Rare blazing star wildflowers in bloom in Butler County prairie

The sea of tall, purple wildflowers known as blazing stars at Jennings Environmental Education Center are a rarity for Western Pennsylvania, and they won’t last much longer than this weekend.

The flower is as exotic as its habitat: a prairie that was first preserved by the Western Pennsylvania Conservancy and is now managed by the state Department of Conservation and Natural Resources.

Jennings, in Butler County’s Brady Township, is the most popular spot in the region to see the blazing star, a member of the aster family, according to the Wildflowers of Pennsylvania Facebook page.

In Western Pennsylvania, the blazing star has been documented in Butler, Beaver, Allegheny, Washington, Clarion, Forest, Somerset and Bedford counties, according to the Wildflowers of Pennsylvania.

Jennings’ 20-acre prairie ecosystem is the only public and protected prairie in the state, according to DCNR.

Attendance is up at the park where the prairie, with its rare collection of wildflowers, will be in bloom for the next month, said park manager Will Taylor. There are at least 30 varieties of wildflowers in bloom there in August.

“It’s a living museum and an accurate representation of what the landscape looked like 5,000 years ago,” Taylor said.

The blazing star blooms in late July and early August. Other varieties of prairie plants also bloom in midsummer, preferring the hot, dry weather.

As rare as the prairie environment is the massasauga rattlesnake, which is protected and studied at Jennings. There are only several sizable populations left in the state. The small, shy snake is not often seen on the mowed trails.

Guides on the wildflowers and blooming period are available at the park office, 2951 Prospect Road, Brady Township, Butler County.