A Glade

The other day, one of our plots was right in the center of a dolomite glade. Dolomite is just a type of limestone that contains magnesium, so the soil in glades here is very calcareous. Glades are typically very dry and exposed, with very little overstory vegetation. They usually appear as grassy openings because of the high pH and shallow depth to the bedrock. Over time however, Red cedars (Juniperus virginiana), are slowly overgrowing glades. Regular forest fires help to maintain them by keeping the cedar population down.

Pygmy Rattlesnake

The diversity of plants is also very high in glades, and unfortunately for us we usually have to spend up to four hours in the sun on just one glade plot. However, glades are a great way to learn a lot of new plants. Not only are there new plants there, but also new animals. We've seen numerous lizards, and last time we went we saw our first venomous snake in the field. Pygmy rattlesnakes are small and not as harmful as Timber rattlesnakes, but still as venomous. They just don't have as much venom to inject. We also found a tarantula den. The two that saw it first saw one of its legs coming out of the hole and they said it must have been larger than 1/8" thick! unfortunately I didn't see it.

Tarantula hole with my hand for scale

In the glade