In Ohio, rare prairie plants survive in, of all places, cemeteries

Plant reserve: One of the 114 burial plots in the Smith Cemetery State Nature Preserve in central Ohio. The site hosts tall grass prairie that once thrived here. — MCT photos

Pioneer cemeteries in Ohio host more than just old tombstones; they harbour wild plants which grow in few other places.

THE jungle was bushy and overgrown. The tangled vegetation was 1m to 3m tall, hiding pioneer graves from the 19th century. The mini-prairie was fenced off, surrounded by carefully tended farms in the flat Ohio countryside.