The Cajun Prairie Revival

Several months ago we told you about attending a documentary screening at the Strand Theatre in Jennings, Louisiana about the Cajun Prairie.  The Cajun prairie once covered over 2 million acres of land in Louisiana.  It is home to native grasses and wildflowers.  Agricultural practices and cattle grazing, along with development has largely done away with it.  Only 1% of the Cajun Prairie remains.

A group of people is trying to revive it by saving seeds and propagating them in protected areas.  Moncus Park in Lafayette is one such area, along with a 10 acre plot in Eunice, LA, among others.  Our homesteading group was made aware of a small location of Cajun Prairie that was discovered in Jennings between Highway 90 and the railroad tracks just east of Jennings across from Seagraves Road. 

Those interested were invited to attend a prairie walk to identify native species of plants.  Louisiana Dept of Wildlife and Fisheries Robby Maxwell and a Phyllis Griffard, a UL Lafayette biologist led us on the walk.  The president of the Jennings Garden Club who is also running for District Judge, a local farmer and beekeeper and other interested folks joined the walk.

The area is a small piece of land between the railroad tracks and Highway 90 east on the right hand side of the road as you're on the way to Mermentau, LA.  Concerned individuals are working with the Louisiana DOTD asking them to not mow until the grasses are dormant so that the different native grasses and wildflowers can reseed.

I'll show you a few of the plants that we were able to identify, starting with milkweed.  Coincidentally, I was just reading a great book called "Theo of Golden" that mentioned milkweed.  In the book, the protagonist was lamenting the fact that this plant had "weed" in its name and proposed re-naming it to "Crown of many crowns."

Milkweed

Here is a familiar one, the Texas Coneflower.  This plant can grow 5 feet tall!

Texas Coneflower

This one is called "Rattlesnake Master," and was named as such as Native Americans thought it served as a rattlesnake venom antidote.  It turned out not to be effective, but the plant can be used for liver and bladder problems as well as rheumatism.

Rattlesnake Master

This plant is called the 'Hoary Pea."  You can see the flowers that are typical of peas and if you look closely in the middle right of the photo, you'll spot some little green pea pods.

Hoary Pea

This pretty flower is the Rhexia Virginica.

Rhexia

Little Bluestem

Here is rosinweed.  The native Americans used the roots of this plant to treat pains from injuries. 

Rosinweeds

We had an interesting time walking and identifying plants that they they told us was making up the Cajun Prairie, an ecosystem that is on life support.  They are saving the seeds from these plants in an attempt to bring the Louisiana Cajun Prairie back from near extinction.