A wide swath of southern Michigan lies within a transition zone dividing the deciduous forests of the East from the tallgrass prairie to the West. In this zone, prairie, savanna and forest habitats intermingle with lakes streams and wetlands. Lying near the center of southern Michigan, Ingham County originally contained a mixture of all of these habitats.
The book, Pioneer History of Ingham County records the settlers' first impressions of the landscape [note: today we would use the term prairie instead of “plains” and oak savanna instead “openings”]
“The face of the county is generally level, but sometimes uneven on the openings. The greater part is heavily timbered land. Plains and openings constitute the remaining portion, the former of which are found in the southeastern, and the later in the southwestern part of it. It is represented generally as a rich section, with soils like those found in other parts of the State, designated by the appellation of plains, openings and timbered lands.”
Modern analysis suggests that the pre-settlement vegetation of Ingham County, Michigan circa 1800 was comprised of about 11 major plant associations (Conner et al. 1995 ). As much as 75% of the county was covered by beech-sugar maple or oak-hickory forests. Forests dominated on moderate to well drained soils while the wettest sites contained wet prairies, bogs, shrub-swamps or emergent wetlands, conifer and hardwood swamps. Sandy soils were dominated by mixed oak savanna and the very driest by black oak barrens.
Remnant praire in Barry County, MI
In pre-settlement times mixed oak savanna and wet prairies were relatively common in Ingham County occupying as much as 6 and 10 square miles respectively. Black oak barrens, a type of savanna occurring on very sandy, infertile soils, also occurred in several large areas. Each of these habitats would have supported a wide variety of prairie plants. In modern times, these prairie and savanna habitats were mostly converted to agricultural use and few if any true prairie remnants remain in the county. However, individual prairie species can still be found in many natural habitats.