1.
Marshall, Texas
–
Marshall is a city in and the county seat of Harrison County in the northeastern corner of the U. S. state of Texas. Marshall is a cultural and educational center in East Texas. At the 2010 census, the population of Marshall was about 23,523, Marshall was a political and production center of the Confederacy during the Civil War. Later it was a railroad center of the T&P Railroad from the late 19th century until the mid-20th century. This area of Texas was developed for cotton plantations, planters brought slaves with them from other regions or bought them in the domestic slave trade. It had a proportion of slaves than other regions of the state, and the wealth of the county depended on slave labor. The city was founded in 1841 as the seat of Harrison County after failed attempts to establish a county seat on the Sabine River. The Republic of Texas decided to choose the land donated for the seat by Peter Whetstone, the citys growing importance was confirmed when Marshall was linked by a telegraph line to New Orleans, it was the first city in Texas to have a telegraph service. By 1860, Marshall was the fourth-largest city in Texas and the seat of its richest county, developed as cotton plantations, the county held more slaves than any other in the state. Many planters and other whites were strongly anti-Union because of their investment in slavery, for example, brothers Lionel and Emmanuel Kahn, Jewish merchants in Marshall, fought on opposing sides in the conflict. When Governor Sam Houston refused to take an oath of allegiance to the Confederacy, pendleton Murrah, Texass third Confederate governor, was also from Marshall. The city became a major Confederate supply depot and manufactory of gunpowder for the Confederate Army, the city was used as the capital of Missouris Confederate government-in-exile, earning it the nickname the City of Seven Flags. This was a nod to the flag of Missouri, in addition to the six flags of nations, Marshall became the seat of Confederate civil authority and headquarters of the Trans-Mississippi Postal Department after the fall of Vicksburg. The city may have been the target of a failed Union advance that was rebuffed at Mansfield. Toward the end of the American Civil War, the Confederate government had $9.0 million in Treasury notes and they may have intended Marshall as the destination of a government preparing to flee from advancing armies. Marshall was occupied by Union forces on June 17,1865, during Reconstruction, the city was home to an office of the Freedmens Bureau and was the base for Union troops. In 1873 the Methodist Episcopal Church founded Wiley College to educate freedmen, African Americans came to the city seeking opportunities and protection until 1878. The White Citizens Party, led by former Confederate General Walter P. Lane and his brother George and their militia ran Unionists, Republicans and many African Americans out of town
2.
Biome
–
A biome /ˈbaɪoʊm/ is a community of plants and animals that have common characteristics for the environment they exist in, and can be found over a range of continents. Spanning continents, biomes are distinct biological communities that have formed in response to a shared physical climate, biome is a broader term than habitat, any biome can comprise a variety of habitats. While a biome can cover large ares, a microbiome is a mix of organisms that coexist in a space as well. For example, the microbiome is the collection of bacteria, viruses. The biotas of the Earth make up the biosphere, the term was suggested in 1916 by Clements, originally as a synonym for biotic community of Möbius. In 1935, Tansley added the climatic and soil aspects to the idea, the International Biological Program projects popularized the concept of biome. However, in contexts, the term biome is used in a different manner. Both includes many biomes in fact and their boundaries must therefore be drawn arbitrarily and their characterization made according to the average conditions that predominate in them. A1978 study on North American grasslands found a positive correlation between evapotranspiration in mm/yr and above-ground net primary production in g/m2/yr. These findings help explain the categories used in Holdridge’s bioclassification scheme, Holdridge uses the four axes to define 30 so-called humidity provinces, which are clearly visible in his diagram. While this scheme largely ignores soil and sun exposure, Holdridge acknowledged that these were important and his scheme can be seen as a simplification of Holdridges, more readily accessible, but missing Holdridges greater specificity. Whittaker based his approach on theoretical assertions and empirical sampling and he was in a unique position to make such a holistic assertion because he had previously compiled a review of biome classifications. Physiognomy, the apparent characteristics, outward features, or appearance of communities or species. Biome, a grouping of terrestrial ecosystems on a continent that are similar in vegetation structure, physiognomy, features of the environment. Formation, a kind of community of plants on a given continent. Biome-type, grouping of convergent biomes or formations of different continents, whittakers distinction between biome and formation can be simplified, formation is used when applied to plant communities only, while biome is used when concerned with both plants and animals. Whittakers convention of biome-type or formation-type is simply a method to categorize similar communities. Whittaker considered four main ecoclines in the terrestrial realm, changes in physiognomic complexity vary with how favorable of an environment exists
3.
Temperate coniferous forest
–
Temperate coniferous forest is a terrestrial biome found in temperate regions of the world with warm summers and cool winters and adequate rainfall to sustain a forest. In most temperate coniferous forests, evergreen conifers predominate, while some are a mix of conifers, Temperate evergreen forests are common in the coastal areas of regions that have mild winters and heavy rainfall, or inland in drier climates or mountain areas. Coniferous forests can be found in the United States, Canada, Europe, many species of tree inhabit these forests including cedar, cypress, Douglas fir, fir, juniper, pine, podocarpus, spruce, redwood and yew. The understory also contains a variety of herbaceous and shrub species. Structurally, these forests are rather simple, generally consisting of two layers, an overstory and understory, some forests may support an intermediate layer of shrubs. Pine forests support an understory that is generally dominated by grasses and herbaceous perennials. The moist conditions of rain forests generally support an understory of mosses, ferns. Temperate rain forests can be temperate coniferous forests or temperate broadleaf and these forests are quite rare, occurring in small areas of North America, southwestern South America and northern New Zealand. The Klamath-Siskiyou forests of northwestern California and southwestern Oregon is known for its variety of plant and animal species. In Russia, a coniferous forest, specifically pine or spruce forest is known as bor, bors typically grow on well-drained sandy soils, sandy clay soils and mild loams. The names of several Russian historical buildings and localities refer to the word bor as the place where they were built. Cedar hemlock douglas-fir forest Waring, Richard H.2002, in, Volume 2, The Earth system, biological and ecological dimensions of global environmental change. John Wiley & Sons, Ltd, Chichester, Temperate forest WWF - Temperate Coniferous Forest Ecoregions
4.
Mississippi lowland forests
–
The Mississippi lowland forests are a temperate broadleaf and mixed forest ecoregion in the eastern United States, covering an area of 112,300 km2. The forests historically occupied over 10,000,000 hectares of thick well-established forest of cypress, hickory, oak, however nearly all the original forest along the Mississippi has now been cleared. The Mississippi floodplain is distinct from the countryside which is higher and drier. The remaining woodlands are a mixture of oak, hickory and pine along with a mixture of other trees including bald cypress, water tupelo, black willow. The Mississippi River is an important pathway and many of species would have been carried and dispersed by the river system. Other birds of the area include many songbirds, bald eagles, herons and these forests provide several functions such as groundwater recharge, water quality enhancement through reduced turbidity, and flood flow alteration. They also contain high degree of biodiversity, estimates suggest aquatic food chains in bottomland forests can account for two to five times more wildlife species than upland forests. Flooded areas of the Mississippi lowland forest provide home to up to 40% of the mallard duck population during the winter months. Natural flooding is the form of disturbance in this ecoregion. Flood protection has reduced flooding by an estimated 50-90% degrading habitat for migratory birds. From the 1940s to the 1970s large parts of the forest were converted to agriculture, roughly 25% of the historically forested area remains. Calculations made in 2002 estimate that the region consists of 86,938 forest patches with a size of 42 hectares. Fewer than 100 of these patches are thought to be enough to support a self-sustaining population of forest breeding birds. List of ecoregions in the United States
5.
Western Gulf coastal grasslands
–
The Western Gulf coastal grasslands are a subtropical grassland ecoregion of the southern United States and northeastern Mexico. It is known in Texas as Coastal Prairie and as the Tamaulipan pastizal in Mexico, specific areas include a number of barrier islands, and the resacas or natural levees of the Laguna Madre. The coast is vulnerable to storms that can seriously damage habitats. The region name. It is not an open, treeless prairie, instead. The southern third of the Texas stretch and all of the Tamaulipan portion contains shrubby areas of honey mesquite, huisache, lime prickly-ash, and Texas persimmon. This coast is rich in wildlife, and 700 species of birds, animals and reptiles have been counted here, mammals of the area include ocelot, Gulf Coast jaguarundi, southern yellow bat, Mexican spiny pocket mouse, bobcats, collared peccary and eastern cottontails. Estuaries and other wetlands are better preserved than the prairie. List of ecoregions in Mexico List of ecoregions in the United States
6.
East Central Texas forests
–
The East Central Texas forests is a small temperate broadleaf and mixed forests ecoregion almost entirely within the state of Texas, United States. The northern forests perimeter is partially within the southeast Oklahoma border, East Central Texas forests are distinguished from the adjacent Texas blackland prairies and Western Gulf coastal grasslands by their greater tree density. On the other hand, they are open and have a greater concentration of hardwoods than the forests of the Piney Woods. The climate is hot and humid, the landscapes of this ecoregion are generally more level and gently rolling compared to the more dissected and irregular topography of much of Southern Post Oak Savanna. It is underlain by mostly Eocene and Paleocene-age formations with some Cretaceous rocks to the north, the deciduous forest or woodland is composed mostly of post oak, blackjack oak, eastern redcedar, and black hickory. Prairie openings contained little bluestem and other grasses and forbs, the land cover currently has more improved pasture and less post oak woods and forest than the Southern Post Oak Savanna. Some coniferous trees occur, especially on the boundary with the Tertiary Uplands ecoregion. Loblolly pine has been planted in several areas, typical wildlife species include white-tailed deer, eastern wild turkey, northern bobwhite, eastern fox squirrel, and eastern gray squirrel. This ecoregion has more woods and forest than the adjacent prairie ecoregions, historically a post oak savanna, current land cover is a mix of post oak woods, improved pasture, and rangeland, with some invasive mesquite to the south. A thick understory of yaupon and eastern redcedar occurs in some parts, the ecoregion is underlain by Miocene, Oligocene, Eocene, and Paleocene sediments. Sand exposures within these Tertiary deposits have a distinctive sandyland flora, the endangered Houston Toad is associated with the deep sandy soils of this ecoregion This ecoregion is a narrow, 100-mile long region occurring primarily on the Eocene Cook Mountain Formation. Since the 1830s, settlement clustered along the Old San Antonio Road within this belt of prairie land. Currently, land cover is a mosaic of woodland, improved pasture, rangeland, the small, disjunct areas of this ecoregion have a blend of characteristics from the Texas blackland prairies and the East Central Texas forests. The northern two outliers, north of the Sulphur River, occur on Cretaceous sediments, while south of the river, a mosaic of forest and prairie occurred historically in this and adjacent regions. Burning was important in maintaining grassy openings, and woody invasions have taken place in the absence of fire, the tallgrass prairies included little bluestem, big bluestem, yellow indiangrass, and tall dropseed. Current land cover is mostly pasture, with some cropland and this ecoregion is an outlier of relict loblolly pine-post oak upland forest occurring on some dissected hills. It is the westernmost tract of pine in the United States. The Lost Pines are about 100 miles west of the Texas pine belt of the South Central Plains and it includes only the wider floodplains of major streams, such as the Sulphur, Trinity, Brazos, and Colorado rivers
7.
Texas blackland prairies
–
The Texas blackland prairies are a temperate grassland ecoregion located in Texas that runs roughly 300 miles from the Red River in North Texas to San Antonio in the south. The prairie was named after its rich dark soil, the main belt consists of oaklands and savannas and runs from just south of the Red River on the Texas-Oklahoma border through the Dallas–Fort Worth metropolitan area and into southwestern Texas. The Central forest-grasslands transition lies to the north and northwest, and the Edwards Plateau savanna, the larger of the two islands is the Fayette Prairie, encompassing 17,000 km2, and the smaller is the San Antonio Prairie with an area of 7,000 km2. This area was shaped by frequent wildfires and Plains bison, large fires ignited by lightning would frequently sweep the area, clearing shrubs and stimulating forbs and grasses. Large herds of bison also grazed on the grasses, and they would trample, hunter-gatherers contributed to the formation and expansion of the prairie through controlled burns to make more land suitable for hunting bison and other game. Hunter-gatherers continually inhabited the prairie since Pre-Clovis times over 15,000 years ago, in historic times, they included the Wichita, Waco, Tonkawa, and Comanche, each of whom were gradually replaced by settled agrarian society. The advent of large-scale irrigated farming and ranching in the area ended the period in the prairies formation. Because of the soil and climate, this ecoregion is ideally suited to crop agriculture, small remnants are conserved at sites such as the The Nature Conservancys 800-acre Clymer Meadow Preserve near Celeste, TX. The fauna of the blackland prairies includes fox, frogs, lizards, rattlesnakes, opossoms, coyotes, white-tailed deer, the blackland prairie was formerly home to animals such as buffalo, wolves, and jaguars before overhunting and the destruction of most tallgrass ecosystems. The soil of the prairies, from which the blackland get its name, contains black or deep dark-gray alkaline clay which is further blackened by char from wildfires. Black Gumbo and Black Velvet are local names for this soil, in dry weather deep cracks form in the clay which can cause serious damage to buildings and infrastructure. Soil management problems also include water erosion, cotton root rot, soil tilth, list of ecoregions in the United States Ricketts, Taylor H. Eric Dinerstein, David M. Olson, Colby J. Loucks, et al. Terrestrial Ecoregions of North America, a Conservation Assessment, native Prairies Association of Texas NPAT protected prairies The Nature Conservancy Texas Parks and Wildlife Texas blackland prairie. Connemara Conservancy Soil Physics at Oklahoma State Weeds of the Blackland Prairie Prairie Time, A Blackland Portrait Texas counties map showing the ecoregion
8.
Central forest-grasslands transition
–
The Central forest-grasslands transition are a prairie ecoregion of the central United States, an ecotone between eastern forests and the North American Great Plains. It is a classification defined by the World Wildlife Fund and this is a large area covering 407,000 square kilometres from northern Illinois through most of Missouri, eastern Kansas, Oklahoma and into Texas. This area was traditionally a mixture of woodland and tall grass prairie, rainfall varies from 600–1040 mm per year and the area is vulnerable to drought and fire. This ecoregion is rich in reptiles, birds and insects, birds of the area include the greater prairie chicken. Reptiles include the Osage copperhead snake, the area has almost entirely been converted to agriculture, particularly planting corn and soybeans. Oak savanna List of ecoregions in the United States Central forest-grasslands transition| ]]]
9.
Ozark Mountain forests
–
The Ozark Mountain forests are a temperate broadleaf and mixed forests ecoregion of the central United States delineated by the World Wide Fund for Nature. The ecoregion covers an area of 23,900 square miles in northern Arkansas, the Boston Mountains and Ouachita Mountains are the main mountain ranges of the region. List of ecoregions in the United States U. S, francis National Forest Ouachita Mountains Ouachita National Forest Ozark Mountain forests
10.
United States
–
Forty-eight of the fifty states and the federal district are contiguous and located in North America between Canada and Mexico. The state of Alaska is in the northwest corner of North America, bordered by Canada to the east, the state of Hawaii is an archipelago in the mid-Pacific Ocean. The U. S. territories are scattered about the Pacific Ocean, the geography, climate and wildlife of the country are extremely diverse. At 3.8 million square miles and with over 324 million people, the United States is the worlds third- or fourth-largest country by area, third-largest by land area. It is one of the worlds most ethnically diverse and multicultural nations, paleo-Indians migrated from Asia to the North American mainland at least 15,000 years ago. European colonization began in the 16th century, the United States emerged from 13 British colonies along the East Coast. Numerous disputes between Great Britain and the following the Seven Years War led to the American Revolution. On July 4,1776, during the course of the American Revolutionary War, the war ended in 1783 with recognition of the independence of the United States by Great Britain, representing the first successful war of independence against a European power. The current constitution was adopted in 1788, after the Articles of Confederation, the first ten amendments, collectively named the Bill of Rights, were ratified in 1791 and designed to guarantee many fundamental civil liberties. During the second half of the 19th century, the American Civil War led to the end of slavery in the country. By the end of century, the United States extended into the Pacific Ocean. The Spanish–American War and World War I confirmed the status as a global military power. The end of the Cold War and the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 left the United States as the sole superpower. The U. S. is a member of the United Nations, World Bank, International Monetary Fund, Organization of American States. The United States is a developed country, with the worlds largest economy by nominal GDP. It ranks highly in several measures of performance, including average wage, human development, per capita GDP. While the U. S. economy is considered post-industrial, characterized by the dominance of services and knowledge economy, the United States is a prominent political and cultural force internationally, and a leader in scientific research and technological innovations. In 1507, the German cartographer Martin Waldseemüller produced a map on which he named the lands of the Western Hemisphere America after the Italian explorer and cartographer Amerigo Vespucci
11.
Texas
–
Texas is the second largest state in the United States by both area and population. Other major cities include Austin, the second most populous state capital in the U. S. Texas is nicknamed the Lone Star State to signify its former status as an independent republic, and as a reminder of the states struggle for independence from Mexico. The Lone Star can be found on the Texan state flag, the origin of Texass name is from the word Tejas, which means friends in the Caddo language. Due to its size and geologic features such as the Balcones Fault, although Texas is popularly associated with the U. S. southwestern deserts, less than 10 percent of Texas land area is desert. Most of the centers are located in areas of former prairies, grasslands, forests. Traveling from east to west, one can observe terrain that ranges from coastal swamps and piney woods, to rolling plains and rugged hills, the term six flags over Texas refers to several nations that have ruled over the territory. Spain was the first European country to claim the area of Texas, Mexico controlled the territory until 1836 when Texas won its independence, becoming an independent Republic. In 1845, Texas joined the United States as the 28th state, the states annexation set off a chain of events that caused the Mexican–American War in 1846. A slave state before the American Civil War, Texas declared its secession from the U. S. in early 1861, after the Civil War and the restoration of its representation in the federal government, Texas entered a long period of economic stagnation. One Texan industry that thrived after the Civil War was cattle, due to its long history as a center of the industry, Texas is associated with the image of the cowboy. The states economic fortunes changed in the early 20th century, when oil discoveries initiated a boom in the state. With strong investments in universities, Texas developed a diversified economy, as of 2010 it shares the top of the list of the most Fortune 500 companies with California at 57. With a growing base of industry, the leads in many industries, including agriculture, petrochemicals, energy, computers and electronics, aerospace. Texas has led the nation in export revenue since 2002 and has the second-highest gross state product. The name Texas, based on the Caddo word tejas meaning friends or allies, was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves, during Spanish colonial rule, the area was officially known as the Nuevo Reino de Filipinas, La Provincia de Texas. Texas is the second largest U. S. state, behind Alaska, though 10 percent larger than France and almost twice as large as Germany or Japan, it ranks only 27th worldwide amongst country subdivisions by size. If it were an independent country, Texas would be the 40th largest behind Chile, Texas is in the south central part of the United States of America. Three of its borders are defined by rivers, the Rio Grande forms a natural border with the Mexican states of Chihuahua, Coahuila, Nuevo León, and Tamaulipas to the south
12.
Arkansas
–
Arkansas is a state located in the southeastern region of the United States. Its name is of Siouan derivation from the language of the Osage denoting their related kin, the states diverse geography ranges from the mountainous regions of the Ozark and the Ouachita Mountains, which make up the U. S. Interior Highlands, to the forested land in the south known as the Arkansas Timberlands, to the eastern lowlands along the Mississippi River. Arkansas is the 29th largest by area and the 33rd most populous of the 50 United States, the capital and most populous city is Little Rock, located in the central portion of the state, a hub for transportation, business, culture, and government. The northwestern corner of the state, such as the Fayetteville–Springdale–Rogers Metropolitan Area and Fort Smith metropolitan area, is a population, education, the largest city in the eastern part of the state is Jonesboro. The largest city in the part of the state is Pine Bluff. The Territory of Arkansas was admitted to the Union as the 25th state on June 15,1836, in 1861 Arkansas withdrew from the United States and joined the Confederate States of America during the Civil War. Upon returning to the Union in 1868, the state would continue to suffer due to its reliance on slavery. White rural interests continued to dominate the politics until the Civil Rights Movement. Arkansas began to diversify its economy following World War II and relies on its service industry, aircraft, poultry, steel, tourism, cotton, and rice. The culture of Arkansas is observable in museums, theaters, novels, television shows, restaurants, wright, and physicist William L. McMillan, who was a pioneer in superconductor research, have all lived in Arkansas. The name Arkansas derives from the root as the name for the state of Kansas. The Kansa tribe of Native Americans are closely associated with the Sioux tribes of the Great Plains, the word Arkansas itself is a French pronunciation of a Quapaw word, akakaze, meaning land of downriver people or the Sioux word akakaze meaning people of the south wind. In 2007, the legislature passed a non-binding resolution declaring the possessive form of the states name to be Arkansass which has been followed increasingly by the state government. Arkansas borders Louisiana to the south, Texas to the southwest, Oklahoma to the west, Missouri to the north, as well as Tennessee, the United States Census Bureau classifies Arkansas as a southern state, sub-categorized among the West South Central States. The state line along the Mississippi River is indeterminate along much of the border with Mississippi due to these changes. Arkansas can generally be split into two halves, the highlands in the northwest half and the lowlands of the southeastern half, the highlands are part of the Southern Interior Highlands, including The Ozarks and the Ouachita Mountains. The southern lowlands include the Gulf Coastal Plain and the Arkansas Delta and this dual split can yield to general regions named northwest, southwest, northeast, southeast, or central Arkansas
13.
Louisiana
–
Louisiana is a state located in the southern region of the United States. Louisiana is the 31st most extensive and the 25th most populous of the 50 United States and its capital is Baton Rouge and largest city is New Orleans. Louisiana is the state in the U. S. with political subdivisions termed parishes. The largest parish by population is East Baton Rouge Parish, Louisiana is bordered by Arkansas to the north, Mississippi to the east, Texas to the west, and the Gulf of Mexico to the south. Much of the lands were formed from sediment washed down the Mississippi River, leaving enormous deltas and vast areas of coastal marsh. These contain a rich southern biota, typical examples include birds such as ibis, there are also many species of tree frogs, and fish such as sturgeon and paddlefish. In more elevated areas, fire is a process in the landscape. These support a large number of plant species, including many species of orchids. Louisiana has more Native American tribes than any other state, including four that are federally recognized, ten that are state recognized. Before the American purchase of the territory in 1803, the current Louisiana State had been both a French colony and for a period, a Spanish one. In addition, colonists imported numerous African people as slaves in the 18th century, many came from peoples of the same region of West Africa, thus concentrating their culture. Louisiana was named after Louis XIV, King of France from 1643 to 1715, when René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle claimed the territory drained by the Mississippi River for France, he named it La Louisiane. The suffix -ana is a Latin suffix that can refer to information relating to an individual, subject. Thus, roughly, Louis + ana carries the idea of related to Louis, the Gulf of Mexico did not exist 250 million years ago when there was but one supercontinent, Pangea. As Pangea split apart, the Atlantic Ocean and Gulf of Mexico opened, Louisiana slowly developed, over millions of years, from water into land, and from north to south. The oldest rocks are exposed in the north, in such as the Kisatchie National Forest. The oldest rocks date back to the early Tertiary Era, some 60 million years ago, the history of the formation of these rocks can be found in D. Spearings Roadside Geology of Louisiana. The sediments were carried north to south by the Mississippi River
14.
Oklahoma
–
Oklahoma is a state located in the South Central United States. Oklahoma is the 20th-most extensive and the 28th-most populous of the 50 United States, the states name is derived from the Choctaw words okla and humma, meaning red people. The name was settled upon statehood, Oklahoma Territory and Indian Territory were merged, on November 16,1907, Oklahoma became the 46th state to enter the union. Its residents are known as Oklahomans, or informally Okies, and its capital, a major producer of natural gas, oil, and agricultural products, Oklahoma relies on an economic base of aviation, energy, telecommunications, and biotechnology. In 2007, it had one of the economies in the United States, ranking among the top states in per capita income growth. Oklahoma City and Tulsa serve as Oklahomas primary economic anchors, with nearly two-thirds of Oklahomans living within their metropolitan statistical areas. With small mountain ranges, prairie, mesas, and eastern forests, most of Oklahoma lies in the Great Plains, Cross Timbers, interior Highlands—a region especially prone to severe weather. The name Oklahoma comes from the Choctaw phrase okla humma, literally meaning red people, equivalent to the English word Indian, okla humma was a phrase in the Choctaw language used to describe Native American people as a whole. Oklahoma later became the de facto name for Oklahoma Territory, and it was approved in 1890. Oklahoma is the 20th-largest state in the United States, covering an area of 69,898 square miles and it is one of six states on the Frontier Strip and lies partly in the Great Plains near the geographical center of the 48 contiguous states. It is bounded on the east by Arkansas and Missouri, on the north by Kansas, on the northwest by Colorado, on the far west by New Mexico, much of its border with Texas lies along the Southern Oklahoma Aulacogen, a failed continental rift. The geologic figure defines the placement of the Red River, the Oklahoma panhandles Western edge is out of alignment with its Texas border. The Oklahoma/New Mexico border is actually 2.1 to 2.2 miles east of the Texas line, the border between Texas and New Mexico was set first as a result of a survey by Spain in 1819. It was then set along the 103rd Meridian, in the 1890s, when Oklahoma was formally surveyed using more accurate surveying equipment and techniques, it was discovered the Texas line was not set along the 103rd Meridian. Surveying techniques were not as accurate in 1819, and the actual 103rd Meridian was approximately 2.2 miles to the east and it was much easier to leave the mistake than for Texas to cede land to New Mexico to correct the surveying error. The placement of the Oklahoma/New Mexico border represents the true 103rd Meridian, cimarron County in Oklahomas panhandle is the only county in the United States that touches four other states, New Mexico, Texas, Colorado and Kansas. Its highest and lowest points follow this trend, with its highest peak, Black Mesa, at 4,973 feet above sea level, situated near its far northwest corner in the Oklahoma Panhandle. The states lowest point is on the Little River near its far southeastern boundary near the town of Idabel, Oklahoma, which dips to 289 feet above sea level
15.
Geographic coordinate system
–
A geographic coordinate system is a coordinate system used in geography that enables every location on Earth to be specified by a set of numbers, letters or symbols. The coordinates are chosen such that one of the numbers represents a vertical position. A common choice of coordinates is latitude, longitude and elevation, to specify a location on a two-dimensional map requires a map projection. The invention of a coordinate system is generally credited to Eratosthenes of Cyrene. Ptolemy credited him with the adoption of longitude and latitude. Ptolemys 2nd-century Geography used the prime meridian but measured latitude from the equator instead. Mathematical cartography resumed in Europe following Maximus Planudes recovery of Ptolemys text a little before 1300, in 1884, the United States hosted the International Meridian Conference, attended by representatives from twenty-five nations. Twenty-two of them agreed to adopt the longitude of the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, the Dominican Republic voted against the motion, while France and Brazil abstained. France adopted Greenwich Mean Time in place of local determinations by the Paris Observatory in 1911, the latitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle between the equatorial plane and the straight line that passes through that point and through the center of the Earth. Lines joining points of the same latitude trace circles on the surface of Earth called parallels, as they are parallel to the equator, the north pole is 90° N, the south pole is 90° S. The 0° parallel of latitude is designated the equator, the plane of all geographic coordinate systems. The equator divides the globe into Northern and Southern Hemispheres, the longitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle east or west of a reference meridian to another meridian that passes through that point. All meridians are halves of great ellipses, which converge at the north and south poles, the prime meridian determines the proper Eastern and Western Hemispheres, although maps often divide these hemispheres further west in order to keep the Old World on a single side. The antipodal meridian of Greenwich is both 180°W and 180°E, the combination of these two components specifies the position of any location on the surface of Earth, without consideration of altitude or depth. The grid formed by lines of latitude and longitude is known as a graticule, the origin/zero point of this system is located in the Gulf of Guinea about 625 km south of Tema, Ghana. To completely specify a location of a feature on, in, or above Earth. Earth is not a sphere, but a shape approximating a biaxial ellipsoid. It is nearly spherical, but has an equatorial bulge making the radius at the equator about 0. 3% larger than the radius measured through the poles, the shorter axis approximately coincides with the axis of rotation
16.
Terrestrial ecoregion
–
An ecoregion is an ecologically and geographically defined area that is smaller than a bioregion, which in turn is smaller than an ecozone. All three of these are less or greater than an ecosystem. Ecoregions cover relatively large areas of land or water, and contain characteristic, the biodiversity of flora, fauna and ecosystems that characterise an ecoregion tends to be distinct from that of other ecoregions. Three caveats are appropriate for all bio-geographic mapping approaches, firstly, no single bio-geographic framework is optimal for all taxa. Ecoregions reflect the best compromise for as many taxa as possible, secondly, ecoregion boundaries rarely form abrupt edges, rather, ecotones and mosaic habitats bound them. Thirdly, most ecoregions contain habitats that differ from their assigned biome, biogeographic provinces may originate due to various barriers. Some physical, some climatic and some ocean chemical related, the history of the term is somewhat vague as it was used in many contexts, forest classifications, biome classifications, biogeographic classifications, etc. The concept of ecoregion of Bailey gives more importance to ecological criteria, while the WWF concept gives more importance to biogeography, there is significant, but not absolute, spatial correlation among these characteristics, making the delineation of ecoregions an imperfect science. Such transition zones are called ecotones, Ecoregions can be categorized using an algorithmic approach or a holistic, “weight-of-evidence” approach where the importance of various factors may vary. An example of the approach is Robert Bailey’s work for the U. S. The intended purpose of ecoregion delineation may affect the method used, according to WWF, the boundaries of an ecoregion approximate the original extent of the natural communities prior to any major recent disruptions or changes. WWF has identified 867 terrestrial ecoregions, and approximately 450 freshwater ecoregions across the Earth, the use of the term ecoregion is an outgrowth of a surge of interest in ecosystems and their functioning. In particular, there is awareness of issues relating to spatial scale in the study and it is widely recognized that interlinked ecosystems combine to form a whole that is greater than the sum of its parts. The Global 200 is the list of ecoregions identified by WWF as priorities for conservation, Terrestrial ecoregions are land ecoregions, as distinct from freshwater and marine ecoregions. In this context, terrestrial is used to mean of land, WWF ecologists currently divide the land surface of the Earth into 8 major ecozones containing 867 smaller terrestrial ecoregions. The WWF effort is a synthesis of previous efforts to define. Many consider this classification to be decisive, and some propose these as stable borders for bioregional democracy initiatives. The eight terrestrial ecozones follow the major floral and faunal boundaries, identified by botanists and zoologists, ecozone boundaries generally follow continental boundaries, or major barriers to plant and animal distribution, like the Himalayas and the Sahara
17.
Southern United States
–
The Southern United States, commonly referred to as the American South, Dixie, or simply the South, is a region of the United States of America. The South does not fully match the geographic south of the United States, arizona and New Mexico, which are geographically in the southern part of the country, are rarely considered part, while West Virginia, which separated from Virginia in 1863, commonly is. Some scholars have proposed definitions of the South that do not coincide neatly with state boundaries, while the states of Delaware and Maryland, as well as the District of Columbia permitted slavery prior to the start of the Civil War, they remained with the Union. However, the United States Census Bureau puts them in the South, usually, the South is defined as including the southeastern and south-central United States. The region is known for its culture and history, having developed its own customs, musical styles, and cuisines, the Southern ethnic heritage is diverse and includes strong European, African, and some Native American components. Since the late 1960s, black people have many offices in Southern states, especially in the coastal states of Virginia. Historically, the South relied heavily on agriculture, and was rural until after 1945. It has since become more industrialized and urban and has attracted national and international migrants, the American South is now among the fastest-growing areas in the United States. Houston is the largest city in the Southern United States, sociological research indicates that Southern collective identity stems from political, demographic, and cultural distinctiveness from the rest of the United States. The region contains almost all of the Bible Belt, an area of high Protestant church attendance and predominantly conservative, indeed, studies have shown that Southerners are more conservative than non-Southerners in several areas, including religion, morality, international relations and race relations. Apart from its climate, the experience in the South increasingly resembles the rest of the nation. The arrival of millions of Northerners and millions of Hispanics meant the introduction of cultural values, the process has worked both ways, however, with aspects of Southern culture spreading throughout a greater portion of the rest of the United States in a process termed Southernization. The question of how to define the subregions in the South has been the focus of research for nearly a century, as defined by the United States Census Bureau, the Southern region of the United States includes sixteen states. As of 2010, an estimated 114,555,744 people, or thirty-seven percent of all U. S. residents, lived in the South, the nations most populous region. Other terms related to the South include, The Old South, the New South, usually including the South Atlantic States. The Solid South, region largely controlled by the Democratic Party from 1877 to 1964, before that, blacks were elected to national office and many to local office through the 1880s, Populist-Republican coalitions gained victories for Fusionist candidates for governors in the 1890s. Includes at least all the 11 former Confederate States, Southeastern United States, usually including the Carolinas, the Virginias, Tennessee, Kentucky, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, and Florida. The Deep South, various definitions, usually including Louisiana, Alabama, Mississippi, Georgia, occasionally, parts of adjoining states are included
18.
East Texas
–
East Texas is a distinct cultural, geographic and ecological area in the U. S. state of Texas. The East Texas Regions includes Tyler, Longview, Marshall, Palestine, Jacksonville, Mount Pleasant, most of the region consists of the Piney Woods ecoregion, and East Texas can sometimes be reduced to include only the Piney Woods. Houston is rarely regarded as a part of East Texas and is closely associated with the Coastal Bend along the Gulf of Mexico. At the fringes, towards Central Texas, the forests expand outward toward sparser trees, outside of the Greater Houston area the average population density is around 18–45 per square mile, with the population density near the Big Thicket dropping below 18 people per sq mi. East Texass population is large and is centered around the Golden Triangle which is Beaumont/Port Arthur/Orange in Southeast Texas. Moving north from the coast, Lufkin and Nacogdoches anchor the center of Deep East Texas. Only eight miles from the Texas border, Shreveport, Louisiana, is considered the economic and cultural center for the Ark-La-Tex, the area where Arkansas, Louisiana, East Texas receives more rainfall,35 to 60 inches, than the rest of Texas. All of East Texas also lies within the Gulf Coastal Plain, local vegetation also varies from north to south with the lower third consisting of the temperate grassland extending from South Texas to South Louisiana. The upper two-thirds of the region dominated by temperate forest known as the Piney Woods, the Piney Woods are part of a much larger region of pine-hardwood forest that extends into Louisiana, Arkansas, and Oklahoma. The Piney Woods thins out as it nears the Gulf of Mexico, west of the Piney Woods are the ranchlands and remnant oak forests of the East Central Texas forests ecoregion. The Sabine River, Trinity River, Neches River, Angelina River and Sulphur River are the rivers in East Texas. The Brazos cuts through the southwest portion of the region while the Red River forms its border with Oklahoma. In East Texas and the rest of the South, small rivers and creeks collect into swamps called Bayous, bald cypress and Spanish moss are the dominant plants in bayous. The most famous of these bayous are Cypress Bayou and Buffalo Bayou, Cypress Bayou surrounds the Big, Little, and Black Cypress rivers around Jefferson. They flow east into Caddo Lake and the adjoining wetlands cover the rim, East Texas is often considered the westernmost extension of the Deep South. The predominant cultural influence comes from customs and traditions passed down from European-American and African-American Southerners who settled the region during the mid, african Americans were first brought to the area as enslaved workers for the plantations. These influences are noticeable in the sub-dialect of Texan English that is throughout the region. East Texas did not have the influence of late 19th and early 20th century European immigrants from Germany and Central Europe
19.
Kiamichi Country
–
The Department created the term as one of six designated travel regions within the state. The name of Kiamichi was actually applied by early French explorers who came to the area in the early 18th Century and they discovered, among other things, a very large, noisy woodpecker that they called Kiamichi, their word for raucous bird. The area also contains the Kiamichi Mountains, a subset of the Ouachita Mountains, the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma covers much of the area. The area was acquired by the United States through the Louisiana Purchase, on April 1,1820, Arkansas created Miller County which included most of the land that would become Little Dixie. A post office at Miller Courthouse was established on September 7,1824. Per a treaty signed on January 20,1825, the land west of a one hundred paces east of Fort Smith. The residents west of the made a futile attempt to be exempted from the treaty. They burned the courthouse and most of the records before they left, some Choctaws had been moving into the region from Mississippi since the Treaty of Doaks Stand in 1820. Following the Treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek in 1830, the government began their forced removal. By 1834, nearly 8,000 Choctaws had arrived in their new land over the trail of tears, at Nanih Waiya, near the present Tuskahoma Council House, they established a capital and adopted the first constitution ever written in what is now Oklahoma. The Choctaws actively supported the Confederacy during the Civil War and were allowed to keep most of their land in eastern Indian Territory, in 1898, after pressure from Washington, they agreed to an allotment plan administered by the Dawes Commission. Their excess lands and those of the allied Chickasaw were opened to settlement by non-Indians, the damage of the Civil War and a long decline in cotton prices meant years of a poor economy in the mostly rural South. Many citizens left the South to seek opportunities in new western lands, when the Indian lands were opened, Southerners flocked to the Indian Nations for a new start, especially to the old Choctaw reserve. So many homesteaded in the area that they influenced the politics. They made much of what is now Oklahoma culturally a southern state, in the decades that followed, this area became known as Little Dixie. The Ouachita National Forest, Oklahomas only national forest, is also in this area, Kiamichi Country also houses The Worlds Highest Hill, a 1, 999-foot peak near Poteau, with the official designation for a mountain being anything 2, 000-feet or taller. The region contains Oklahomas largest lake by area, Eufaula Lake. Other major lakes include Robert S, kerr Reservoir, Sardis Lake, Hugo Lake, McGee Creek Reservoir, Pine Creek Lake, Broken Bow Lake, Lake Wister, Lake Atoka Reservoir, and on Kiamichi Countrys southwestern border, Lake Texoma
20.
Pine
–
A pine is any conifer in the genus Pinus, /ˈpiːnuːs/, of the family Pinaceae. Pinus is the genus in the subfamily Pinoideae. The Plant List compiled by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew and Missouri Botanical Garden accepts 126 species names of pines as current, together with 35 unresolved species, the modern English name pine derives from Latin pinus, which some have traced to the Indo-European base *pīt- ‘resin’. Before the 19th century, pines were often referred to as firs, the genus is divided into three subgenera, which can be distinguished by cone, seed, and leaf characters, Pinus subg. Pinus, the yellow, or hard pine group, generally harder wood. Ducampopinus, the foxtail or pinyon group Pinus subg, strobus, the white, or soft pine group, generally with softer wood and five needles per fascicle Most regions of the Northern Hemisphere host some native species of pines. One species crosses the equator in Sumatra to 2°S, in North America, various species occur in regions at latitudes from as far north as 66°N to as far south as 12°N. Various species have been introduced to temperate and subtropical regions of both hemispheres, where they are grown as timber or cultivated as ornamental plants in parks, a number of such introduced species have become invasive and threaten native ecosystems. Pine trees are evergreen, coniferous trees growing 3–80 m tall. The smallest are Siberian dwarf pine and Potosi pinyon, and the tallest is a 81.79 m tall ponderosa pine located in southern Oregons Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest, the bark of most pines is thick and scaly, but some species have thin, flaky bark. The branches are produced in regular pseudo whorls, actually a very tight spiral, the spiral growth of branches, needles, and cone scales are arranged in Fibonacci number ratios. The new spring shoots are sometimes called candles, they are covered in brown or whitish bud scales and point upward at first, then turn green. These candles offer foresters a means to evaluate fertility of the soil, pines are long-lived, and typically reach ages of 100–1,000 years, some even more. The longest-lived is the Great Basin bristlecone pine, Pinus longaeva, one individual of this species, dubbed Methuselah, is one of the worlds oldest living organisms at around 4,600 years old. This tree can be found in the White Mountains of California, an older tree, now cut down, was dated at 4,900 years old. It was discovered in a grove beneath Wheeler Peak and it is now known as Prometheus after the Greek immortal, pines have four types of leaf, Seed leaves on seedlings, born in a whorl of 4–24. Juvenile leaves, which follow immediately on seedlings and young plants, 2–6 cm long, single, green or often blue-green and these are produced for six months to five years, rarely longer. Scale leaves, similar to bud scales, small, brown and non-photosynthetic, needles, the adult leaves, are green and bundled in clusters called fascicles
21.
Hardwood
–
Hardwood is wood from dicot angiosperm trees. The term may also be used for the trees from which the wood is derived, in temperate and boreal latitudes they are mostly deciduous, but in tropics and subtropics mostly evergreen. Hardwood should not be confused with the heartwood, which can be from hardwood or softwood. Hardwoods are produced by trees that reproduce by flowers, and have broad leaves. Hardwood from deciduous species, such as oak, normally shows annual growth rings, hardwoods have a more complex structure than softwoods and are often much slower growing as a result. The dominant feature separating hardwoods from softwoods is the presence of pores, the vessels may show considerable variation in size, shape of perforation plates, and structure of cell wall, such as spiral thickenings. As the name suggests, the wood from trees is generally harder than that of softwoods. Solid hardwood joinery tends to be compared to softwood. In the past, tropical hardwoods were easily available, but the supply of some species, such as Burma teak, cheaper hardwood doors, for instance, now consist of a thin veneer bonded to a core of softwood, plywood or medium-density fibreboard. Hardwoods may be used in a variety of objects, but are most frequently seen in furniture or musical instruments because of their density which adds to durability, appearance, different species of hardwood lend themselves to different end uses or construction processes. This is due to the variety of characteristics apparent in different timbers, including density, grain, pore size, growth and fibre pattern, flexibility and ability to be steam bent. For example, the grain of elm wood makes it suitable for the making of chair seats where the driving in of legs. There is a correlation between density and calories/volume, list of woods Hardwood flooring Softwood Janka hardness test Brinell scale Schweingruber, F. H. Anatomie europäischer Hölzer—Anatomy of European woods. Eidgenössische Forschungsanstalt für Wald, Schnee und Landscaft, Birmensdorf, finnish Museum of Natural History, University of Helsinki. The Anatomy of Wood, Its Diversity and variability
22.
Hickory
–
Hickory is a type of tree, comprising the genus Carya. The genus includes 17–19 species of trees with pinnately compound leaves. Five or six species are native to China, Indochina, and India, as many as 12 are native to the United States, four are found in Mexico, Hickory flowers are small, yellow-green catkins produced in spring. The fruit is a globose or oval nut, 2–5 cm long and 1. 5–3 cm diameter, enclosed in a four-valved husk, which splits open at maturity. The nut shell is thick and bony in most species, and thin in a few, notably the pecan, beaked hickory is a species formerly classified as Carya sinensis, but now adjudged in the monotypic genus Annamocarya. In the APG system, genus Carya has been moved to the Fagales order. Sinocarya – Asian hickories Carya dabieshanensis M. C, liu – Dabie Shan hickory Carya cathayensis Sarg. Carya – typical hickories Carya floridana Sarg, – Scrub hickory Carya glabra Sweet – Pignut hickory, pignut, sweet pignut, coast pignut hickory, smoothbark hickory, swamp hickory, broom hickory Carya myristiciformis Nutt. – Nutmeg hickory, swamp hickory, bitter water hickory Carya ovalis Sarg, – Sand hickory Carya texana Buckley – Black hickory Carya tomentosa Nutt. – Mockernut hickory †Carya washingtonensis - Manchester Extinct Miocene Carya sect, apocarya – pecans Carya aquatica Nutt. – Bitter pecan or water hickory Carya cordiformis K. Koch – Bitternut hickory Carya illinoinensis K. Koch – Pecan Carya palmeri W. E, manning – Mexican hickory Hickory is used as a food plant by the larvae of some Lepidoptera species. Phylloxeridae are related to aphids and have a complex life cycle. Eggs hatch in spring and the galls quickly form around the developing insects. Phylloxera galls may damage weakened or stressed hickories, but are generally harmless, the pecan gall curculio is a true weevil species also found feeding on galls of the hickory leaf stem gall phylloxera. The banded hickory borer is also found on hickories, some fruits are borderline and difficult to categorize. Hickory nuts and walnuts in the Juglandaceae family grow within an outer husk, tryma is a specialized term for such nut-like drupes. Hickory wood is hard, stiff, dense and shock resistant. Paddles are often made from hickory, Hickory is replacing ash as the wood of choice for Scottish shinty sticks
23.
Oak
–
An oak is a tree or shrub in the genus Quercus of the beech family, Fagaceae. There are approximately 600 extant species of oaks, the common name oak also appears in the names of species in related genera, notably Lithocarpus, as well as in those of unrelated species such as Grevillea robusta and the Casuarinaceae. North America contains the largest number of oak species, with approximately 90 occurring in the United States, the second greatest center of oak diversity is China, which contains approximately 100 species. Oaks have spirally arranged leaves, with lobate margins in many species, also, the acorns contain tannic acid, as do the leaves, which helps to guard from fungi and insects. Many deciduous species are marcescent, not dropping dead leaves until spring, in spring, a single oak tree produces both male flowers and small female flowers. The fruit is a nut called an acorn, borne in a structure known as a cupule, each acorn contains one seed and takes 6–18 months to mature. The live oaks are distinguished for being evergreen, but are not actually a distinct group, the oak tree is a flowering plant. Oaks may be divided into two genera and a number of sections, The genus Quercus is divided into the following sections, Quercus, the white oaks of Europe, Asia and North America. Styles are short, acorns mature in 6 months and taste sweet or slightly bitter, the leaves mostly lack a bristle on their lobe tips, which are usually rounded. The type species is Quercus robur, Mesobalanus, Hungarian oak and its relatives of Europe and Asia. Styles long, acorns mature in about 6 months and taste bitter, the section Mesobalanus is closely related to section Quercus and sometimes included in it. Cerris, the Turkey oak and its relatives of Europe and Asia, styles long, acorn mature in 18 months and taste very bitter. The inside of the shell is hairless. Its leaves typically have sharp tips, with bristles at the lobe tip. Protobalanus, the live oak and its relatives, in southwest United States. Styles short, acorns mature in 18 months and taste very bitter, the inside of the acorn shell appears woolly. Leaves typically have sharp tips, with bristles at the lobe tip. Lobatae, the red oaks of North America, Central America, styles long, acorns mature in 18 months and taste very bitter
24.
History of Texas forests
–
The forests in the U. S. state of Texas have been an important resource since its earliest days and have played a major role in the states history. The vast woodlands of the region, home to varieties of wildlife when Europeans first arrived, provided economic opportunities for early settlers. They continue to play an important role economically and environmentally in the state, the most dense forest lands lie in the eastern part of the state in the Piney Woods region. In particular the Big Thicket region, just north of Houston, the Big Thicket was mostly uninhabited until heavy settlement from the U. S. began in the mid-19th century, and was even used as a refuge by runaway slaves and other fugitives. The Rio Grande Valley in South Texas was home to a palm tree forest when Spaniards first arrived. One of the first steam sawmills in Texas was planned in 1829 in what is now modern Houston, after the Texas Revolution lumber production increased steadily such that by 1860 there were reportedly 200 saw mills in the state. The construction of railroads throughout the part of the state led to boom in lumber production starting in the 1880s. The following 50-year period in which the Texas timber industry flourished came to be known as the bonanza era, by the start of the 20th century timber was one of the leading economic engines of Texas and had become the states largest manufacturing enterprise. Lumber barons, such as John Henry Kirby, were among the wealthiest people in the state, by 1907 Texas was the third largest lumber producer in the United States. The subsequent clearing of fields for oil exploration and the demand for lumber through the first half of the 20th century destroyed much of the remaining forest lands in the state. By the 1920s lumber production was in decline and the onset of the Great Depression devastated the already flagging industry, in recent times preservation efforts, such as the creation of the Texas Big Thicket National Preserve in 1974, have helped to stabilize parts of the Texas woodlands. As of 1999 Texas remains in the top ten timber producing states in the United States, the climate in Texas varies greatly across the state. Humid, rain-soaked swamps lie toward the east and desert lands lie in the far west, woodlands, grasslands, brushland, and other ecological regions can be found in between and around the state. A prominent climatic feature of Texas is a dry line that runs north-south through its center, the forest lands, of course, mostly lie to the east of this line though pockets of woodland can be found in the mountains to the west. Texas is periodically subjected to extreme droughts that can last several years, the most severe example in modern history was the 1950s drought that reshaped the states economy. These drought periods are known to reduce the forests. The severe drought of 2011, for example, is estimated to have killed two and ten percent of the states trees. Texas forest lands can be divided into six regions, the Big Thicket, the Piney Woods, the Gulf Coast, the Edwards Plateau, the lower Rio Grande Valley
25.
Big Thicket
–
Big Thicket is the name of a heavily forested area in Southeast Texas, United States. Several attempts to provide boundaries have been made ranging from only a 10 to 15 mile section of Hardin County to an area encompassing over 29 counties, scientific studies have been performed also, but with varying results. Hal B. Parks and Victor L. Cory of the Texas Agriculture Experiment station conducted a survey of the Big Thicket region. Their study, based on geology, resulted in over 3,350,000 acres of Southeast Texas and covering 14 counties from Houston in the west to Orange in the east, claude McLeod, a botany professor at Sam Houston State University, performed a botanical based study. That study resulted in a region of over 2,000,000 acres. While no exact boundaries exist, the area much of Hardin, Liberty, Tyler, San Jacinto, and Polk Counties and is roughly bounded by the San Jacinto River, Neches River. To the north, it blends into the larger Piney Woods terrestrial ecoregion of which it is a part and it has historically been the most dense forest region in what is now Texas, though logging in the 19th and 20th centuries dramatically reduced the forest concentration. The Big Thicket has been described as one of the most biodiverse areas in the world outside of the tropics, the Big Thicket National Preserve was established in 1974 in an attempt to protect the many plant and animal species within. Senator Ralph Yarborough was its most powerful proponent in Congress and the bill was proposed by Charles Wilson and Bob Eckhardt that established the 84, Big Thicket was also designated as a Biosphere Reserve by UNESCO in 1981. As of September 30,2016, the preserve includes 112,501 acres and it consists of nine separate land units as well as six water corridors. Centered about Hardin County, Texas, the BITH extends into parts of surrounding Jasper, Jefferson, Liberty, Orange, Polk, the Preserves headquarters are located 8 miles north of Kountze, Texas and approximately 30 miles north of Beaumont via US 69/287. Ones fondness for the area is hard to explain and it has no commanding peak or awesome gorge, no topographical feature of distinction. – Big Thicket Legacy, University of Texas Press,1977, the terrain in the Big Thicket is flat or gently rolling. The area lies on the coastal plain of Texas, and is crossed by numerous small streams. The extent of the region was much larger than today covering more than 2 million acres in east Texas. Timber harvesting in the 19th and 20th centuries dramatically reduced the extent of the dense woodlands, prior to the acquisition of a reservation in 1854, the Alabama-Coushattas resided in the Big Thicket. The Big Thickets geographical features are believed to have their origins with the Western Interior Seaway, over time, water smoothed out the land along what is now Texass coastline. Small towns are contained within the Big Thicket, most of these towns developed in the late 19th century in support of the lumber industry, as evidenced by names like Lumberton
26.
World Wide Fund for Nature
–
It was formerly named the World Wildlife Fund, which remains its official name in Canada and the United States. It is the worlds largest conservation organization with five million supporters worldwide, working in more than 100 countries, supporting around 1,300 conservation. WWF is a foundation, with 55% of funding from individuals and bequests, 19% from government sources, the groups mission is to stop the degradation of the planet’s natural environment and to build a future in which humans live in harmony with nature. Currently, much of its work concentrates on the conservation of three biomes that contain most of the biodiversity, oceans and coasts, forests. Among other issues, it is concerned with endangered species, sustainable production of commodities. The Conservation Foundation, a precursor to WWF, was founded in 1947 by Fairfield Osborn in New York City in support of capitalism-friendly ecological practices. The advisory council included leading scientists such as Charles Sutherland Elton, G Evelyn Hutchinson, Aldo Leopold, Carl Sauer, and Paul Sears. It supported much of the work cited by Rachel Carsons Silent Spring, including that of John L. George, Roger Hale, Robert Rudd. In 1990, the Conservation Foundation was merged into WWF, after becoming an affiliate of WWF in 1985, the organization now known as the Conservation Foundation in the United States is the former Forest Foundation of DuPage County. The idea for a fund on behalf of endangered animals was initially proposed by Victor Stolan to Sir Julian Huxley in response to articles he published in the British newspaper The Observer, nicholson thought up the name of the organization. WWF was conceived on 29 April 1961, under the name of World Wildlife Fund, godfrey A. Rockefeller also played an important role in its creation, assembling the first staff. For sending experts to danger spots and training, making it all possible that their needs are met before it is too late. WWF has set up offices and operations around the world, the organization also began to run its own conservation projects and campaigns, and by the 1980s started to take a more strategic approach to its conservation activities. In 1986, the changed its name to World Wide Fund for Nature. However, it continued at that time to operate under the name in the United States. We shant save all we should like to, but we shall save a great deal more than if we had never tried, – Sir Peter Scott In 1996, the organization obtained general consultative status from UNESCO. WWFs giant panda logo originated from a panda named Chi Chi that had transferred from Beijing Zoo to London Zoo in 1958. The logo was founded by Young in 1966, the organization also needed an animal that would have an impact in black and white printing
27.
Piney Woods
–
These coniferous forests are dominated by several species of pine as well as hardwoods including hickory and oak. The World Wide Fund for Nature considers the Piney Woods to be one of the critically endangered ecoregions of the United States, the United States Environmental Protection Agency defines most of this ecoregion as the South Central Plains. The Piney Woods cover a 54, 400-square-mile area of eastern Texas, northwestern Louisiana, southwestern Arkansas and it receives 40-52 inches of precipitation annually. The region has heavy to moderate rainfall, with some receiving over 60 in of rain per year. Longleaf, shortleaf and loblolly pines, along with bluejack and post oaks, a well-developed understory grows beneath the sparse canopy, and includes yaupon holly and flowering dogwood. Pine savannas consist of scattered longleaf and loblolly pines alongside black tupelos, sweetgums, other common trees in this ecoregion include eastern redbud, southern sugar maple, and American elm. American wisteria, a vine, may cover groves of trees Two varieties of wetlands are common in the Piney Woods, bayous are generally found near rivers, in bayous bald cypress, Spanish moss, and water lilies are common plants. Sloughs are shallow pools of standing water that most trees are not capable of growing in, other species, such as the purple bladderwort, a small carnivorous plant, have found niches in sloughs. Hardy species of prickly pear cactus and yucca can be both in the forests and wetlands. The indigenous Texas trailing phlox, a species, grows in the sandy soils of longleaf pine forests. Birds include sandhill cranes, black and turkey vultures, northern mockingbirds, American alligators are not as common as they once were, but their population has rebounded since the 1960s. Louisiana black bears are rare today, but still live in remote thickets, recently, there has been significant talk of reintroducing the black bear into many parts of East Texas. The most common fish is catfish, which are a native species, crayfish are common along river and creek banks. The Piney Woods Region of the four state area is an area for Bigfoot sightings. One such noted legend is the story of the Fouke Monster of Southern Arkansas, the area according to references lists this area to be the third highest in North America for these such sightings. Melanistic cougars, another probable cryptid, have been noted by residents, the majority of the commercial timber growing and wood processing in the state of Texas takes place in the Piney Woods region, which contains about 50,000 square kilometres of commercial forestland. The preserve contains ten distinct ecosystems according to the National Park Service, big Thicket National Preserve is one of two UNESCO Biosphere Reserves in Texas. The preserve has also listed as a Globally Important Bird Area by the American Bird Conservancy
28.
Northeast Texas
–
Northeast Texas is a region in the northeast corner of the U. S. state of Texas. It is geographically centered on two metropolitan areas strung along Interstate 20, Tyler in the west and Longview/Marshall to the east. Mount Pleasant, Greenville, Paris and Texarkana in the north, most of Northeast Texas is included in the inter-state region of the Arklatex. Its climate is warmer and wetter than most of Texas and its geography is more hilly and its culture is similar to that of Southeast Texas, but does not have as much of a Cajun influence. Many of the largest cities in Northeast Texas still follow a rural Southern way of life, especially in dialect, mannerisms, religion, the geography is composed mainly of the Piney Woods, a mixed forest of deciduous and conifer flora. The Piney woods cover 23,500 square miles of rolling or hilly forested land. These woods are part of a larger region of pine-hardwood forest that extends into Louisiana, Arkansas. Northeast Texas lies within the Gulf Coastal Plain and receives rainfall,35 to 50 inches. The Sabine River is the river in Northeast Texas, and flows through Longview. The Red River also flows through the region and forms the border with Oklahoma. In Northeast Texas and the rest of the South, small rivers and creeks collect into swamps called bayous, bald cypress and Spanish moss are the dominant plants in bayous. The most famous of these bayous in Northeast Texas is the Cypress Bayou surrounding the Big, Little and they flow east into Caddo Lake and the adjoining wetlands cover the rim and islands of the lake. Interstate 20 Interstate 30 U. S. Highway 59 U. S. Highway 67 U. S. Highway 69 U. S. Highway 79 U. S. Highway 80 U. S. Highway 82 U. S. Highway 84 U. S. Highway 175 U. S. Highway 259 U. S. Highway 271 U. S. Northeast Texas is in the Bible Belt creating a strong Fundamentalist Christian sentiment, though 35 percent of Texass population is now Hispanic, African-Americans are still the most populous minority in Northeast Texas. During the Civil Rights Movement several communities clashed over integration, in presidential elections since 1950 both Smith County, and Gregg County have been reliably Republican. Much of modern Northeast Texas culture has its roots in traditions that go back for generations. First Monday Trade Days is a flea market held in Canton. The market is held on the Thursday through Sunday preceding the first Monday of each month. It purports to be the largest and oldest continually operated flea market in the United States, the East Texas Oil Museum, located on the campus of Kilgore College in Kilgore, Texas
29.
Pinus palustris
–
It reaches a height of 30–35 m and a diameter of 0.7 m. In the past, they grew to 47 m with a diameter of 1.2 m. The bark is thick, reddish-brown, and scaly, the leaves are dark green and needle-like, and occur in bundles of three. They often are twisted and 20–45 cm in length and it is one of the two southeastern U. S. pines with long needles, the other being slash pine. The cones, both female seed cones and male cones, are initiated during the growing season before buds emerge. Pollen cones begin forming in their buds in July, while seed conelets are formed during a short period of time in August. Pollination occurs early the spring, with the male cones 3–8 cm long. The seeds are 7–9 mm long, with a 25–40 mm wing, Longleaf pine takes 100 to 150 years to become full size and may live to be 500 years old. When young, they grow a long taproot, which usually is 2–3 m long and it grows on well-drained, usually sandy soil, often in pure stands. In northern Alabama, it occurs on clay soil. The scientific name meaning, of marshes, is a misunderstanding on the part of Philip Miller who described the species, Longleaf pine also is known as being one of several species grouped as a southern yellow pine or longleaf yellow pine, and in the past as pitch pine. Periodic natural wildfire selects for this species by killing other trees, new seedlings do not appear at all tree-like and resemble a dark green fountain of needles. This form is called the grass stage, during this stage, which lasts for 5–12 years, vertical growth is very slow, and the tree may take a number of years simply to grow ankle-high. After that it makes a growth spurt, especially if there is no tree canopy above it. In the grass stage, it is resistant to grass fires, which burn off the ends of the needles. Longleaf pine forests are rich in biodiversity and they are well-documented for their high levels of plant diversity, in groups including sedges, grasses, carnivorous plants and orchids. These forests also provide habitat for gopher tortoises, which, as keystone species, the red-cockaded woodpecker is dependent on mature pine forests and is now endangered as a result of this decline. Longleaf pine seeds are large and nutritious, forming a significant food source for birds, there are 9 salamander species and 26 frog species that are characteristic of pine savannas, along with 56 species of reptiles,13 of which could be considered specialists on this habitat
30.
Pinus echinata
–
The tree is variable in form, sometimes straight, sometimes crooked, with an irregular crown. This tree reaches heights of 20–30 metres with a diameter of 0. 5–0.9 metres. The leaves are needle-like, in fascicles of two and three mixed together, and from 7–11 cm long, the cones are 4–7 cm long, with thin scales with a transverse keel and a short prickle. They open at maturity but are persistent, shortleaf pine seedlings develop a persistent J-shaped crook near the ground surface. Axillary and other buds form near the crook and initiate growth if the stem is killed by fire or is severed. This pine is a source of pulp, plywood veneer. The shortleaf pine is one of the southern US southern yellow pines, shortleaf pine has the largest range of the southern US yellow pines. This pine occupies a variety of habitats from rocky uplands to wet flood plains and it frequently hybridizes naturally with loblolly pine and pitch pine where their ranges intersect. Media related to Pinus echinata at Wikimedia Commons Gymnosperm Database, Pinus echinata NCRS, USDA Plants Profile, Pinus echinata
31.
Pinus taeda
–
Pinus taeda, commonly known as loblolly pine, is one of several pines native to the Southeastern United States, from central Texas east to Florida, and north to Delaware and southern New Jersey. The wood industry classifies the species as a yellow pine. U. S. Forest Service surveys found that loblolly pine is the second most common species of tree in the United States, for its timber, the pine species is regarded as the most commercially important tree in Southeastern US. The common name loblolly is given because the species is found mostly in lowlands. Loblolly pine is the first among over 100 species of Pinus to have its genome sequenced. As of March 2014 it is the organism having the largest sequenced genome size and its genome, with 22 billion base pairs, is seven times larger than that of humans. Loblolly pine can reach a height of 30–35 m with a diameter of 0. 4–1.5 m, exceptional specimens may reach 50 m tall, the largest of the southern pines. The needles usually last up to two years before they fall, which gives the species its evergreen character, although some needles fall throughout the year due to severe weather, insect damage, and drought, most needles fall during the autumn and winter of their second year. The seed cones are green, ripening pale buff-brown, 7–13 cm in length, 2–3 cm broad when closed, opening to 4–6 cm wide, each scale bearing a sharp 3–6 mm spine. The tallest loblolly pine currently known, which is 51.4 m tall, and the largest, which measures 42 cubic meters in volume, are in Congaree National Park. The word loblolly is a combination of lob, referring to thick heavy bubbling of cooking porridge, and lolly, in the southern United States, the word is used to mean a mudhole, a mire, a sense derived from an allusion to the consistency of porridge. Hence the pine is named as it is found in lowlands. Loblolly pines grow well in clay soil, which is common throughout the South. For the scientific name, Pinus is the Latin name for the pines, the rate of growth is rapid, even among the generally fast-growing southern pines. The yellowish, resinous wood is prized for lumber, but is also used for wood pulp. This tree is grown in extensive plantations. Loblolly pine is the pine of the Lost Pines Forest around Bastrop, Texas and these are isolated populations on areas of acidic sandy soil, surrounded by alkaline clays that are poor for pine growth. A study using loblolly pines showed that atmospheric carbon dioxide levels may help the trees to endure ice storms better
32.
Quercus incana
–
Quercus incana is a species of oak known by the common names bluejack oak, upland willow oak, sandjack oak, and cinnamon oak. It is native to the Atlantic and Gulf coastal plains of the United States, from Virginia around Florida to Texas and inland to Oklahoma, Quercus incana is a tree growing to about 10 meters in height, with a maximum height around 15 meters. The national champion bluejack was a specimen from Texas that was 15.5 meters tall and 2.1 meters in circumference, the trunk is short and the crooked branches form an open, irregular crown. The platy bark is brown or black. The leaves are oval and up to 10 centimeters long by 3.5 wide. They are glossy green on top and woolly-haired underneath, the acorn is up to 1.7 centimeters long by 1.6 wide, not counting the cap. The oak reproduces by seed and by resprouting from the rootcrown when the parts are removed. It can form thickets by spreading underground runners, Quercus incana often grows in longleaf pine ecosystems, where it shares the understory with turkey oak and wiregrass. In the Big Thicket of Texas it codominates with post oak, the oak can be found on sandy soils. It grows downslope from ridgetops, where the soils are finer and it is well adapted to wildfire and grows in habitat where fire is common and often required, such as longleaf pine ecosystems. The oak does not tolerate shade and requires fire to remove taller. The wood of Quercus incana is hard and strong, but the trees are too small to be good for any uses except fuel or posts. The acorns provide food for many species including the Shermans fox squirrel. United States Department of Agriculture Plants Profile The Nature Conservancy
33.
Quercus stellata
–
Quercus stellata is a North American species of oak in the white oak section. Quercus stellata is a slow growing oak that lives in dry soils, and is resistant to rot, fire. Interbreeding occurs among white oaks thus many hybrid species combinations occur, Quercus stellata is native to the eastern and central United States, and found in all the coastal states from Massachusetts to Texas, and as far inland as Nebraska. It is identifiable by the cross like shape formed by the leaf lobes. Quercus stellata is a small tree, typically 10–15 meters tall and trunk 30–60 cm in diameter. The leaves have a distinctive shape, with three perpendicular terminal lobes, shaped much like a Maltese Cross. They are leathery, and tomentose beneath, the branching pattern of this tree often gives it a rugged appearance. The acorns are 1. 5–2 cm long, and are mature in their first summer, the specific epithet stellata is latin for star it is named this because the trichome hairs on the bottom of the leaves, are stellate or star shaped. There are several variants of Quercus stellata named by American botanist Charles Sprague Sargent and they are both in a section of Quercus called the white oaks. In the white oak section Quercus stellata is sister taxa with the Quercus alba, Quercus stellata is sold and distributed as white oak. One identifiable difference between the two trees is that Q. stellata is hairy on the underside of the leaf, Quercus stellata is found in southeastern America, in the coast states from Massachusetts, to Texas, and inland to Iowa. Normally found at the edge of a forest It typically grows in dry sandy areas, because of its ability to grow in dry sites, attractive crown, and strong horizontal branches it is used in urban forestry. It is resistant to decay so it is used for ties, siding, planks, construction timbers, stair risers and treads, flooring, pulp, veneer, particle boards, fuel. It is used for food for deer, turkey, squirrels, and other rodents. Quercus stellata has evolved to survive fires by having thicker bark, Quercus stellata is useful for fire surveys where the tree rings are used to get a fire history of an area. IPNI Kew Flora of North America Plants. USDA
34.
Sandhill
–
A sandhill is a type of ecological community or xeric wildfire-maintained ecosystem. It is not the same as a sand dune and it features very short fire return intervals, one to five years. Without fire, sandhills undergo ecological succession and become more oak dominated, entisols are the typical sandhill soil, deep well-drained and nutrient poor. In Florida, sandhills receive 130 cm cm of rainfall per year, sandhills are xeric because they have poor water holding capacity. Dominant vegetation includes longleaf pine, American turkey oak, and wiregrass, a number of rare animals are typical of this habitat including the gopher tortoise, red-cockaded woodpecker, Shermans fox squirrel, and striped newt. Invasive species that are a problem on sandhills include Cogongrass, camphor laurels, and Natal grass
35.
Understory
–
In forestry and ecology, understory comprises plant life growing beneath the forest canopy without penetrating it to any great extent, but above the forest floor. Only a small percentage of light penetrates the canopy so understory vegetation is generally shade tolerant, the understory typically consists of trees stunted through lack of light, other small trees with low light requirements, saplings, shrubs, vines and undergrowth. Small trees such as holly and dogwood are understory specialists, in temperate deciduous forests, many understory plants start into growth earlier than the canopy trees to make use of the greater availability of light at this time of year. A gap in the canopy caused by the death of a tree stimulates the potential emergent trees into competitive growth as they grow upwards to fill the gap and these trees tend to have straight trunks and few lower branches. At the same time, the bushes, undergrowth and plant life on the forest floor become more dense, the understory experiences greater humidity than the canopy, and the shaded ground does not vary in temperature as much as open ground. This causes a proliferation of ferns, mosses and fungi and encourages nutrient recycling, the understory is the underlying layer of vegetation in a forest or wooded area, especially the trees and shrubs growing between the forest canopy and the forest floor. Plants in the understory comprise an assortment of seedlings and saplings of canopy trees together with specialist understory shrubs and herbs, young canopy trees often persist in the understory for decades as suppressed juveniles until an opening in the forest overstory permits their growth into the canopy. In contrast understory shrubs complete their cycles in the shade of the forest canopy. Some smaller tree species, such as dogwood and holly, rarely grow tall, the canopy of a rainforest is typically about 10m thick, and intercepts around 95% of the sunlight. The understory receive less light than plants in the canopy. Understory plants therefore must be shade tolerant—they must be able to photosynthesize adequately using such light as does reach their leaves and they often are able to use wavelengths that canopy plants cannot. In temperate deciduous forests towards the end of the leafless season and this is important because it provides the understory plants with a window in which to photosynthesize without the canopy shading them. This brief period is often a period in which the plant can maintain a net positive carbon balance over the course of the year. As a rule forest understories also experience higher humidity than exposed areas, the forest canopy reduces solar radiation, so the ground does not heat up or cool down as rapidly as open ground. Consequently, the understory dries out more slowly than more exposed areas do, the greater humidity encourages epiphytes such as ferns and mosses, and allows fungi and other decomposers to flourish. This drives nutrient cycling, and provides favorable microclimates for many animals and plants, such as the pygmy marmoset
36.
Canopy (biology)
–
In biology, the canopy is the aboveground portion of a plant community or crop, formed by the collection of individual plant crowns. In forest ecology, canopy also refers to the layer or habitat zone, formed by mature tree crowns. Sometimes the term canopy is used to refer to the extent of the layer of leaves of an individual tree or group of trees. Shade trees normally have a canopy that blocks light from lower growing plants. Canopy structure is the organization or spatial arrangement of a plant canopy, leaf Area Index, leaf area per unit ground area, is a key measure used to understand and compare plant canopies. It is also taller than the understory layer, dominant and co-dominant canopy trees form the uneven canopy layer. Canopy trees are able to photosynthesize relatively rapidly due to abundant light, the canopy layer provides protection from strong winds and storms, while also intercepting sunlight and precipitation, leading to a relatively sparsely vegetated understory layer. Forest canopies are home to flora and fauna not found in other layers of forests. The highest terrestrial biodiversity resides in the canopy of tropical rainforests, many rainforest animals have evolved to live solely in the canopy, and never touch the ground. The canopy of a rainforest is typically about 10m thick, the canopy is below the emergent layer, a sparse layer of very tall trees, typically one or two per hectare. With an abundance of water and an ideal temperature in rainforests, light. In the permaculture and forest gardening community, the canopy is the highest of seven layers, Canopy Canopy research Canopy walkway Hemispherical photography Stratification Treefall gap Wildfire Crown shyness Rainforest size-asymmetric competition Lowman, M. D. and H. B. ISBN 0-12-457553-6, ISBN 978-0-12-457553-0 Moffett, M. W, the High Frontier, Exploring the Tropical Rainforest Canopy. Plant Canopies, Their Growth, Form and Function, ISBN 0-521-39563-1, ISBN 978-0-521-39563-2 International Canopy Access Network
37.
Ilex vomitoria
–
Ilex vomitoria, commonly known as yaupon or yaupon holly, is a species of holly that is native to southeastern North America. The word yaupon was derived from its Catawban name, yopún, another common name, cassina, was borrowed from the Timucua language. Yaupon holly is a shrub or small tree reaching 5–9 meters tall, with smooth, light gray bark and slender. The leaves are alternate, ovate to elliptical with an apex and crenate or coarsely serrated margin, 1–4.5 cm long and 1–2 cm broad, glossy dark green above. The flowers are 5–5.5 mm diameter, with a white four-lobed corolla, the fruit is a small round, shiny, and red drupe 4–6 mm diameter containing four pits, which are dispersed by birds eating the fruit. A disjunct population occurs in the Mexican state of Chiapas, mammals that eat the fruit include nine-banded armadillo, American black bear, gray fox, raccoon and skunks. The foliage and twigs are browsed by white-tailed deer, native Americans used the leaves and stems to brew a tea, commonly thought to be called asi or black drink for male-only purification and unity rituals. The ceremony included vomiting, and Europeans incorrectly believed that it was Ilex vomitoria that caused it, Ilex vomitoria is a common landscape plant in the Southeastern United States. The most common cultivars are slow-growing shrubs popular for their dense, evergreen foliage and these include, Folsom Weeping – weeping cultivar Greys Littleleaf/Greys Weeping – weeping cultivar Nana/Compacta – dwarf female clone usually remaining below 1 m in height. Pride of Houston – female clone similar to type but featuring improvements in form, fruiting, schillings Dwarf/Stokes Dwarf – dwarf male clone that grows no more than 0.6 m tall and 1.2 m wide. Will Flemming – male clone featuring a growth habit. Ilex paraguariensis or yerba mate – a caffeinated holly native to subtropical South America, Ilex guayusa or guayusa – a caffeinated holly native to the Ecuadorian Amazon Rainforest. Kuding – a Chinese tisane made from I. kudingcha
38.
Cornus florida
–
Cornus florida is a species of flowering plant in the family Cornaceae native to eastern North America and northern Mexico. An endemic population once spanned from southernmost coastal Maine south to northern Florida, the tree is commonly planted as an ornamental in residential and public areas because of its showy bracts and interesting bark structure. The flowering dogwood is usually included in the dogwood genus Cornus as Cornus florida L. although it is treated in a separate genus as Benthamidia florida Spach. Two subspecies are recognized, Cornus florida subsp. Florida - eastern + south-central United States, flowering dogwood is a small deciduous tree growing to 10 m high, often wider than it is tall when mature, with a trunk diameter of up to 30 cm. A 10-year-old tree will stand about 5 m tall, the leaves are opposite, simple, ovate, 6–13 cm long and 4–6 cm broad, with an apparently entire margin, they turn a rich red-brown in fall. The flowers are small and inconspicuous, with four greenish-yellow bracts 4 mm long. Around 20 flowers are produced in a dense, rounded, umbel-shaped inflorescence, or flower-head, 1–2 cm in diameter. The flower-head is surrounded by four large white, pink or red petals, each bract 3 cm long and 2.5 cm broad, rounded. When in the wild they can typically be found at the forest edge, while most of the wild trees have white bracts, some selected cultivars of this tree also have pink bracts, some even almost a true red. They typically flower in early April in the part of their range, to late April or early May in northern. The similar Kousa dogwood, native to Asia, flowers about a month later and they are an important food source for dozens of species of birds, which then distribute the seeds. Flowering dogwood does best horticulturally in moist, acidic soil in a site with some afternoon shade and it does not do well when exposed to intense heat sources such as adjacent parking lots or air conditioning compressors. It also has a low salinity tolerance, the hardiness zone is 5–9 and the preferred pH is between 6. 0–7.0. In urban and suburban settings, care should be not to inflict mower damage on the trunk or roots, as this increases the tree’s susceptibility to disease. In regions where dogwood anthracnose is a problem, homeowners and public land managers are encouraged to know the symptoms, the selection of healthy, disease-free planting stock is essential and transplanting trees from the forest should be avoided. Sites should be selected for reasonably well-drained, fertile soils, full sun is recommended in high-hazard areas, new plantings should be mulched to a depth of 5 to 10 cm, avoiding the stem. Dead wood and leaves should be pruned and completely removed and destroyed yearly, plants should be watered weekly during droughts, with watering done in the morning, avoiding wetting the foliage
39.
Eastern savannas of the United States
–
The eastern savannas of the United States covered large portions of the east side of the continent until the early 20th century. These were in an ecology of open grassland and forests with low ground cover of herbs. Before the arrival of humans about 15,000 years ago, lightning would have been the source of ignition. The European settlers who displaced the natives blended the local use of fire with their use of fire as pastoral herdsmen in the British Isles, Spain. In the southern pine savanna, each area burned about every 1–4 years, in oak–hickory areas, estimates range from 3 to 14 years, although trails were kept open with fire. Of all the United States, southeastern flora has been least changed in composition during the last 20,000 years, as a result, the Southeast contains a high level of endemism and genetic diversity as would be expected of an old flora. Temperate deciduous forests dominated from about 33° to 30° N. latitude, the coastline later changed during glacial melt, both in the Mississippi River valley and sea level rise of 130 meters. Regional climate was similar to or slightly drier than modern conditions, oak, hickory, chestnut, and southern pine species were abundant. Walnuts, beech, sweetgum, alder, birch, tulip tree, elms, hornbeams, tilias, grasses, sedges, and sunflowers were also common. Humans arrived as five years passed following the retreat of the glaciers. Pockets of boreal elements remained only at elevations in the Appalachian Mountains. Broadleaf evergreen and pine forests occupied an extent similar to their current one, mesophytic and bottomland forest communities continued to occupy the major river drainages of the region. Mixed hardwood forests dominated the majority of the upper Coastal Plains, Piedmont, southern pine communities dominated the middle and lower Coastal Plains, whereas evergreens and some remnant boreal elements occupied higher elevation sites. There were few canopy openings in the hardwood and high-elevation forest. Warming and drying during the Holocene climatic optimum began about 9,000 years ago, extensive expansions of prairies and savannas occurred throughout the region, and xeric oak and oak-hickory forest types proliferated. Cooler-climate species migrated northward and upward in elevation, many vanished from the region during this period while others were limited to isolated refuges and this retreat caused a proportional increase in pine-dominated forests in the Appalachians. The grasslands and savannas of the expanded and were also linked to the great interior plains grasslands to the west of the region. During most of the shifts of the last 100,000 years
40.
Nyssa sylvatica
–
Nyssa sylvaticas genus name refers to a Greek water nymph, the species epithet sylvatica refers to its woodland habitat. Both of these names contrast it with a different tree species with an overlapping range, the sweet gum. Another common name used occasionally in the Northeast is pepperidge, on Marthas Vineyard, in Massachusetts, this species is called beetlebung, perhaps for its use in making the mallet known as a beetle, used for hammering bungs into barrels. Nyssa sylvatica grows to 20–25 metres tall, rarely to 35 metres, with a diameter of 50–100 centimetres. These trees typically have a trunk with the branches extending outward at right angles. The bark is gray and flaky when young, but it becomes furrowed with age. The twigs of this tree are reddish-brown, usually hidden by a greyish skin, the pith is chambered with greenish partitions. The leaves of species are variable in size and shape. They can be oval, elliptical, or obovate, and 5–12 cm long and they have lustrous upper surfaces, with entire, often wavy margins. The foliage turns purple in autumn, eventually becoming a bright scarlet. Deer are extremely fond of the leaves on seedlings and saplings, for comparison, mature trees are largely left alone. The flowers are small, in greenish-white in clusters at the top of a long stalk. The fruit is a black-blue, ovoid fruit, about 10 mm long with a thin, oily, bitter-to-sour tasting flesh. There are from one to three together on a long slender stalk. They are a valuable food for birds, especially the American robin. Nyssa sylvatica forms a deep taproot when young that makes transplanting difficult. Because of this, it is uncommon in cultivation and the nursery trade. Additional characteristics include, Bark, Light reddish brown, deeply furrowed, branchlets at first pale green to orange, sometimes smooth, often downy, later dark brown
41.
Liquidambar styraciflua
–
Sweet gum is one of the main valuable forest trees in the southeastern United States, and is a popular ornamental tree in temperate climates. It is recognizable by the combination of its five-pointed star-shaped leaves and its hard and it is currently classified in the plant family Altingiaceae, but was formerly considered a member of the Hamamelidaceae. Its specific epithet styraciflua is an old generic name meaning flowing with storax, the sweetgum has a Nahuatl name, Ocotzocuahuitl, which translates to tree that gives pine resin from ocotl, tzotl, cuahuitl, which refers to the use of the trees resin. The common name sweet gum refers to the species sweetish gum, contrasting with the gum, only distantly related. The species is known as the red gum, for its reddish bark. In Rays Historia Plantarum it is called Styrax liquida, however, the first mention of any use of the amber is described by Juan de Grijalva, the nephew of the Govorner of Cuba, in the year 1517. The species was introduced into Europe in 1681 by John Banister, the collector sent out by Bishop Compton. An ancestor of Liquidambar styraciflua is known from Tertiary-aged fossils in Alaska, Greenland, a similar plant is also found in Miocene deposits of the Tertiary of Europe. The species also occurs in Mexico from southern Nuevo León south to Chiapas, as well as in Guatemala, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Honduras and also in southern Brazil. In Mexico and Central America, it is a plant of cloud forests, growing at middle elevations in various mountainous areas where the climate is humid. The US government distribution maps for this species are incorrect concerning the limit of distribution in Florida. This species occurs abundantly at Highlands Hammock State Park, Sebring, Highlands County, FL, and even southwest of Lake Okeechobee. Liquidambar styraciflua is a medium-sized to large tree, growing anywhere from 50–70 feet in cultivation and up to 150 feet in the wild, with a trunk up 2–3 feet in diameter, Trees may live to 400 years. The tree is a shape and crowns into an egg shape when the branches get too heavy after its first two years of cultivation. Another distinctive feature of the tree is the appearance of its small branches. The bark is a light brown tinged with red and sometimes gray with dark streaks and it is deeply fissured with scaly ridges. The branches carry layers of cork, the branchlets are pithy, many-angled, winged, and at first covered with rusty hairs, finally becoming red brown, gray or dark brown. As an ornamental tree, the species has a drawback—the branches may have ridges or wings that more surface area, increasing weight of snow
42.
Magnolia virginiana
–
Magnolia virginiana, most commonly known as sweetbay magnolia, or merely sweetbay, is a member of the magnolia family, Magnoliaceae. Magnolia virginiana is an evergreen or deciduous tree to 30 m tall, native to the lowlands, the original native range is thought to be from the eastern Gulf Coast to Long Island, New York. Whether it is deciduous or evergreen depends on climate, it is evergreen in areas with milder winters in the south of its range, the leaves are alternate, simple, with entire margins, 6-12 cm long, and 3-5 cm wide. The bark is smooth and gray, with the inner bark mildly scented, the flowers are creamy white, 8-14 cm diameter, with 6-15 petal-like tepals. The flowers carry a strong vanilla scent that can sometimes be noticed several hundred yards away. The fruit is an aggregate of follicles, 3-5 cm long, pinkish-red when mature. Magnolia virginiana is often grown as a tree in gardens. It is a tree for parks and large gardens, grown for its large, conspicuous, scented flowers, for its clean, attractive foliage. In warmer areas Magnolia virginiana is valued for its evergreen foliage, the English botanist and missionary John Banister collected Magnolia virginiana in the southeastern United States in 1678 and sent it to England, where it flowered for Bishop Henry Compton. These species include M. globosa, M. grandiflora, M. insignis, M. macrophylla, M. obovata, M. sieboldii, some of these hybrids have been given cultivar names and registered by the Magnolia Society. Flowers contain the neolignans 3, 5′-diallyl-2′, 4-dihydroxybiphenyl,4, 4′-diallyl-2, 3′-dihydroxybiphenyl ether,5, 5′-diallyl-2, 2′-dihydroxybiphenyl and 3, media related to Sweetbay Magnolia at Wikimedia Commons Magnolia virginiana images at bioimages. vanderbilt. edu Interactive Distribution Map of Magnolia virginiana
43.
Cercis canadensis
–
Cercis canadensis is a large deciduous shrub or small tree, native to eastern North America from southern Ontario, Canada south to northern Florida but which can thrive as far west as California. It is the tree of Oklahoma. It typically grows to 6–9 m tall with an 8–10 m spread and it generally has a short, often twisted trunk and spreading branches. A 10-year-old tree will generally be around 5 m tall, the bark is dark in color, smooth, later scaly with ridges somewhat apparent, sometimes with maroon patches. The twigs are slender and zigzag, nearly black in color, the winter buds are tiny, rounded and dark red to chestnut in color. The leaves are alternate, simple, and heart shaped with a margin, 7–12 cm long and wide, thin and papery. The flowers are showy, light to dark pink in color,1.5 cm long, appearing in clusters from Spring to early Summer. The flowers are pollinated by long-tongued bees such as blueberry bees, short-tongued bees apparently cannot reach the nectaries. The fruit are flattened, dry, brown, pea-like pods, 5–10 cm long that contain flat, elliptical, in some parts of southern Appalachia, green twigs from the eastern redbud are used as seasoning for wild game such as venison and opossum. Because of this, in mountain areas the eastern redbud is sometimes known as the spicewood tree. In the wild, eastern redbud is a frequent native understory tree in mixed forests and it is also much planted as a landscape ornamental plant. The leaves are eaten by the caterpillars of some Lepidoptera, for example the Io moth, in the United States, this tree is difficult to grow further west into arid areas west of western Kansas and Colorado, as there is not sufficient annual precipitation. Its far northern range of growth is the lower Midwest, Ohio Valley, there has been success with growing the tree in Columbus, Wisconsin, which has become known as the Columbus Strain and a seed source for nurseries. Bark, Red brown, with fissures and scaly surface. Branchlets at first lustrous brown, later become darker, wood, Dark reddish brown, heavy, hard, coarse-grained, not strong. 0.6363, weight of cu. ft.39.65 lbs, winter buds, Chestnut brown, obtuse, one-eighth inch long. Leaves, Alternate, simple, heart-shaped or broadly ovate, two to five long, five to seven-nerved, chordate or truncate at the base, entire. They come out of the bud folded along the line of the midrib, tawny green, in autumn they turn bright clear yellow
44.
Acer floridanum
–
It is a medium-sized to large deciduous tree, growing to 15–25 m tall, with an elliptical crown of moderate density with a smooth or rounded outline. The bark is a gray with thick irregular curling ridges, as the tree matures. The twigs are slender, somewhat shiny, reddish brown, the terminal buds are sharply pointed, brown and pubescent. The leaves are opposite, simple, palmately lobed and veined, 3–9.5 cm long and 3. 5–11 cm broad, with an entire margin and they are green above and paler and pubescent below. In fall they turn orange and yellow, the flowers are regular, pentamerous, and appear on yellow-green corymbs and are quite small. They hang from puberulent pedicels 2. 4–5 cm long in clusters of a few flowers and this is about two weeks prior to the maturation of the flowers of Acer saccharum. The tree is generally diecious, though they are often also polygamous, the fruit is a paired samara 1. 5–3 cm long. Acer floridanum can easily be confused in the field with the closely related Acer leucoderme and it can be best distinguished from A. saccharum by noting the smaller leaves with short and acute lobes, the smaller samaras, and the more whitish bark. In light of this information, it can be assumed that the two hybridize, from A. leucoderme, it is best told by the white hairs on the undersides of the leaves, yellow-haired in A. leucoderme. Debate still exists about its status, which has been controversial for at least 100 years. The Florida Maple was first recognised as distinct in 1860 by Alvan Wentworth Chapman, in 1886 Ferdinand Albin Pax decided it was distinct enough to be treated as a separate species, making the new combination A. floridanum Pax. In 1952, Yves Desmarais took an option, treating it as a subspecies Acer saccharum subsp. Floridanum Desmarais, a treatment which has fairly wide recent recognition, a further problem exists with the specific name Acer barbatum, given to a maple by André Michaux in 1803 from samples collected in the Carolinas during his decade in North America from 1785 to 1796. For a long time it was if the plant he collected was Acer saccharum or A. floridanum. M. L. Fernald reexamined the species in the mid-1940s for the 8th edition of Grays Manual, published in 1950, since the oldest given name takes precedence, he used the name A. barbatum for the Florida Maple. Many subsequent authors accepted this judgement, such as the United States Forest Service, the range goes farther west across Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, into eastern Texas, and north through Arkansas and into eastern Oklahoma. The species also occurs in isolated locations roughly halfway down the Gulf Coast of the Florida peninsula. The species is found in isolated locations of Illinois, Montana, Tennessee
45.
Ulmus americana
–
The American elm is an extremely hardy tree that can withstand winter temperatures as low as −42 °C. Trees in areas unaffected by Dutch elm disease can live for several hundred years, for over 80 years, U. americana has been identified as a tetraploid, i. e. having double the usual number of chromosomes, making it unique within the genus. However, a study published in 2011 by the Agricultural Research Service of the USDA revealed that about 20% of wild American elms are diploid, and may even constitute another species. Moreover, several trees known only in cultivation, such as Jefferson, are possessed of a high degree of resistance to Dutch elm disease which ravaged American elms in the 20th century. This suggests that the parent trees, which have markedly smaller cells than the tetraploid. Ulmus americana was first described and named by Carl Linnaeus in his Species Plantarum, no subspecies or varieties are currently recognized within the species. The leaves are alternate, 7–20 cm long, with double-serrate margins, the perfect flowers are small, purple-brown and, being wind-pollinated, apetalous. The flowers are protogynous, the female parts maturing before the male, thus reducing, but not eliminating, self-fertilization. The fruit is a flat samara 2 cm long by 1.5 cm broad, as in the closely related European White Elm Ulmus laevis, the flowers and seeds are borne on 1–3 cm long stems. American Elm is wholly insensitive to daylight length, and will continue to grow well into autumn until injured by frost, on more elevated terrain, as in the Appalachian Mountains, it is most often found along rivers. The species wind-dispersed seeds enable it to spread rapidly as suitable areas of habitat become available, American elm produces its seed crop in late spring and the seeds usually germinate right away with no cold stratification needed. A sugar maple-ironwood-American elm cover type occurs on some hilltops near Témiscaming, the leaves of the American elm serve as food for the larvae of various lepidopterans. The American elm is susceptible to Dutch elm disease and elm yellows. In north America, there are three species of elm bark beetles, one native, Hylurgopinus rufipes, and two invasive, Scolytus multistriatus and Scolytus schevyrewi, although intensive feeding by elm bark beetles can kill weakened trees, their main impact is as vectors of DED. U. americana is also the most susceptible of all the elms to verticillium wilt, however, the condition is far less serious, and afflicted trees should recover the following year. Dutch elm disease is a disease which has ravaged the American elm. It has been estimated that only approximately 1 in 100,000 American elm trees is DED-tolerant, however, in some areas still not populated by Dutch elm disease, the American elm continues to thrive, notably in Florida, Alberta and British Columbia. Spores introduced outside of this period remain largely static within the xylem and are relatively ineffective
46.
Wisteria frutescens
–
Wisteria frutescens, commonly known as American wisteria, is a woody, deciduous, perennial climbing vine, one of various wisterias of the Fabaceae family. Kentucky wisteria, Wisteria frutescens var. macrostachya is a variety found in the southeastern United States. It has been classified as a separate species, American wisteria can grow up to 15 m long over many supports via powerful clockwise-twining stems. It produces dense clusters of blue-purple, two-lipped, 2-cm-wide flowers on racemes 5–15 cm long in spring to early summer. These are the smallest racemes produced by any Wisteria, the foliage consists of shiny, dark-green, pinnately compound leaves 10–30 cm in length. The leaves bear 9-15 oblong leaflets that are each 2–6 cm long and it also bears numerous poisonous, bean-like seed pods 5–10 cm long that mature in summer and persist until winter, the pods are fuzzy and greenish-tan when young, but shiny brown and smooth when dry. The seeds are large and brown and it is considered shade tolerant, but will flower only when exposed to partial or full sun. It grows best in USDA plant hardiness zones 5-9, Kentucky wisteria bears unscented bluish-purple flowers in racemes 15–30 cm long, a generally average length for the Wisteria family. Several characteristics distinguish American wisteria from its Asian counterparts and it grows only two-thirds as tall, its racemes are half as long, and its bloom time is sometimes shorter than many Asian varieties. Its flowers are not scented, and its seed pods are rather than velvety when mature. Its most redeeming feature is the fact that it is less invasive than its Asian counterparts, especially the beautiful. American wisteria is very similar to Kentucky wisteria which has considered a variety of W. frutescens. The butterflies Long-tailed Skipper, Silver-spotted Skipper, Marine Blue, Zarucco Duskywing, Wisteria frutescens, in general, is subject to few pests or diseases. It is, however, subject to damage by pests like aphids, leaf miners, Japanese beetles, scale insects. Pests of particular concern are longhorn beetles, such as Synaphaeta guexi, and these beetles will bore into the woody stems of young or unhealthy wisteria, causing disruption of water and nutrient flow. This also allows for the potential to introduce disease, like rot, previously known as Haplosporella wistariae Ellis & Barthol. has been found on some cultivars of wisteria in Louisville, Kansas. Its stromata are elliptical or orbicular, are 1–2 mm in diameter, and are sunk into the bark and its perithecia are 120-150 µm and are white inside, sporules are oblong, measuring 12-16 by 6-7 µm. Partly dead leaves of Wisteria frutescens have been found to host Phomatospora wistariae Ellis & Everh and this fungus is perithecial, meaning its fruiting body is flask-shaped with an ostiole through which its ascospores are released
47.
Wetland
–
A wetland is a land area that is saturated with water, either permanently or seasonally, such that it takes on the characteristics of a distinct ecosystem. The primary factor that distinguishes wetlands from other forms or water bodies is the characteristic vegetation of aquatic plants. Wetlands play a number of roles in the environment, principally water purification, flood control, carbon sink, Wetlands are also considered the most biologically diverse of all ecosystems, serving as home to a wide range of plant and animal life. Wetlands occur naturally on every continent except Antarctica, the largest including the Amazon River basin, the West Siberian Plain, the water found in wetlands can be freshwater, brackish, or saltwater. The main wetland types include swamps, marshes, bogs, and fens, and sub-types include mangrove, carr, pocosin, the UN Millennium Ecosystem Assessment determined that environmental degradation is more prominent within wetland systems than any other ecosystem on Earth. International conservation efforts are being used in conjunction with the development of rapid assessment tools to people about wetland issues. Constructed wetlands can be used to treat municipal and industrial wastewater as well as stormwater runoff and they may also play a role in water-sensitive urban design. A patch of land that develops pools of water after a storm would not be considered a wetland. Wetlands have unique characteristics, they are distinguished from other water bodies or landforms based on their water level. Specifically, wetlands are characterized as having a table that stands at or near the land surface for a long enough period each year to support aquatic plants. A more concise definition is a community composed of hydric soil, Wetlands have also been described as ecotones, providing a transition between dry land and water bodies. In environmental decision-making, there are subsets of definitions that are agreed upon to make regulatory and policy decisions. A wetland is an ecosystem that arises when inundation by water produces soils dominated by anaerobic processes, There are four main kinds of wetlands – marsh, swamp, bog and fen. Some experts also recognize wet meadows and aquatic ecosystems as additional wetland types, the largest wetlands in the world include the swamp forests of the Amazon and the peatlands of Siberia. Under the Ramsar international wetland conservation treaty, wetlands are defined as follows, Article 2.1, may incorporate riparian and coastal zones adjacent to the wetlands, and islands or bodies of marine water deeper than six metres at low tide lying within the wetlands. Although the general definition given above applies around the world, each county, Wetlands generally include swamps, marshes, bogs and similar areas. This definition has been used in the enforcement of the Clean Water Act, some US states, such as Massachusetts and New York, have separate definitions that may differ from the federal governments. It is not uncommon for a wetland to be dry for long portions of the growing season, the most important factor producing wetlands is flooding
48.
Swamp
–
A swamp is a wetland that is forested. Many swamps occur along rivers where they are critically dependent upon natural water level fluctuations. Other swamps occur on the shores of large lakes, some swamps have hammocks, or dry-land protrusions, covered by aquatic vegetation, or vegetation that tolerates periodic inundation. The two main types of swamp are true or swamp forests and transitional or shrub swamps, in the boreal regions of Canada, the word swamp is colloquially used for what is more correctly termed a bog or muskeg. The water of a swamp may be water, brackish water or seawater. Some of the worlds largest swamps are found along rivers such as the Amazon, the Mississippi. Swamps are characterized by slow-moving to stagnant waters and they are usually associated with adjacent rivers or lakes. Swamps are features of areas with very low topographic relief, historically, humans have drained swamps to provide additional land for agriculture and to reduce the threat of diseases borne by swamp insects and similar animals. Many swamps have also undergone intensive logging, requiring the construction of drainage ditches and these ditches and canals contributed to drainage and, along the coast, allowed salt water to intrude, converting swamps to marsh or even to open water. Large areas of swamp were therefore lost or degraded, louisiana provides a classic example of wetland loss from these combined factors. Europe has probably lost nearly half its wetlands, New Zealand lost 90 percent of its wetlands over a period of 150 years. Ecologists recognise that swamps provide valuable ecological services including flood control, fish production, water purification, carbon storage, in many parts of the world authorities protect swamps. In parts of Europe and North America, swamp restoration projects are becoming widespread, often the simplest steps to restoring swamps involve plugging drainage ditches and removing levees. Swamps and other wetlands have traditionally held a very low property value compared to fields, prairies and they have a reputation for being unproductive land that cannot easily be utilized for human activities, other than perhaps hunting and trapping. Farmers, for example, typically drained swamps next to their fields so as to more land usable for planting crops. Many societies now realize that swamps are important to providing fresh water and oxygen to all life. Indeed, floodplain swamps are important in fish production. Government environmental agencies are taking steps to protect and preserve swamps, in Europe, major effort is being invested in the restoration of swamp forests along rivers
