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- Info
Southern pine forests
| Author: |
Lotan, J.E.; Alexander, M.E.; Arno, S.F. [and others] |
| Date: |
1981 |
| Periodical: |
Gen. Tech. Rep. WO-16. In: Effects of fire on flora: a state-of-knowldege review. [Washingtion, D.C.]: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service. |
| Abstract: |
The flora of the southern pine forests, which extend from Maryland and New Jersey, southward to Florida, westward to eastern Texas, and northward into Missouri and Tennessee (fig. 9), is rich in species, with some 100 different tree species and probably 8 or 10 times more shrubby, herbaceous, and grassy species. Fire has played an important and often decisive role in shaping the composition and in controlling succession of this flora. Many species are quite fire tolerant, so fire has had no major impact on their presence.
The southern pine forests are found in six major physiographic areas: the Coastal Plain, the Piedmont, the Appalachian Highlands (including the Blue Ridge and the Valley and Ridge areas), the Cumberland Plateau, the Interior Low Plateau, and the Interior Highlands (including the Ozark and Ouachita Mountains) (Nelson and Zillgitt 1969). These physiographic areas are bisected by major rivers and many smaller streams, forming a mosaic of numerous sites in which the southern pines grow. This discussion of the southern pine forests is based on Kuchler's 1966 map of potential natural vegetation and includes his oak-hickory-pine forest (type 101), southern mixed forest (type 103), pocosin (type 104), sand pine scrub (type 105), and subtropical pine forest (type 106), The effects of fire on the major species in these five forest vegetation types are discussed separately. |
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