Also called barrens or xeric prairies, glades are open, grassy areas that develop on wooded hillsides. They are common throughout the southern Appalachians and Ozarks, where they typically develop on sunny, south-facing slopes.
Glades occur in areas where bedrock lies very near the surface and the soil is relatively thin. Solar evaporation, nutrient-deficient soil and steady erosion combine to keep the forest at bay and the dry, sandy conditions favor the development of prairie ecosystems. These open, rocky meadows usually harbor little bluestem, Indian grass, side-oats gramma and other grasses more typical of western prairies than eastern forest. Prairie wildflowers also adorn these clearings; Indian paintbrush, prairie dock, wild blue indigo, coneflowers, lobelia, rose-pink and prairie rose are among the more common species. Typical avian residents include indigo and painted buntings, yellow-breasted chats, rufous-sided towhees, cedar waxwings, eastern kingbirds, eastern bluebirds and wild turkeys; greater roadrunners inhabit glades of the southern Ozarks.
Over time, pioneer trees, such as cedar, juniper and redbud, begin to invade these glades. Enriching the soil with their own waste, they set the stage for various oaks, locusts and hickories to spread into these pockets of prairie; if drought and erosion do not intervene, the forest will soon cloak the hillside.
