October Orchids & Asters

October Ladies Tresses

October ladies tresses are a fragrant species of Orchid that grows right
here in Tennessee, and oddly it blooms in October,when the cold
night breeze wakes her up for her autumn show. The smell is sweet,
floral,and amazing, you'd want to bottle this one,but if you happen
to see one, NO PICKING!!they are quite rare in occurance within their range.These are growing in very boggy,mossy
conditions in long, shallow,
soil and limestone gravel filled chasms in
the deep limestone bedrock that is exposed
nearby, their drainage is very poor,
the soil is VERY alkaline,
and they get all day blazing sun.

There are several
orchids native to north america and most are ground orchids like
this one, and a few others live in and around the glades, including
the cranefly orchid, which wakes it's leaves up for winter when
the sunlight can pierce the trees and reach the mossy floor in
the forest near the cedar glades.
Cranefly orchid,leaf

There are several species of Aster are coexisting in Tyler Glades,
they all seem to have their own spot in the glades that is just right
for them, I will attempt to name a few,although many of these
have been reclassified as symphyotrichum.

This is White Heath Aster



And this one is White wood aster, which is more of
a lavender,despite the name.


Here I am lost, but this one is definitely different.


This one is New England Aster, a classic.
Thank goodness for the cool weather,or I may have
alerted any number of tiny sweat bees that were sleeping
on its blossoms,and I hate sweat bees.
Yes,even though they are green and sparkly.





Here in the foreground you see the common Shorts aster,
Symphyotrichum shortii, this is the one you will most likely
see along the roadsides and throughout the open woods forming
a purple mist throughout.



So there's plenty going on while waiting for the fall colors
to fill out, and during what seems like a slow time for
flowers in the glade you may just find something
radically unusual, like an orchid!,and find yourself lying
in the mud oogling and snapping pictures!! Everyone agrees
there's just something about orchids...

This glade was very wet,it's basically a very wide,
very shallow river, normally equivalent to a
dry creek bed and a great quantity of water flows through
here in the wet season, shaping the glade and continuing
to wash away substrate where other cedar glades remain
more stagnant and you don't see so much active erosion.

Water oozes from the gravel,

it trickles from the grass,

it pours through the moss from between the trees,

it cascades between the stones in the paths,

and pours across the limestone flats,

it seems there are suddenly brooks babbling
and pools filling everywhere you look,
in what is normally the driest place in middle Tennessee.


Gattengers Lobelia is still blooming and seeding.
Usually gone by July, it has bloomed all year
in this wet weather.

Spiked gumweeds have also managed a few last minute blooms

And more from the dark side this Halloween season,
muahahaha!!! Here is an endemic roach in the cedar glades,
he has a remarkable vibrant red to black fade coloring,

ew ew ew I know right, roaches, but consider that in this
glade, in their habitat they are functional,beautiful little
critters, and their numbers are balanced by nature.

Some wicked looking mushrooms, fed by the rain,
are devouring the dead, muahahaha!!! and bringing life
to the soil of the karst between the limestone glade areas.


All sorts of beauty is washing up in this rain,

Huge snails in a wash collected by an aster.

Relics of an abundant and glorious season of lushness
in the Cedar glades, which have loved the excess rain
this year, unlike other areas which may have suffered.

Opuntia cacti are fruiting heavily, but I'll leave these prickly
boogers for the deer and coons over the winter.

And the promise of another season of bounty to come,
already showing SPROUTS!Widow's cross sedum is
sprouting before winter even comes, over the winter
it will grow low and trail along with these flat wide leaves
Next spring it will grow thick and full, before growing
little stalks with pointy leaves

and blooming along
with a full spring show here in the
Cedar Glades of the Nashville basin.

Revisiting the Wild Rose

Let us revisit with the wild roses of the cedar glades.
This past year they have grown thick and full
in the wet and cool weather we've had in this
"year that summer never came" of 2009.
Rosa carolina ,curled petals



and rosa multiflora,sometimes pink
are quite common in the area, Beautiful and
although invasive in many areas,
their numbers are few in the glades.
Rosa carolina come in many forms,
and many in the glades seem dwarfed,
seen blooming and fruiting inches off the surface.



Rosa corolina, white form


The hips from both roses are sweet and edible, and contain
lots of vitamin c which means soury goodness.

Here's this year's rose hip harvest from a distant relative,
rosa rugosa ,hips.


since i dont like to let things go to waste these
tangy sour little goodies are going into treats for the holidays,
along with other gathered wild foods like hickory nuts and persimmons.
We'll soon say goodbye to madame rose for the season here in the Nashville
basin, and await her grand displays of next year, she's always been a favorite
of mankind around the globe, and her family brings us everything from apples
to loquats ,furniture and fragrances.


For extra credit bring me one of these rosa
carolina blooms from the feild next spring,
and i'll give you a zillion dollars!

The Dark Side

Muahahahaha! welcome to the dark side of the cedar glades,
let's take a look at the more macabre players in the game.
Jelly molds and slime fungi feed on the dead wood of
an oblivious great giant shumard oak, which towers above the canopy.



I hope these funguys will forgive me ,
I am at a loss for the correct identifications
for these mushrooms, largely unseen
except for the fruiting bodies, fungi are the
secret underground kings of all the forests
and deserts, grasslands and jungles of
the world, their network of mycelium
lurking in the darkness of the soil, quietly
devouring the dead in order to
provide life to the roots of all plants.

Amanitas and Lepiotas




These were mostly growing in the karst hickory
/oak woods that line all Nashville cedar glades,
and the nuts were falling, one of these 4 inch hard
as rock nuts falling from 140 feet could do some
damage to the top of your head
or knock you out outright!
Near actual size, shellbark hickory nuts.
Angry squirrels were dive bombing away
Seems I was to close too their favorite nut tree.
I still got 3 bushels this year ,I'll have the last laugh!

seriously, if any of you have a hickory tree, don't let the nuts go to waste,
hickory nuts taste just like warm maple syrup with a heavy maple fragrance,
best ever in cookies and brownies(shagbark hickory nut blondies are freakin amazing)

Don't forget the witches butter muahahaha!!!!

Nostoc commune, or cyanobacteria, "witches butter"
this is a colony of cyanobacteria that live together in clumps
forming mats that spread out over the bare limestone ,
crackly and black when dry, green and jelly like when wet.
As it advances over the dry stone,it decomposes,leaving
behind thin layer of absorbent organic matter that paves
the way for mosses,lichens and small grasses and plants
to take root, these resemble the very first life
on land on this planet,and the earth was made
green by this very process,making the witches butter
organism about the only thing older than well, dirt!
from this

to this
to this!

And then heavy rains bring a flushing torrent,
which with time washes the hard limestone clear again,
depending on where the current has shifted,
as the patches of life dance around the glades in
ultra slow motion,taking decades to move a few feet.

Lichens also play a large role in breaking down twigs and moss into soil.

deerfoot lichens, common in art supply stores, model train kits.


lichens and fungi hard at work on dead twigs





Like the trees, when an animal falls in the glade, and comes to
rest there,or more likely is drug into the open by coyotes and
devoured like this deer, their bones are bleached in the sun,and the moss
buries them slowly ,bleached bones are a common site in daisy trail
and many other cedar glades.


So there are spirits here in the Cedar glades, light and dark,
their cosmic dance fueling life in this place of
teetering balance and rich starkness.

As we go into Autumn

Wild Autumn aster - specific species unknown
grows like a white heath aster, but purple!





As we go into autumn the appropriately named
autumn onion or nodding onion is at full force
and so are the honey bees that love them!!
Settlers used this as an onion
in their foods and i have tried it myself, it has
quite a sharp chive onion garlic flavor when
fresh but when you toss a few peeled into a
roast they turn of so sweet after a few hours
of cooking.

Agalinis tenuifolia ,Slender leaf false foxglove, a new one for me this time, I love how you seem to be able to find something never before seen each time you visit a blooming cedar glade.



Or something familiar surprises you!
Mist flower


Lespedezas are in the pea family, and I don't think
they come any prettier, or in as many forms in one
place than in the glades.





And my sinuses arch enemy, the goldenrod,
beautiful though I believe it nearly killed me
by sneezing when I smelled it anyways- hehe.


So ends the blooming seasons in the cedar glades of the Nashville basin,
hopefully some pretty snow ice pictures this winter for everyone- and next year i plan to scout some more out of the way Cedar glades to bring you some photos of rarer and more endangered beauties.

The Cedar glade blues

Wonderful texture, the blue stones? weathered paint from an old can? i don't know, but they caught my eye.


Just take a minute, see if you can spot .............

Dozens of tiny camouflaged butterflies!Eastern Tailed Blue
butterflies, by the bushel, and now their powdery
blue gray color makes perfect sense, for they spend quite a bit of time
browsing around these natural stones of the same color, their preferred habitat.

Open skies and a cool breeze

Here are a few overview photos of Tyler glade,
the first week of fall on 9/9/09, tall grasses drying in the breeze
nodding onions and black eyed Susans by a glistening pool,
and a sky I could swear was bluer here , with clouds lazily drifting
along over the bleached trunks that stand like monuments
to once brave and vigilant hickories before some drought of passed years
brought them to matchsticks on the hot limestone, autumn will be here soon
and a harsh winter is sure to follow in this year that summer never really
came to middle Tennessee- get ready for sledding and snowmen !

Tyler Alley Sykes Memorial Trail, High Summer, July 2009.

Tyler Alley Sykes Memorial Trail,
High Summer,
July 2009 .
1,2,&3.There are few things rarer in the glades than the blackberry lily, which is an iris! (sometimes called blackberry iris) an exiting find,though I'm a few days
off for full bloom.

















4. Foliar fruit flagging is when the leaves of some
plants and trees turn color early to signify the ripeness of
fruit to birds and other animals.This is winged sumac.













5.Helianthus are blooming in the shade, The Jerusalem artichoke is a close relative and these are edible, Of course most things are, for that matter.


6.White flowered leafcup is very common in the preist lake area, often mistaken for celandine poppy before it has bloomed.




7.I love the mathematical symmetry of flowering spurge,
it flowers once,branches five,flowers,branches three,flowers,branches two,flowers.















8.It has been so wet and temps low enough that the gattingers lobelia is still going strong,this is the lilliputian form i love so much.















9,10,&11. Talking trumpets, this seems to be a variant specialized to this glade,large leaves with random indention,ruffled edges and stumpy growth,this one grew yup this cedar when it was alive,it has since died leaving the thick vine twining through the dead skeleton ,almost indistinguishable from the dead wood,it is a beautiful site reminiscent of Chinese floral arrangement.

12,13,&14. Whorled milkweed, as a hoya collector and a lover of all asclepiads milkweeds get me exited,this one reminds me of a hoya retusa or maybe a linearis, it is delicate and dainty ,swaying gently in the breeze.






15. More houstonia,the summer bluet,these are profuse in the wet weather we have had.
16&17.Rose pinks, a tonic tea is made from the plant.














18. Lesser flebane though common,can be beautiful in the proper setting, it dominates many glades in high summer,and this little guy couldn't stop dancing and "smiling" at me while being shot.
19-24. False aloe, hardy agave,rattlesnake master, naked lily, many names for this petal-less lily that comes in many forms,the fragrance is amazing, you have to smell one,if you can spot it!



































25.Persimmons just waiting for my wild autumn goodies, you have to wait until the fall,and harvest the freshest ones from the ground,as the ones on the tree will have you puckerin' like nothing else, but the ones on the ground
are the closest thing to candy I have ever picked yum!


26&27 This old guy seems to watch over the glades with his
horrible expression,fitting as this is,in reality, a very harsh environment that has been plagued with problems since man arrived in the cedar glades,his crown divulges his age,many cedars in the glade are far far older than they look, due to the harsh stunting conditions and their normally slow growth, and in fact i have found that there are variations on our juniperus virginiana that are normally only found where there are sand dunes,the differentiation is most obvious in the berries.
















28.Carolina buckthorn has attractive foliage and berries.



29. Slenderstalk beeblossom















30. Faded Tennessee coneflowers languish in the summer sun, the flowers never really wilt away.








31. I have always been a fan of the partridge pea, though common.



I hope you have enjoyed our little walk through the glades and i look forward to bringing you more, remember to tell your friends about this rare and endangered ecosystem so that your grandchildren can have glades to visit one day!

High Summer in Daisy Trail Cedar Glade

High Summer
Is spiked gumweed
and rough fruited St. Johns Wort,

Fruiting shrubs, non toxic though
it looks like it should be! I keep wanting
to call it a penny bush.


There are
summer bluets

and glade petunias ,
lesser fleabane and brown eyed susans
galore.

It has been a very wet humid
summer and the growth is very lush in
all the Nashville basin cedar glades,
and a great year to take a walk and
see them in all their glory.

Mt View Cedar Glade may 22 09

Tennessee Coneflowers starting to pop out among the Coreopsis lanceolata
which is native to Tennessee but i'm pretty sure its been planted in this glade.
nevertheless it doesn't seem to be causing any problems and it is quite beautiful.
Mt view glade is quite small, and it persists despite being surrounded by homes
for half a century, 10 feet away from a secondary highway,and most recently
having the surrounding forests and marginal glade areas clear cut for
neighborhoods with streets ironically named "coneflower trail" et.c.

Daisy Trail glade is drying up nicely, below you will see the
same spot inundated with lake water, daises along the trail
going strong, glade bluets and white sedum in the breeze on
a warm spring day with white fluffy clouds drifting along.

White Moth Mullein Has a flower designed to make
insects like wood bees and moths fall in love with it,
seeking comfort in its furry arms and tricking the
insect into pollinating it. You've seen it along the roadsides,
its not native to the glades but it is marvelous, there is
also a yellow and purple form.

Gattinger's Lobelia tall hardy form in couchville cedar glade,
a nice companion to the moth mullein, is abundantly
flowering nearby, there seems to be a more delicate and tender
form that i have photographed at daisy trail glade last year,
the first post or so on this blog, both forms are pictured
in the description at bioimages home for gattingers glade lobelia.

Here we have an assortment of early bird summer blooms and
some mid spring flowers from Couchville cedar glade.

1.Narrow leaf vervain, verbena simplex

2. Southern Ragwort

3.Ox Eye Daisies

4.Downy Woodmint

5.Early flowering tennessee coneflower

6. Flowering spurge single flower before the spray

7.Gattingers lobelia and ox eye daisy

8. a lone early brown eyed susan

9.False Gromwell, a lush looking borage,

10.leaft prarie clover, Dalea foliosa.

Catching the Eye

Many interesting colors and textures can be found
for photographing in the cedar glades, from limestone
patterns and interesting dry creek beds,to grass ,trees
and sky, here are a few photos i'd like to share of
scenes that caught my eye on a cool breezy day in May.

Daisy Trail Glade, may 7 2009 flooded!

Flooded! percy preist lake has inundated
the lower cedar glade limestone area,
and its now gladier than ever! not every
day you see a pair of mallards swimming
in a cedar glade!

we also have some of Daisy Trail Glades
unique daisies, Astranthium integrifolium, (thanks Gail
of clay and limestone blog) in full bloom.
they are indeed a light pink , and very tender,
nothing like the common ox eye daisy you see
on roadsides, or the other flower pictured, which
is also in full bloom now.

I think , after having visited other cedar glades, that I still
prefer the first one I found, out of the way, no public access,
nameless until I named it not only for the street I live on,which
dead ends into the western border of it, but a strange daisys unique
to cedar glade margins in this area if not to this glade alone.
Daisy Trail Glade is home to many unique and endangered plant
species, here are some pics from Daisy Trail Cedar Glade taken
on a breezy spring day.

1. Namesake daisy, she is very tender, not your roadside daisy,
a pale blush pink,and a much different branching habit, with a
single flower at the end of each segment of stem. name unknown.

2.Glade Sandwort, single specimen showing the leaflessness
and bridal spray form,these sprout from a tine cold weather
rosette that dies away.

3.4. the glade sandwort smells every bit as sweet as the
Nashville mustard, leavenworthia stylosa,and makes just
as extravagant a show as it carpets the glade in white.

5.6. small skullcap, it is blooming profusely throughout.

7.8. SUPRISE!! Daisy trail cedar glade does indeed support sunnybells
picture proof!, and they are being run down each year by atv's!

9.10.11.12. Shooting stars, Dodecathion, what beautiful color and pattern,
i found one which turns some if its flowers upright and splays the petals out
flat, unusual.

13.14. Pale blue eyed grass is peeping out at you all over.

15.16. up close and personal with tennessee milkvetch,
astragalus tennesseensis.

17.18. up close and personal with eastern white flower
beardtongue, penstemon.

19. even common buttercups are more beautiful here with
all these showy friends!

20. Yellow star grass Daisy trail form, note the differences
between these and the ones at couchville glade,these are
much more slender and less furry.

21.22. Violet woodsorrel, tennessee shamrocks.

On a lovely sunny spring day I decided to visit Couchville cedar glade,
The ground was spongy and the flowers were going nuts in the moist
spring weather, I'd like to share some photos with the world , heres
a list from top to bottom of the previous post-

1&2 . Rose Vervain In Situ, you have probably seen this one in the
garden somewhere but this is its natural habitat.


3. A very vibrant spring moss is flourishing near the creek.




4. Violet Wood Sorrel, also glade shamrock.



















5. Stinky,my rat terrier,and mother of the percy preist lake monster, enjoys the smell of Nashville breadroot ,
apparently she can detect a scent i cannot, this plant has
an aromatic and edible "potato" from which it sprouts 6 inches underground
that was once eaten by native peoples.



6. White form leavenworthia stylosa , and a whopper too!


7.The glade shimmers in the sunlight with all of the recent rain,
and the creek which goes dry in summer is flowing full.


8.Glade Phacealia, something about the way they all stand up so straight ,
they seem enthusiastic.











9. soft woodland spurge, very unique, she has cousins all over the world,including
the euphorbs ,a common cacti like plant from africa.











10.Pale Blue Eyed Grass, I adore this plant, it is actually in the iris family.



















11.Here comes the green, hushing over the starkness of winter.











12. Cedar Glade Phaecelia












13&14.Check out these Hoary Puccoons, aren't they cute? i have never seen these
in the wild before today.




















15,16&17. Hypoxis Hirsuta, yellow eyed grass or yellow stargrass,
it is quite prolific here in couchville glade ,elsewhere it may be sparse
when present.

I often use the photos i take in the glades in my artwork,
i will show several of those here, This one I have entitled
"spirits of the stone", using natural textures that reminded
me of faces this one only required minimal alteration to
bring out the "spirits".

please click and enlarge the images

Easter Sunday in Daisy trail glade was certainly color coordinated!
we had soft pastels and bright hues of many colors, heres a few photos
I'd like to share with everyone!
1. Nashville breadroot, up close .

2. Rose Vervain in situ

3. southern ragworts

4. fossil, fish? crab? plant? invertebrate?

5. shellbark hickory growing on a rock

6. the percy preist lake monster!!

7. crows foot phlox in all its pastel glory

Daisy Trail Cedar Glade April 2, 2009.

Still getting the hang of how these posts come out, please bear with me!
I bring you some lovely photos of Daisy Trail cedar glade, which is about 3000 from my front door, so you will see me visit here often, I have almost come to think of it as an extension of my own garden, and so have my dogs Stinky and Little Buddy, the rat terriers , they love to swim in the lake which is only 500 feet or so from the edge of this glade(thanks google earth for the measurements!) and frolic in the sunny glades, we try to go every weekend, unless its recently rained in
1. daisy trail glade the summer as this glade houses
poisonous snakes!!!
2. White trout lily

3.they have so much fun here!

4.Stress in the up heaving fold of limestone that creates the limestone glades.

5.Fragrant Sumac, a glade only endemic.

6.Crows Feet, such a lovely blue lavendar.

7.young Frasera rosettes enliven the forest nearby

8. American Colombo, Frasera Caroliniensis

9. HUGE rue anemone!! the large bic lighter for scale, this was the only plant like it
and the double flowers must have been 2 inches across, I love how this species varies so.

10. Nothoscrodum bivalve, actually lilicae, although it resembles allium.

11.false garlic, nothoscrodum bivalve.

I braved a heavy ,chilly rain to get these wet cedar glade pictures, an extreme condition of the glade rarely seen.

1. Some naturalized daffodils in the barrens at Couchville glade.
















2,3,4. These pointy land snails seem to come from these mossy "hammocks" in the gravely parts of the glade here in couchville glade, they eat the lichen and I'm not sure if they are found in any other glades ,in fact i have been completely unsuccessful in identifying them myself.

























5. white form leavenworthia stylosa

6.Nothing brings out the subtle colors
in the glades like a soft rain, this normally dry
grey old stump is transformed into a colorful
playground in miniature.

7.8. my favorite thing about couchville glade is the rock garden at the western border of the glades, a beautiful and natural rock garden no one could recreate. In places the limestone flooring looks as though it was pulled apart like taffy!



















9. Early saxifrage is positively glowing! in the rock garden at couchville.






10. an early rainy view through the redbuds






11. Rue Anemone






12.13. Smooth rockwort










































14. Wild Chickasaw plumb flowering

St. Patricks dayin Daisy Trail Glade.

The Falcate Orangetip butterflies really are waking up in this warm sunshine ,
and apparently the color for this glade on St Patty's day is bright yellow-orange,This species coloration varies regionaly and these guy's spots are the same color as the little leavenworthia flowers ,and the underside of their wings is patterned and colored to match the thick lichen that grows around the glade, just look at these guys going crazy in a frenzied mating ritual, and who couldn't love the color provided by the Nashville mustard, Leavenworthia Stylosa, the smell is thick and sweet and its also what the butterflies are so happy about.

Couchville glade March 10 2009

1. wolf prints,deer prints,coyotes,fox.
2.reminds one of the Savannah in summer, without the heat,you feel eyes on you here hehe.
3.when a tree dies in the glade,it just slowly bleaches and crumbles with time, unlike in the forest where it quickly succumbs to rot.
3.Levenworthia stylosa this white/violet form had an eerie violet glow which doesn't pick up well on the camera, much variation on this in the small clumps some are pinkish and others stark white.
4.I've only ever seen these red small cacti that grow bear root over the poorly drained inch thick limestone in these glades,are they baby opuntias struggling for a good root hold? possibly opuntia fragilis form? i really don't know.
5.leavenworthis stylosa.
6.a creek runs across the exposed 400 million year old limestone in couchville glade.
7.lichens be likin the wet sunny winter
8.park trail headed dedicated to Tyler Alley Skies.
9.What amazes me about couchvinne glade is the cedar glades namesake resident,the red cedar, you can see the amazing diversity in form here in a single plot,and there are many of the oldest cedars i have ever seen in my life here.

Daisy trail glade is an unprotected cedar glade,although i believe it is on army corps of engineers land there are no official barriers or signs posted
several rare endemics thrive over this 30+ acre tract of limestone xeric cedar glade.People dumping trash here and four wheelers tearing through the limestone greatly disturb the ecosystem and damage the flora.
There are invasive shrub and trees
including a full grown Bradford pear,
On the plus side it has one of the largest populations of Prairie Larkspur i have seen yet, along with the presence of Tennessee Milkvetch
and some lovely lobelia,possibly gattingers or maybe even one of its own, pictured belov in this blog.
You can view the location of this glade here DAISY TRAIL CEDAR GLADE
This glade is also unique to others I have seen because
it's full of little sinkholes and during heavy rains the entire
lower part of the glade fills up to a depth of 5 inches as it
drains away into these sinkholes, the surrounding woodlands
fill as well some pictures of that here as well. Perhaps the
absence of the Tennessee cone flower has led to a disinterest
in this particular glade, so i have named it and cataloged its
beauty here for all to see, thanks so much for taking the time to look

1.Daisy Trail Glade ,solid bedrock creek connects the clearings after a heavy rain.
2.A waterfall into a sinkhole nearby daisy trail glade.
3.Adjacent woods to daisy trail glade after heavy rain,
4.Daisy Trail Lower Glade ,this one will fill up like a lake during heavy rains.
5.beautiful,but invasive,a feral bradford pear. daisy trail glade.
6.Daisy Trail Glade sports rare Cranefly Orchids in its margins.
7.a sinkhole in daisy trail glade.
8.a sinkhole daisy trail glade.
9.Daisy trail glade winter 09
10.Daisy trail glade winter 09

oddities and endangerments

Mt View cedar glade is in great danger,as you can see by these photos development has been allowed to encroach to the very edge of the limestone,and the grassy and marginal parts of this glade have been destroyed. Some very unusual Opuntia Humifusa live here in this glade,
they display a most unusual double blooming habit .

Late Spring/Early Summer in the Cedar Glades

Spring in the Cedar Glades

Here are a bunch of my own photos
of springtime in the glades, all photos
on this blog have been taken by myself in the glades.

Introduction to the Cedar Glades

You may have encountered a cedar glade before if you enjoy walking through the woods in the Nashville Tennessee area, you would have been walking along through the cedars and would have come to a clearing, upon passing through you may have noticed how hot and dry it was,if in summer,or how wet and spongy the limestone gravel was ,if in winter.You may have had many of my own first thoughts , wondering "is this an old lot? perhaps and old road of some sort long degraded" before you started to notice plants you
hadn't ever seen in your life,even though you've lived
your entire life in the Nashville area, and if you had
been lucky enough to happen across one during spring
bloom time you'd notice the rainbow of colors blooming on those never before encountered plants, what an exiting place these glades can be!
In truth that place you thought may have been an old lot is a natural limestone clearing, possibly millions of years old , or at least old enough for the plants there to adapt to their unique environment. It's feasible to think that these places have been visited by animals and humans alike, for thousands upon thousands of years, being a natural clearing where one could camp or simply gaze up at the sky,and the way it seems so much bigger in the glades somehow, you can see the whole milky way sparkling there on a clear summer night, these places truly are a gift of natural beauty and diversity and a testament to the strength of life and its ability to adapt.

Here are some resources for Cedar Glade Research:

Cedar Glade Endemic Plants

Center for Cedar Glade Studies

Cedar Glade Wikipedia