Cave Creek Glade

Description

Cave Creek Glade is 25 acres of high quality limestone glade and dry upland forest of the Lesser Shawnee Hills Section of the Shawnee Hills Natural Division. This area, located on top of a steep limestone boulder slope, was identified as one of the best limestone glades in southern Illinois. The glade itself is approximately 0.8 acres in size and is essentially undisturbed. A variety of common prairie grasses and wildflowers flourish here, including little bluestem, Indian grass, big bluestem, side-oats grama, wild rye, dropseed, panic grass, milkweeds, asters and coneflowers. The glade edge grades into an upland forest, forming a savanna-like community of stunted post oak and chinquapin oak. A narrow band of wet-mesic floodplain forest also adds to the diversity.