Plants

Check out the NPS Species List

What plant species are at Knife River Indian Villages NHS? Use the link below to find detailed lists of plants, trees, forbs, algae, and more. 

 

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Species Attribute Definitions

Definitions

Occurrence

Occurrence values are defined below. One or more Occurrence Tags may be associated with each Occurrence value.

Present: Species occurs in park; current, reliable evidence available.

Probably Present: High confidence species occurs in park but current, verified evidence needed.

Unconfirmed: Species is attributed to park but evidence is weak or absent.

Not In Park: Species is not known to occur in park.

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Occurrence Tags

Adjacent: Species is known to occur in areas near to or contiguous with park boundaries.

False Report: Species was reported to occur within the park, but current evidence indicates the report was based on misidentification, a taxonomic concept no longer accepted, or other similar problem of error or interpretation.

Historical: Species' historical occurrence in park is documented. Assigned based on judgment as opposed to determination based on age of the most recent evidence.

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Abundance

Abundant:

• Animals: May be seen daily, in suitable habitat and season, and counted in relatively large numbers.
• Plants: Large number of individuals; wide ecological amplitude or occurring in habitats covering a large portion of the park.

Common:

• Animals: May be seen daily, in suitable habitat and season, but not in large numbers.
• Plants: Large numbers of individuals predictably occurring in commonly encountered habitats but not those covering a large portion of the park.

Uncommon:

• Animals: Likely to be seen monthly in appropriate habitat and season. May be locally common.
• Plants: Few to moderate numbers of individuals; occurring either sporadically in commonly encountered habitats or in uncommon habitats.

Rare:

• Animals: Present, but usually seen only a few times each year.
• Plants: Few individuals, usually restricted to small areas of rare habitat.

Occasional:

• Animals: Occurs in the park at least once every few years, varying in numbers, but not necessarily every year.
• Plants: Abundance variable from year to year (e.g., desert plants).

Unknown: Abundance unknown

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Nativeness

Native: Species naturally occurs in park or region.

Non-native: Species occurs on park lands as a result of deliberate or accidental human activities.

Unknown: Nativeness status is unknown or ambiguous.

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List Differences

The Checklist contains only those species that are designated as "present" or "probably present" in the park.

The Full List includes all the checklist species in addition to species that are unconfirmed, historically detected, or incorrectly reported as being found in the park. The full list also contains species that are "in review" because their status in the park hasn't been fully determined. Additional details about the status of each species is included in the full list.

The checklist will almost always contain fewer species than the full list.

Select a Park:

Knife River Indian Villages National Historic Site

Select a Species Category (optional):

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Species attribute definitions

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The hills of the Big Hidatsa Site.

KNRI Staff

The Original Prairie

When the Lewis and Clark Expedition arrived at the Knife River, they found a plant community that was much different than visitors will see today.

The upland areas were mixed grass prairie that could grow over 8 feet high with few, if any, trees. In the river bottomlands floodplain forests grew with such trees as cottonwood, green ash, american elm, and box elder.

Mixed in with the trees were sandbar willow, red osier dogwood, and buffaloberry.

Today the plains have lost much of their original flora due to invasive species and farming land.

 

Plains tickseed flowering in reseeded native prairie.

The Prairie Today

Today, despite clearcutting, farming, and grazing, the park contains remnants of native vegetative communities that are some of the best in the outlying areas. Specifically, lower terraces contain an over-story of cottonwood, peach leaved willow, green ash, box elder and american elm.

Various grasses such as wheatgrass, needlegrass, grama grass, upland sedges, little and big bluestem and a wide variety of forbs and flowers dominate the upper terraces in the park.

Many types of shrubs such as choke cherry, wild plums, buffalo berry, June berry, are found along the hiking trails and often enjoyed by the visiting public and native wildlife.

The Floodplain

Portions of both the floodplain and upper terrace are in different stages of succession. Some have been planted with artificial mixtures of native grasses and have achieved some measure of successful fruition. However, larger sections of the floodplain, which in an undisturbed situation would have been forested, are presently dominated by Smooth Brome grasses and other exotic plants as a result of the clearing of trees by Native Americans and Euro-Americans.

 

A caterpillar climbs leaves.

KNRI Staff Kasha

Exotic Plants

Many exotic plants exist in the park. Some of these were deliberately introduced to the area and others arrived by accident. The removal of many of these nonnative plants such as Leafy Spurge, Canada Thistle, and Sweet Clover is an ongoing battle for the park’s staff.

Currently the park is involved with an inventory and monitoring program that will soon give a detailed account of the plant and animal species that have been seen and accounted for within the park.