Dogwoods by Joshua Heston The flowering dogwood has come to symbolize the Ozarks — as well as the Upper South — which isn’t really a surprise. There are few scenes prettier than an Ozark mountainside in April. The dogwoods — white, pink, and red — mingle with the redbud and wild plum beneath the white…
Mayapple by Joshua Heston Looking like so many foot-tall green umbrellas, mayapple colonies are found throughout the Ozarks in April. A forest understory plant, Podophyllum peltatum spreads primarily by an underground tuber system. PLATE 2. PLATE 3. The most striking part of the mayapple, however, is rarely seen. Borne on a single, succulent stalk beneath…
Moon Plantin’ by Dale Grubaugh Winter has come to the Ozarks. The ground is white with snow and the temperatures have dipped down to single digits and below to make it bone chillin’ cold. It’s a good time to sit by the fire with a hot cup of coffee and read a favorite book, magazine…
PLATE 1. Quercus palustris. Oak by Joshua Heston There are so many species of oak in the Ozark Mountain region that identifying them all is a bit daunting. This is only a partial list. White Oak (Q. alba) Black Oak (Q. valutina) Pin Oak (Q. palustris) Bur Oak (Q. macrocarpa) Shingle Oak (Q. imbrecaria) Post…
PLATE 1. Dogwood blossoms, Taney County, Missouri (March 31, 2009). I Was Given — to See — the Trees by Jim Barrett (FROM MY BOOK OF WORD PICTURES) I found myself in a primordial forest of gigantic white oak trees on an Ozark mountaintop ridge line – and I knew that I was looking at…
PLATE 1. Talking Rocks Cavern opens into an underground fairyland. Talking Rocks Cavern (Fairy Cave) by Joshua Heston The history of the ages often collides with our old-time pioneer and hillbilly memories here in the Ozarks. Such was a day back in 1883 when two boys went rabbit hunting in the steep and rocky hills…
Plate 1 (above). Tulip-like ice rose detail. Ice roses are also called Frost Flowers throughout the Ozarks region. Ice Rose Gallery by Joshua Heston Finely spun threads of ice, wrapped layer upon layer until the forms resemble cold, glistening imitations of roses, tulips, random features like blown glass or ribbon candy, ice roses defy our everyday…
PLATE 1. Smallin Cave entrance at night. Smallin Cave BY JOSHUA HESTON (STATE OF THE OZARKS JOURNAL, OCTOBER 29, 2010) Here in this dark holler of the Ozarks is a cave of great and powerful majesty. The Osage people called this the Place of the Underground Spirit — Winoca. And here I sit in the…
PLATE 1. Missouri winter and spring branch. The Eau de Vie by Joshua Heston The spring branch still runs at the Eau de Vie, (pronounced O-divy), that desolate Missouri ghost town abandoned by the mid-1890s. Remants, and there are few, are scattered over three lonely, beautiful hillsides, thick with oak and cedar. PLATE 2. The…
Autumn Requiem BY JOSHUA HESTON Early morning cast the Ozarks in shades of blue. A perfect sky dawning, billows of fog in the White River Valley. Lake Taneycomo’s vaporous effluence drew a shroud across Branson, obscuring condos, telephone poles and roadways. The coldwater lake regularly exceeds its banks, not with water but with fog, creating…