Ozark Highlands

The Ozark Highlands cover southern Missouri and northern Arkansas, including Springfield, Branson, and Fayetteville. Thin rocky soil over chert and dolomite, steep hollows, clear spring-fed streams, and dry glades give this region a character all its own, and it holds plants found almost nowhere else. Natives such as Missouri primrose, sweet coneflower, and foxglove penstemon are adapted to that shallow rocky ground, where deeper-soil plants dry out first.

Conditions: Thin rocky soils over chert and dolomite, 42–48 inches of rain, hot humid summers, moderately cold winters, dry exposed glades.

Cities and areas: Springfield, Fayetteville, Branson, Rolla, Joplin, Harrison.