The Appalachian mixed mesophytic forest—A USA biodiversity gem!

http://www.geo.hunter.cuny.edu/tbw/OLD/soils.veg.fall.2016/lecture.outlines/ecology.chap.24/temperate.forests/mixed_mesophytic_forest.htm

  

            THE MIXED MESOPHYTIC FOREST

One of the most biologically diverse 

temperate forest regions on earth, 

the mixed mesophytic is a product

of fertile red calcareous soils

 formed from underlying 

limestone, producing an 

unusually diverse tree flora, a

30 tree-species-suite of magnificence! 

           TREE SPECIES 

• sugar maple (Acer saccharum)
• beech (Fagus grandifolia)
• tuliptree (Liriodendron tulipifera)
• basswood (Tilia americana)
• northern red oak (Quercus rubra)
• cucumber tree (Magnolia acuminata)
• black walnut (Juglans nigra)
• eastern hemlock (Tsuga canadensis)
• white ash (Fraxinus americana)
• sweetgum (Liquidambar styraciflua)
• yellow buckeye (Aesculus flava)
• white oak (Quercus alba)
• northern red oak (Quercus rubra)
• chinkapin oak (Quercus muehlenbergii)
• shagbark hickory (Carya ovata)
• sugar maple (Acer saccharum)
• eastern red-cedar (Juniperus virginiana)

Along with the forest there is a rich undergrowth of:

• ferns,
• fungi,
• herbaceous plants,
• shrubs
• small trees

The Mixed Mesophytic Forests occur west of the Appalachian Mountains in northwest Alabama, east central Tennessee, northeastern Kentucky, western North Carolina, most of West Virginia, southeastern Ohio and southwestern Pennsylvania