By Alma Gaul | Saturday, September 02, 2006 | Comments(1)
No one really knows what Iowa looked like when
European settlers first arrived, but Diana Horton, an associate professor of
biology at the University of Iowa, thinks it might have appeared very
much like Rochester Cemetery today.
The 13.5-acre Rochester site is scientifically
defined as a sand prairie/savanna. “Savanna” means there are scattered trees
and groves of trees in addition to prairie plants. Rochester contains huge
white oaks.
Horton has been studying the cemetery for more than 20 years and has documented
360 plant species, figuring out to about 25 per acre, which is exceptional, she
said.
“That is a greater number than has been recorded at any other prairie site that
has been documented in Iowa.”
Rochester supports numerous species that are “rare in Iowa — that you go there
to see,” she added.
One is an orchid called the slender ladies’ tresses that is listed as
“threatened” on the state’s list of endangered and threatened species. And, she
said, “I know of no other site in Iowa that has such an extraordinary display
of shooting stars — hundreds of them; it is unbelievable.
“This prairie is important because it is a living museum of what this landscape
was before it was converted to corn and soybean fields and cities and towns.”
Although other areas of the state, such as the Herbert Hoover Historic Site, contain
restorations in which prairie seeds have been planted during recent years, the
reconstructions cannot be compared to the real thing, Horton said. She likens
them to gardening.
“Rochester Cemetery is the real thing, a remnant of natural habitat,” she
added.
In addition to inventorying the plants, she has been studying the original land
survey records filed at the Cedar County Courthouse in Tipton that note the
presence of trees. She hopes to compile a graphic picture of what the landscape
might have looked like to compare with what exists there now.
Rochester, she said, “is an irreplaceable jewel.”
Alma Gaul can be contacted at (563) 383-2324 or agaul@qctimes.com.