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Posted On: October 14th 2026, 11:18 pm
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Last month, we had the pleasure of tagging along on another TN Native Plant Society @plants_of_tn field trip in the North MS Hill Country, this time to a remnant Blackland Prairie site in Tupelo, discovered and put on Southeastern Grasslands Institute’s (@segrassland) radar by Andrew Ballard @campcreeknativeplants, who co-led the trip with Harry Babb @habitatharryms.
Witnessing the vitality and diversity of these chalk “barrens”, despite visiting during the last gasps of an oppressive and unprecedented summer, one can’t help feeling equal waves of humility and despair, knowing these scattered remnants collectively comprise < 1% of the 356,000 acres that once stretched as a 350–mile long and 30-mile wide, SE-NW trending, crescent-shaped band from south-central AL thru northeast MS, terminating just across the TN border (see accompanying NASA image with arrows added).
One of three comparable “black gold” locales on Earth, with distinct a contemporary of shallow, inland Cretaceous seas in central Texas and SW Arkansas, and a similar but much younger, Quaternary wind-blown chernozem in Ukraine, the MS Black Belt’s rich and fertile chalk subsoil is the result of millions of years of accumulating plankton, mollusk, and other diverse marine microfauna exoskeletons rich in calcium carbonate.
***We HIGHLY recommend checking out Matt White’s short and brilliant essay, “An Exaltation” online at the wonderful @constoflivingmemorials, where he unveils how Dallas, San Antonio, Austin, and Texas, in general, owe their origins and later prominence to that state’s own SW-NE trending, crescent-shaped Blackland Prairie.***
https://www.constellationoflivingmemorials.org/matt-white-exaltation
—
If you’re interested in learning about/propagating local ecotypes of the north MS Hill country, register NOW for one of few remaining spots at THIS Saturday’s workshop we’re hosting with Marshall Co Extension / Master Gardeners and local partners, as the first of four workshops this fall with MS Native Plant Society.
Registration link in bio; event posted on facebook.
Witnessing the vitality and diversity of these chalk “barrens”, despite visiting during the last gasps of an oppressive and unprecedented summer, one can’t help feeling equal waves of humility and despair, knowing these scattered remnants collectively comprise < 1% of the 356,000 acres that once stretched as a 350–mile long and 30-mile wide, SE-NW trending, crescent-shaped band from south-central AL thru northeast MS, terminating just across the TN border (see accompanying NASA image with arrows added).
One of three comparable “black gold” locales on Earth, with distinct a contemporary of shallow, inland Cretaceous seas in central Texas and SW Arkansas, and a similar but much younger, Quaternary wind-blown chernozem in Ukraine, the MS Black Belt’s rich and fertile chalk subsoil is the result of millions of years of accumulating plankton, mollusk, and other diverse marine microfauna exoskeletons rich in calcium carbonate.
***We HIGHLY recommend checking out Matt White’s short and brilliant essay, “An Exaltation” online at the wonderful @constoflivingmemorials, where he unveils how Dallas, San Antonio, Austin, and Texas, in general, owe their origins and later prominence to that state’s own SW-NE trending, crescent-shaped Blackland Prairie.***
https://www.constellationoflivingmemorials.org/matt-white-exaltation
—
If you’re interested in learning about/propagating local ecotypes of the north MS Hill country, register NOW for one of few remaining spots at THIS Saturday’s workshop we’re hosting with Marshall Co Extension / Master Gardeners and local partners, as the first of four workshops this fall with MS Native Plant Society.
Registration link in bio; event posted on facebook.
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