Map courtesy of Falcon Press, from Tallgrass Prairie Wildflowers. The first Europeans to encounter the vast grasslands of central North America were astounded by their size, productivity, wildlife abundance and striking appearance. These grasslands were unlike anything they had previously encountered. They named these areas prairie, after the French word for a grassy meadow. Prairies are one of the most distinctive aspects of the North American landscape.
Prairies are diverse grasslands with an abundance of wildflowers and few woody plants.
Numerous animals are adapted to prairie environments, from bison and prairie-chickens to the small and secretive prairie mole cricket. At least 15 million acres of Missouri, covering more than a third of the state, were prairie at the time of European settlement. Forty percent of St. Louis and portions of Kansas City were prairies covered with grasses and wildflowers. These prairies ranged from having sterile, thin acidic soils over sandstone bedrock to rich black soils more than 15 feet deep covered with lush grasses. Prairies once occupied much of the central part of North America, from the Rocky Mountains eastward to Indiana, with scattered smaller prairies extending into New England and North Carolina.