This prairie pollinator garden replicates the plant communities of the Black Belt prairie.
The garden recreates some of the environmental services offered by natural prairies, like habitat for pollinators and other wildlife, surface water infiltration, and carbon sequestration.
Our hope is that this garden offers a look at regionally specific plant and insect diversity.
If coming from Hwy 12, onto Bully Blvd., take the first right onto Robert Louis Jones Circle and continue following to the right. Turn left at Clay Lyle Entomology and Plant Pathology Department. If coming from Stone Blvd., near Dorman or Thompson Hall, turn west onto Bully Blvd. and follow until you get to the first traffic light. Turn left onto Robert Louis Jones Circle. Drive around to the south side of the department and park in the gravel lot. The garden is clearly visible on the southwestern corner of the building.
The Black Belt
is a physiogeographic subregion within the Eastern Gulf Coastal Plain. The region forms a large crescent that runs through east-central Mississippi and narrows at its northern and eastern ends. The region is defined by its characteristically alkaline soil and its parent material, Selma chalk formed under the region’s shallow seas during the Upper Cretaceous period. While much of this soil suppresses tree growth and promotes open prairie, some pockets are acidic and encourage open woodlands and forests. In some particularly shallow soils, exposed chalk results in resilient outcrop communities. The plants and insects of the prairies and outcrops include several species that are unique to the Black Belt and several more that are disjunct from their nearest populations in the GreatPlains.
Ohio Buckeye Red Buckeye Mississippi Buckeye Nutmeg Hickory Pecan Sugarberry Eastern Redbud Roughleaf Dogwood Cockspur Hawthorn Engelmann’s Hawthorn American Persimmon Carolina Buckthorn Lanceleaf Buckthorn Green Ash Deciduous Holly Black Walnut Eastern Red Cedar Osage Orange Red Mulberry Loblolly Pine Shortleaf Pine Chickasaw Plum Bur Oak Blackjack Oak Chinkapin Oak Willow Oak Post Oak Winged Sumac Sassafras Buckthorn Bully Winged Elm Slippery Elm Hercules Club
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Plant-Insect Interactions
Southern Dogface Butterfly
Southern Dogface Butterflies (Zerene cesonia) are a beautiful species strongly associated with open habitats. The species is found over a broad range of the Americas and has been broken up into several subspecies. They all utilize fabaceous plant species as their larval host. Across much of the range, they lay their eggs on weedy and ubiquitous species of clover (Trifolium sp.), medick (Medicago sp.), and even soybeans (Glycine max). However, some populations of Southern Dogface are dependent on certain plant species which may be more localized in their distribution. This is the case with theBlackbelt population that seems to be dependent on Purple Prairie Clover (Daleapurpurea) and few, if any other plants. In fact, they are so uniquely specialized that larvae of the Blackbelt population placed on other plants, generally considered to be suitable hosts, will starve.
Texas Milkweed Beetle
The Texas Milkweed Beetle (Tetraopes texanus) is a species of Cerambycidae that also displays disjunct distribution, being found in the southern third of the Great Plains grassland region (Texas, Oklahoma, and Missouri) and in the Blackbelt of Mississippi and Alabama. It is a beautiful species, much loved by collectors and enthusiasts! As its name implies, it is only found hosting on species of milkweed. Larvae tunnel in the roots and emerge from the pupa to feed on milkweed as adults. In the Blackbelt, this species is only found on Antelope’s Horn Milkweed (Asclepias viridis).In other parts of its range, it may be found on other milkweeds, like GreenComet Milkweed (A. viridiflora).
Tetraloniella albata
Tetraloniella albata is a rare bee, lacking an officially-designated common name. This species is also dependent on Purple Prairie Clover, much like the Blackbelt populations of Southern Dogface Butterfly. Unlike the butterfly, this species has no other known hosts and is consequentially uncommon, only being found in quality remnants and tracts of prairie habitat. It is disjunct in its distribution, only being found in the Great Plains and in the BlackbeltPrairie, indicating that more open habitat used to link the two regions.
Fuzzy Olive-Green Grasshopper
The Fuzzy Olive-green Grasshopper (Campylacantha olivacea)is a rather attractive little grasshopper. It is green, with pale yellow veins.This grasshopper is yet another species disjunct from other populations further west. There, it is quite common in open habitats, both pristine and disturbed.It occurs only in quality prairie remnants in the Blackbelt, selectively feeding on its similarly disjunct host, Western Ragweed (Ambrosia psilostachya). Interestingly enough, this plant is a very common weed of disturbed sites in much of the western US.
Fossils in the Black Belt:
5 years ago
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