowers.    My mother was pleased, as I am, that Wabaunsee County has banned wind turbines for the production of electric power.    Living near many wind farms in California, I now know how they forever change the landscape.  You could never enjoy the vista below if it was dotted with wild turbines instead of cattle.

This is a photo of "Old #10" which passes through Maple Hill Township.  The photo is taken about 5 miles west of Maple Hill.   If you were to follow the road east, it would take you right into the town of Maple Hill.   It is one of the many dirt and gravel roads which are endangered and thought to be unnecessary in these days when governments want to cut costs and travelers want paved roads.    My paternal grandfather, James Peter "Jim Pete" Clark used to maintain Old #10 in Maple Hill Township with his big four horse hitch of Percheron draft horses.   The picture below was taken around 1915 when he owned and operated the Maple Hill Livery Stable on Main Street.   Visible at the left-hand corner of the photo, is the front porch of the Maple Hill Central Office where my paternal grandmother, Mable R. (Jones) Clark was the chief operator from 1914 to 1958.  The stone building in the background is the blacksmith shop of the Turnbulls.

Native grasses first attracted ranchers to Wabaunsee County, Kansas and the entire Flint Hills Region (which includes a strip across the entire state from north to south) during the 1860s and 1870s.    William Pierce, a gentleman rancher from Boston, Massachusetts, his acquaintance Frederick R. Raymond, Kansas City packing company owner George Fowler, Scotsman William J. Tod, Sen. Frederick Jackson, the Dura and William Warren families, and many others were attracted to the native grass areas of the Mill Creek Valley in Maple Hill Township during the early 1870s.  Native grasses were abundant and so nutritious.   Cattle gained weight fast when pastured on native grasses, and for that reason, ranching became the predominant industry early in the area.

There are four primary native grasses in our pastures:  long stem blue stem, short stem blue stem, Indian grass and side oats gramma.    Native Americans called the long stem blue stem "turkey foot" because it's seed head resembles a turkey foot.   Here's a photo which will illustrate their reasoning.   The photo also includes native yellow cone flower, a form of echinacea.  

Long Stem Blue stem Grass with "turkey foot" seed heads.   Also visible are many yellow coneflowers, part of the echinacea family.

I took this photo in mid-July when there are beautiful summer native flowers.   In addition to the grasses, botanists have identified over 500 other forbs in Kansas prairie growths.

As a youth, I remember Wanda (Mrs. Arthur) Adams spending much of her time on the Saturday before the Old Stone Church Memorial Day Services, going through the Adam's pastures and gathering wildflowers.   She would then put them in old-fashioned baskets and vases and bring them inside putting one bouquet in each of the big gothic windows.

Snow on the Mountain was another favorite.   These native plants with beautiful white and green variegated leaves and flowers are suitable for cutting and make really nice bouquets all by themselves.  Native Americans ate the young tender leaves as a green before the flowers set on and the leaves also had an important medical use.   When dried and used as you would tea leaves, steeping them in hot water, the plant was known to be very effective in the treatment of gout and arthritis. 

Gayfeather was another prairie native flower that I have always enjoyed in the pastures.   It is another of the plants that can be easily grown in your home flower garden and is long lasting in floral arrangements.   Gayfeather also had important medicinal uses.  The bitter-tasting decoction of the tuberous root was used topically for sore throats, and internally as a diuretic to cleanse the lymph and move metabolic wastes. The plant contains coumarin which enhances the circulation and increases anti-coagulant activity.    All of these wildflowers had important reasons to be cultivated.    Did you ever wonderful why Native Americans burned the prairie grass in late October and early November, instead of when we burn it in the spring?   The reason was to promote the continued growth and health of forbs (herbs and wildflowers.)   Forbs provided much of the Native People's food and all of their medicines.    They were important to sustain.    When you burn grasses in the spring, it is intended to get rid of many of the forbs and promote the health of grasses.

The common Milkweed really isn't very pretty.   It can't be cut and used in floral arrangements.   It has a white milky substance that is poisonous if ingested and is very sticky.   It spreads easily when its fluffy white seeds are blown across the countryside.   It is treated as a common pest when it comes up in cultivated fields.   But the milkweed was one of the most important native plants of any the Native Americans made use of.    Without the milk weed, Native People would not have been able to weave the fine bags in which they kept their dried meats and other foods.   Finely woven bags of milkweed fiber also held their seeds for next year's planting.   Often times the nets and sanes that they made were woven from milk weed fibre.   Many examples of these bags and weavings have been found in prehistoric and historic collections and traditional Native People are still weaving them.   I learned how to do it myself.  The leaves are stripped away from the long stems, the bark is carefully removed, and within are long, strong white fibers that are as long was the stem of the plant.   These fibers are dried and the ends are rolled on top your leg to join the fibers together to make fine, long lengths of silky fiber.

Teas made using Milkweed leaves were used as a diuretic but the latex-like substance milkweeds produce is poisonous to animals and humans when used in excess so it is not generally used as a medicinal plant.   Early European explorers in Kansas reported that the Native Americans used the latex substance produced by Milkweed as a natural remedy for sunburn.   Native Americans also lined the soft doe or rabbit skin diapers they used on their babies with the white fluffy seeds from Milkweed.

How many of you remember gathering the silky milkweed pods during World War II so that the white fibers could be used as insulating lining for jackets, coats and sleeping bags by the US Military?    Milkweed fiber was much prized and it was patriotic duty to collect and donate it.

Last but not least, the white substance produced by milkweed plans actually does contain 1% to 2% latex, just like the latex used in rubber.    Milkweed is grown commercially in Germany and other countries specifically for it's latex.

There aren't very many areas where you can still find fences with hedge posts anymore.   Hedge posts were used in Maple Hill Township by the 1870s and were the primary fence building post from the 1890s through the 1940s.    The posts were resistant to the burning that occurred each spring but would eventually catch fire if dry enough.  Hedge wood was very dense and fence staples pounded into hedge were there to stay!!  Stone posts never caught on in eastern Kansas as they did in the western part of the state.   Today, mostly metal posts are used.

I won't go on and on but I do want to mention the native sunflowers that are so abundant in Kansas.  I took this photograph along Old Number #10 in western Maple Hill Township.    I grew up hearing my maternal great grandmother, Lucy (Lemon) Mccauley-Banta-Strong telling me and showing me how the amber-colored sap of the native sunflower can be chewed and used as gum.   Grandmother would turn the leaf over where it joins the stem, press her fingernail into the soft area, and would wait for the sap to ooze out.   She would then put it in her mouth and chew on it.    We naturally did the same thing.   It wasn't as good as gum because it didn't have the mint flavor, but to pioneer children, it was something they could use as chewing gum.

Sunflowers are absolutely essential to our good health.    We know that sunflower oil is very healthy for cooking.   We also know that sunflower seeds are a low-fat containing only 48 calories per ounce.  Native Americans used the tea of the flowers for lung ailments, malaria. Leaf tea was used for high fevers.  A poultice of roots was applied to snakebites and spider bites. Seeds and leaves are diuretic and expectorant. Sunflower seeds contain all the important nutrients that benefit the eyes and relieve constipation.  Sunflower seeds are extremely high in iron content, higher than liver! Sunflower tea is useful against dysentery, inflammations of the bladder and kidney. The leaves are astringent and used in herbal tobaccos.

Sunflowers were absolutely essential to the Native American diet.   Native Peoples collected the sunflower seeds, hulled them and then either pulverized them into flour for high protein cakes, or ate them raw and roasted.   Along with cattail pollen, the sunflower flour provided almost all of the Native's breads.   They would mix the sunflower flour with animal fat or grease and if sweetness was desired, a little honey and these "energy cakes" would last for weeks without spoiling.

Here's something you probably didn't know.   Sunflowers absorb toxins from the soil.   After the Chernobyl Nuclear Disaster in Russia, as much of the ground as could be cultivated was planted to sunflowers.   The plants were said to absorb the nuclear waste through the roots and into their stems and leaves.   The plants were then burned and the nuclear waste was collected.

We need to be more careful about what we call "weeds."   God put them here for a purpose!

I'm sure many of my readers are saying, "There he goes again!   He began talking about the beauty of native pastures and ended up talking about the Chernobyl Disaster."    Well, so be it!   That's just the direction my thought processes took me on today.

I am thankful for grandparents and parents who taught me to understand and respect native plants of all kinds.

Happy trails!