Cumberland Plateau: Ecological Overview
The Cumberland Plateau (also known as the Southwestern Appalachian Level III ecoregion) is a broad, elevated sandstone plateau with a flora that is fundamentally shaped by its underlying geology. It is part of the broader Allegheny Plateau, which stretches through Kentucky, West Virginia, Pennsylvania and New York. Erosion-resistant sandstone bedrock produced acidic, sandy, nutrient-poor soils, surrounded by a steep and intricate network of ravines, coves (aka “gorges”], and valleys carved through the underlying limestone strata. Dry, infertile uplands occur immediately above cool, moist, and fertile “rich cove forests” that are characteristic of the limestone-eroded slopes. The infertile table-top inhibited European settlement, which clustered in the rich river valleys and gorges below the main surface of the plateau.
The dry, exposed Plateau surface supports oak, pine and, historically, chestnut forests with an understory of acid-loving ericaceous shrubs, including mountain laurel, rhododendrons, and blueberries. Early travelers described a plateau of open woodlands with a rich understory of grasses and forbs. This forest composition was shaped by indigenous land management practices, which maintained the open character of the woodland through periodic burning.
The presence of coal, which is remarked in the earliest writings, has reshaped the land in many parts of the Plateau, in some cases, permanently altering the geology and plant communities – particularly where surface mining practices such as Mountaintop Removal and strip mining have occurred. Forestry plantations, invasive pathogens, particularly chestnut blight and dogwood anthracnose, and the introduction of invasive plant and animal species, continue to reshape forest composition and reduce native biodiversity throughout the Plateau.
Despite these intense pressures from habitat loss, invasive species and pollution, the Plateau remains an extraordinarily rich ecoregion with many unique habitats, including sandstone glades, upland wetlands, bogs, seeps, rock houses, and steep river valleys. While the land has historically been (and continues to be) abused by unsustainable practices (principally mining and monoculture forestry), it also contains large tracts of protected or managed land, including Bankhead National Forest, one of the largest undeveloped tracts in Alabama.
The historical accounts that follow reflect the appearance of the Plateau from the time of European settlement through the early twentieth century, and provide a glimpse into the landscapes and flora earlier visitors encountered. To broaden an undestanding of the floristic composition of this ecoregion in Alabama, a sampling of historical accounts from across the Cumberland and Allegheny Plateaus are provided below.
Pennsylvania & Allegheny Plateau
“On that same day we crossed the ridge which takes more particularly the name of Alleghany Ridges. The road we took was extremely rugged, and covered with enormous stones. We attained the summit after two hours painful journey. It is truly astonishing how the vehicles of conveyance pass over so easily, and with so few accidents this multitude of steep hills or ridges, that uninterruptedly follow in succession from Shippensburgh to Pittsburgh, and where the spaces between each are filled up with an infinity of small mountains of a less eletvation.
Alleghany Ridge is the most elevated link in Pensylvania; on its summit are two log-houses, very indifferently constructed, about three miles distant from each other, which serve as public houses. These were the only habitations we met with on the road from Bedford; the remaining part of the country is uninhabited. We stopped at the second, kept by one Chatlers, tolerably well supplied with provisions for the country, as they served us up for dinner slices of ham and venison fried on the hearth, with a kind of muffins made of flour, which they baked before the fire upon a little board.
Notwithstanding a very heavy fall of rain, we went to sleep that day at Stanley Town, a small place, which, like all those in that part of Pensylvania, is built upon a hill. It is composed of about fifty houses, the half of which are log-houses; among the rest are a few inns, and two or three shops, supplied from Philadelphia; the distance is about seven miles from Châtier’s; the country that separates them is very fertile, and abounds with trees of the highest elevation; those most prevalent in the woods are the white, red, and black oaks [Quercus alba, Q. rubra, Q. velutina], the beech [Fagus grandifolia], tulip [Liriodendron tulipifera], and magnolia acuminata [cucumber magnolia].
The horse we bought at Shippensburgh, and which we rode alternately, was very much fatigued, in consequence of which we travelled but very little farther than if we had been on foot; in the mean time the American officer, my companion, was in haste to arrive at Pittsburgh, to be present at the fête of the 4th of July in commemoration of the American independence. In order to gain a day, he hired a horse at Stanley Town, with which we crossed Laurel Hill, a distance of four miles. The direction of this ridge is parallel with those we had left behind us; the woods which cover it are more tufted, and the vegetation appears more lively. The name given to this mountain I have no doubt proceeds from the great quantity of calmia latifolia [Kalmia latifolia, mountain laurel], from eight to ten feet high, which grows exclusively in all the vacant places, and that of the rhododendrum maximum [great rhododendron], which enamel the borders of the torrents; for the inhabitants call the rhododendrum laurel as frequently as the calmia latifolia. Some describe the latter shrub by the name of the colico-tree, the leaves of which, they say, are a very subtle poison to sheep, who die almost instantaneously after eating them. At the foot of Laurel Hill begins the valley of Ligonier, in which is situated, about a quarter of a mile from the mountain. West Liberty Town, composed of eighteen or twenty log-houses. The soil of this valley appears extremely fertile. It is very near this place that the French, formerly masters of Canada, built Fort Ligonier, as every part of the United States west of the Alleghany Mountains depended on Canada or Louisiana.”
From Early Western Travels by Francois Andre Michaux (1803) pp. 146-148
“On the 4th of July I left Archibald’s, and posted on toward Greensburgh, which is about eleven miles from it. I had not gone far before I had to cross Chesnut Ridge, a very steep hill, the summit of which, for an extent of two miles, presents nothing but a dry and chalky soil, abounding with oaks [Quercus] and chesnut [Castanea dentata] trees, stunted in their growth: but as I advanced toward Greensburgh the aspect of the country changes, the soil becomes better…
Prior to my arrival at Greensburgh, I had an opportunity of remarking several parts of the woods exclusively composed of white oaks, or quercus alba, the foliage of which being a lightish green, formed a beautiful contrast with other trees of a deeper colour. About a mile from the town, and on the borders of a tremendous cavity I perceived unequivocal signs of a coal mine. I learnt at Greensburgh and Pittsburgh that this substance was so common and so easy to procure, that many of the inhabitants burnt it from economical motives. Not that there is a scarcity of wood, the whole country being covered with it, but labour is very dear; so that there is not a proprietor who would not consent to sell a cord of wood for half the sum that coals would cost, provided a person would go a mile to fell the trees, and take them home.
“What many, perhaps, are ignorant of in Europe is, that they build large vessels on the Ohio, and at the town of Pittsburgh. One of the principal ship yards is upon the Monongahela, about two hundred fathoms beyond the last houses in the town. The timber they make use of is the white oak, or quercus alba; the red oak, or quercus rubra; the black oak, or quercus tinctoria [Quercus velutina]; a kind of nut tree, or juglans minima; the Virginia cherrytree, or cerasus Virginia [Prunus virginiana]; and a kind of pine, which they use for masting, as well as for the sides of the vessels which require a slighter wood. The whole of this timber being near at hand, the expense of building is not so great as in the ports of the Atlantic states.”
From Early Western Travels by Francois Andre Michaux (1803) p. 160
“The sugar-maple [Acer saccharum] is very common in every part of Pennsylvania which the Monongahela and Alleghany water. This tree thrives most in cold, wet, and mountainous countries, and its seed is always more abundant when the winter is most severe. The sugar extracted from it is generally very coarse, and is sold, after having been prepared in loaves of six, eight, and ten pounds each, at the rate of seven-pence per pound. The inhabitants manufacture none but for their own use; the greater part of them drink tea and coffee daily, but they use it just as it has passed the first evaporation, and never take the trouble to refine it, on account of the great waste occasioned by the operation.”
From Early Western Travels by Francois Andre Michaux (1803) p. 163
“The Ohio may be, at Pittsburgh, two hundred fathoms broad. The current of this immense and magnificent river inclines at first north west for about twenty miles, then bends gradually west south west…This river runs so extremely serpentine, that in going down it, you appear following a track directly opposite to the one you mean to take. Its breadth varies from two hundred to a thousand fathoms. The islands that are met with in its current are very numerous. We counted upward of fifty in the space of three hundred and eighty miles. Some contain but a few acres, and others more than a thousand in length. Their banks are very low, and must be subject to inundations. These islands are a great impediment to the navigation in the summer. The sands that the river drives up form, at the head of some of them, a number of little shoals Again, it so happens, that in the course of the summer heavy and incessant rains fall in the Alheghany Mountains, which suddenly swell the Ohio: at that time persons may go dovm it with the greatest safety; but such circumstances are not always to be depended on.
The banks of the Ohio are high and solid; its current is free from a thousand obstacles that render the navigation of the Mississippi difficult, and often dangerous, when they have not skilful conductors. On the Ohio persons may travel all night without the smallest danger; instead of which, on the Mississippi prudence requires them to stop every evening, at least from the mouth of the Ohio to Naches, a space of nearly seven hundred and fifty miles.
The rapidity of the Ohio’s current is extreme in spring; at the same time in this season there is no necessity for rowing. The excessive swiftness it would give, by that means, to the boat would be more dangerous than useful, by turning it out of the current, and running it upon some island or other, where it might get entangled among a heap of dead trees that are half under water, and from which it would be very difiicult to extricate them; for which reason they generally go with the current, which is always strong enough to advance with great celerity, and is always more rapid in the middle of the stream…”
From Early Western Travels by Francois Andre Michaux (1803) pp. 164-166
“Within a mile and a half of West Liberty Town [West Virginia] the road passes through a narrow valley about four miles long, the borders of which, elevated in many places from twenty-five to thirty feet, present several beds of coal from five to six feet thick, growing horizontally. This substance is extremely common in all that part of Pennsylvania and Virginia; but as the country is nothing but one continued forest, and its population scarce, these mines are of no account…
The trees that grow in this valley are very close together, and of large diameter, and their species more varied than in any country I had seen before.”
From Early Western Travels by Francois Andre Michaux (1803) p. 171
“On the 18th of July in the morning we purchased a canoe, twenty-four feet long, eighteen inches wide, and about as many in depth. These canoes are always made with a single trunk of a tree; the pine [Pinus] and tulip tree [Liriodendron tulipifera] are preferred for that purpose, the wood being very soft…
Leaving Pittsburgh, the Ohio flows between two ridges, or lofty mountains, nearly of the same height, which we judged to be about two hundred fathoms. Frequently they appeared undulated at their summit, at other times it seemed as though they had been completely level. These hills continue uninterruptedly for the space of a mile or more, then a slight interval is observed, that sometimes affords a passage to the rivers that empty themselves into the Ohio; but most commonly another hill of the same height begins at a very short distance from the place where the preceding one left off. These mountains rise successively for the space of three hundred miles, and from our canoe we were enabled to observe them more distinctly, as they were more or less distant [85] from the borders of the river. Their direction is parallel to the chain of the Alleghanies; and although they are at times from forty to a hundred miles distant from them, and that for an extent of two hundred miles, one cannot help looking upon them as belonging to these mountains. All that part of [West] Virginia situated upon the left bank of the Ohio is excessively mountainous, covered with forests, and almost uninhabited, where I have been told by those who live on the banks of the Ohio, they go every winter to hunt bears.
They give the name of river-bottoms and flat-bottoms to the flat and woody ground between the foot of these mountains and the banks of the river, the space of which is sometimes five or six miles broad. The major part of the rivers which empty themselves into the Ohio have also these river-bottoms, which, as well as those in question, are of an easy culture, but nothing equal to the fertility of the banks of the Ohio. The soil is a true vegetable humus, produced by the thick bed of leaves with which the earth is loaded every year, and which is speedily converted into mould by the humidity that reigns in these forests. But what adds still more to the thickness of these successive beds of vegetable earth are the trunks of enormous trees, thrown down by time, with which the surface of the soil is bestrewed in every part, and which rapidly decays. In more than a thousand leagues of the country, over which I have travelled at different epochs, in North America, I do not remember having seen one to compare with the latter for the vegetative strength of the forests. The best sort of land in Kentucky and Tenessea, situated beyond the mountains of Cumberland, is much the same; but the trees do not grow to such a size as on the borders of the Ohio. Thirty-six miles before our arrival at Marietta we stopped at the hut of one of the inhabitants of the right bank, who shewed us, about fifty yards from his door, a palm-tree, or platanus occidentalis [American sycamore], the trunk of which was swelled to an amazing size; we measured it four feet beyond the surface of the soil, and found it forty-seven feet in circumference [~7.5′ diameter]. It appeared to keep the same dimensions for the height of fifteen or twenty feet, it then divided into several branches of a proportionate size. By its external appearance no one could tell that the tree was hollow; however I assured myself it was by striking it in several places with a billet. Our host told us that if we would spend the day with him he would shew us others as large, in several parts of the wood, within two or three miles of the river. This circumstance supports the observations which my father made, when travelling in that part of the country, that the [tulip] poplar [Liriodendron tulipifera] and palm [Platanus occidentalis, American sycamore] are, of all the trees in North America, those that attain the greatest diameter.
‘About fifteen miles,’ said he, ‘up the river Muskingum, in a small island of the Ohio, we found a palmtree, or platanus occidentalis, the circumference of which, five feet from the surface of the earth, where the trunk was most uniform, was forty feet four inches, which makes about thirteen feet in diameter. Twenty years prior to my travels, General Washington had measured this same tree, and had found it nearly of the same dimensions. I have also measured palms in Kentucky, but I never met with any above fifteen or sixteen feet in circumference. These trees generally grow in marshy places.
The largest tree in North America, after the palm [American sycamore, Platanus occidentalis], is the [tulip] poplar, or liriodendron tulipifera. Its circumference is sometimes fifteen, sixteen, and even eighteen feet: Kentucky is their native country; between Beard Town and Louisville we saw several parts of the wood which were exclusively composed of them. The soil is clayey, cold and marshy; but never inundated.
The trees that are usually found in the forests that border the Ohio are the palm, or platanus occidentalis -, the poplar, the beach-tree [Fagus grandifolia], the magnolia acuminata [cucumber magnolia], the celtis occidentalis [common hackberry], the acacia, the sugar-maple [Acer saccharum], the red maple [Acer rubrum], the populus nigra [Populus deltoides], and several species of nut-trees; the most common shrubs are, the annona triloba [pawpaw], the euonimus latifolius [Euonymus americanus, hearts-a-bustin], and the laurus bensoin [Lindera benzoin, spicebush].”
From Early Western Travels by Francois Andre Michaux (1803) pp. 172, 174
“On the 23d of July, about ten in the morning, we discovered Point Pleasant, situated a little above the mouth of the Great Kenhaway, at the extremity of a point formed by the right bank of this river, which runs nearly in a direct line as far as the middle of the Ohio. What makes the situation more beautiful is, that for four or five miles on this side the Point, the Ohio, four hundred fathoms broad, continues the same breadth the whole of that extent, and presents on every side the most perfect line. Its borders, sloping, and elevated from twenty-five to forty feet, are, as in the whole of its windings, planted, at their base, with willows [Salix] from fifteen to eighteen feet in height, the drooping branches and foliage of which form a pleasing contrast to the sugar maples [Acer saccharum], red maples [Acer rubrum], and ash [Fraxinus] trees, situated immediately [96] above. The latter, in return, are overlooked by palms [Platanus occidentalis, sycamore], [tulip] poplars [Liriodendron tulipifera], beeches [Fagus grandifolia], magnolias of the highest elevation, the enormous branches of which, attracted by a more splendid light and easier expansion, extend toward the borders, overshadowing the river, at the same time completely covering the trees situated under them. This natural display, which reigns upon the two banks, affords on each side a regular arch, the shadow of which, reflected by the crystal stream, embellishes, in an extraordinary degree, this magnificent coup d^œil.
…The Great Kenhaway, more known in the country under that denomination than by that of the New River, which it bears in some charts, takes its source at the foot of the Yellow Mountain in Tennessea, but the mass of its waters proceed from one part of the Alleghany Mountains. The falls and currents that are so frequently met with in this river, for upward of four hundred miles, will always be an obstacle to the exportation, by the Ohio and the Mississippi, of provisions from the part of Virginia which it waters. Its banks are inhabited, but less than those of the Ohio.”
From Early Western Travels by Francois Andre Michaux (1803) pp. 181-
Tennessee
“[23rd April] We travelled about 12 miles and encamped on Crooked Creek. The mountains are very small hereabouts and here is a great deal of flat Land. We got through the Coal today.
[24th April] We kept on Westerly 18 miles, got Clear of the mountains and found the Land poor and the woods very Thick beyond them, and Laurel [Rhododendron maximum] & Ivy [Kalmia latifolia] in and near the Branches. Our Horses suffered very much here for want of food. This day we Came on the fresh Track of 7 or 8 Indians [sic], but could not overtake them.
[25th April] We kept on West 5 miles, the Land continuing much Same, the Laurel [Rhododendron maximum] rather growing worse, and the food scarcer. I got up a tree on a Ridge and saw the Growth of the Land much the same as Far as my Sight could reach. I then concluded to return to the rest of my company. I kept on my Track 1 mile then turn’d Southerly & went to Cumberland River at the mouth of a water Course, that I named Rocky Creek.
[26th April] The River is 150 yards wide and appears to be navigable from this place almost to the mouth of Clover Creek. Rocky Creek runs within 40 yards of the River Bank then turns off, and runs up the River, Surrounding about 25 Acres of Land before it falls into the River. The Banks of the River and Creek are a sufficient Fence almost all the way. On the Lower side of the mouth of the Creek is an Ash [Fraxinus] mark’d T W, a Red Oak [Quercus sp] A P, a white Hiccory [Carya] C. C. besides several Trees blazed Several ways with 3 Chops over Each blaze, we went up the North Side of the River 8 miles, and Camped on a Small Branch. A Bear Broke one of my Dogs forelegs.
[28th April]…We kept up the River to our Company whom we found all well, but the lame Horse was as bad as we left him, and another had been bit in the Nose by a Snake. I rub’d the wounds with Bears oil, and gave him a drench of the same and another of the decoction of Rattle Snake root some time after. The People I left had built an House 12 by 8, clear’d and broke up some ground, & planted Corn, and Peach Stones. They also had killed several Bears and cured the meat…
[30th April] I Blazed a way from our House to the River. On the other side of the River is a large Elm [Ulmus] cut down and barked about 20 feet and another standing just by it with the Bark cut around at the root and about 15 feet above. About 200 yards below there is a white Hiccory [Carya] Barked about 15 feet. The depth of water here, when the lowest that I have seen it, is about 7 or 8 feet, the Bottom of the River Sandy, ye Banks very high, & the Current very Slow. The bitten Horse being much mended, we set off and left the lame one. He is white, branded on the near Buttock with a swivil Stirrup Iron, and is old. We left the River and having Crossed Several Hills and Branches, Camped in a Valley North from the House.”
From Journal of Dr. Thomas Walker by Dr. Thomas Walker (1748) pp. 47-49
“The Cumberland Mountains are but a continuation of Laurel Mountain [east of Pittsburgh on the Allegheny Plateau], which itself is one of the principal links of the Alleghanies. These mountains, on the confines of Virginia, incline more toward the west, and by the direction which they take, cut obliquely in two the state of Tennessea, which, in consequence, divides East and West Tennessea into two parts, both primitively known by the names of the Holston and Cumberland settlements, and which afford each a different aspect, both by the nature of the country, and by the productions that grow there.”
From Travels to the West of the Allegheny Mountains by Francois Andre Michaux (1805) pp. 272-273
“This country is exceedingly mountainous, we could not make above forty-five miles the first day, although we travelled till midnight. We encamped near a small river, where there was an abundance of grass; and after having made a fire we slept in our rugs, keeping watch alternately in order to guard our horses, and make them feed close by us for fear of the natives, who sometimes steal them in spite of all the precaution a traveller can take, as their dexterity in that point exceeds all that a person can imagine. During this day’s journey we saw nothing but wild turkies, thirty or forty in a flight.
The second day after our departure we met a party of eight or ten Indians, who were searching for grapes and chinquapins [Castanea pumila], a species of small chesnuts, superior in taste to those in Europe. As we had only twenty miles to go before we reached West Point, we gave them the remainder of our provisions, with which they were highly delighted. Bread is a great treat for them, their usual food consisting of nothing but venison and wild fowl.
The road that crosses this part of the Indian territory cuts through the mountains in Cumberland; it is as broad and commodious as those in the environs of Philadelphia, in consequence of the amazing number [214] of emigrants that travel through it to go and settle in the western country. It is, notwithstanding, in some places very rugged, but nothing near so much as the one that leads from Strasburgh to Bedford in Pennsylvania. About forty miles from Nasheville we met an emigrant family in a carriage, followed by their negroes [sic] on foot, that had performed their journey without any accident. Little boards painted black and nailed upon the trees every three miles, indicate to travellers the distance they have to go.
In this part of Tennessea the mass of the forests is composed of all the species of trees that belong more particularly to the mountainous regions of North America, such as oaks, maples, and nut trees. Pines abound in those parts where the soil is the worst. What appeared to me very extraordinary was, to find some parts of the woods, for the space of several miles, where all the pines that formed at least one fifth part of the other trees were dead since the preceding year, and still kept all their withered foliage. I was not able to learn the causes that produced this singular phenomenon. I only heard that the same thing happens every fifteen or twenty years.
Near the fort [West Point] is established a kind of warehouse where the Cherokees carry ginseng and furs, consisting chiefly of bear, stag, and otter skins.”
From Travels to the West of the Allegheny Mountains by Francois Andre Michaux (1805) pp. 261-262, 264
“Sunday 26 went to Himans 13 miles to breakfast, we were now to encounter the Cumberland Mts. but although extremely steep the road was kept in good order principally causeway and far superior to those we had crossed in the Blue Ridge. Spencer’s hill on the mountains is the greatest descent I have seen. We walked down it and it was with great difficulty that we kept a sure footing, it is I think a mile and were you to slip there would be no resting place until you reached the foot of it – from the summit of one of the highest mountains we had a most enchanting view of the world below for several hundred miles, our horizone was bounded by the distant mountains which soared above the clouds and vied with their ethereal blue – ’twas a scene worthy of the pencil of Claude Lorraine…
Monday 27 – we were yet on the mountains yet the road was so perfectly level that one could scarcely realize it. It appeared more like a valley encompassed with mountains which encircled you – covered with beautiful wildflowers…soon commenced gradually to descend in many places steep and rocky and we entered before the dark the town of Sparta, having rode 40 miles…”
From the Journal of Juliann Conner (1827)
“During this year [1783], the road, as directed in the act, was opened, from Clinch River to Nashville. Emigrants had heretofore reached Cumberland, by the original route through the wilderness of Kentucky. Hereafter the route was more direct — for not only horsemen, but wagons, and immense numbers of the more wealthy people of the Atlantic sections, sought the Cumberland through the new road, which ran nearly over the same track still pursued as the stage road, by the way of Crab-Orchard. The top of the mountain is described as being then a vast upland prairie, covered with a most luxuriant growth of native grasses, pastured over as far as the eye could see, with numerous herds of deer, elk, buffalo, gamboling in playful security over these secluded plains, scarcely disturbed in their desert wilds at the approach of man, and exhibiting little alarm at the explosion of his rifle or fright at the victim falling before its deadly aim. The frowning cliffs and precipices, that everywhere surrounded the mountain to its summit level had hitherto, excluded even the hunter and the Indian [sic] from an easy access to it in pursuit of game; and the boundless natural meadow with its lofty enclosures of rock, erected by omnipotent masonry with its lofty enclosures of rock erected by primeval solitude, quiet and security. This aspect it wore no longer. The mural escarpment and the mountain waterfall, yielded to the energy of the troop and the guard. Nature doffed her power, her beauty, and her dominion, and succumbed to the reign of art and civilization.”
From The Annals of Tennessee by J. G. M. Ramsey (1853) p. 501
“Westward of this valley lies the Cumberland Table-land, the eastern boundary of which is high and almost unbroken from Kentucky to Alabama, while the western boundary is very irregular, with less elevation and with numerous valley and stream indentations. Though the table-land contains many streams and small valleys, it is, in the main, of uniform surface, but broken with mountainous ridges and knobs, particularly in the northeastern portion. The mean elevation is about 2,000 feet, and the extent is about 5,100 square miles.”
From a History of Tennessee by Westin A. Goodspeed (1886) p. 14
“After a few miles of level ground in luxuriant tangles of brooding vines, I began the ascent of the Cumberland Mountains, the first real mountains that my foot ever touched or eyes beheld. The ascent was by a nearly regular zigzag slope, mostly covered up like a tunnel by overarching oaks. But there were a few openings where the glorious forest road of Kentucky was grandly seen, stretching over hill and valley, adjusted to every slope and curve by the hands of Nature — the most sublime and comprehensive picture that ever entered my eyes. Reached the summit in six or seven hours — a strangely long period of up-grade work to one accustomed only to the hillocky levels of Wisconsin and adjacent States.”
From a A Thousand-Mile Walk to the Gulf by John Muir (1867) p. 16
“I found splendid growths of shining-leaved Ericacece [heathworts] for which the Alleghany Mountains are noted. Also ferns of which Osmunda cinnamomea (Cinnamon Fern) is the largest and perhaps the most abundant. Osmunda regalis (Flowering Fern) is also common here, but not large. In Wood’s* and Gray’s
Botany Osmunda cinnamomea is said to be a much larger fern than Osmunda claytoniana. This I found to be true in Tennessee and southward, but in Indiana, part of Illinois, and Wisconsin the opposite is true. Found here
the beautiful, sensitive Schrankia [Mimosa microphylla], or sensitive brier. It is a long, prickly, leguminous vine, with dense heads of small, yellow fragrant flowers [possibly this passage refers to Desmanthus illinoensis].
Vines growing on roadsides receive many a tormenting blow, simply because they give evidence of feeling. Sensitive people are served in the same way. But the roadside vine soon becomes less sensitive, like people getting used to teasing —Nature, in this instance, making for the comfort of flower creatures the same benevolent arrangement as for man. Thus I found that the Schrankia vines growing along footpaths leading to a backwoods schoolhouse were much less sensitive than those in the adjacent unfrequented woods, having learned to pay but slight attention to the tingling strokes they get from teasing scholars.
It is startling to see the pairs of pinnate leaves rising quickly out of the grass and folding themselves close in regular succession from the root to the end of the prostrate stems, ten to twenty feet in length. How little we know as yet of the life of plants — their hopes and fears, pains and enjoyments!”
From a A Thousand-Mile Walk to the Gulf by John Muir (1867) p. 18-19
“September II. Long stretch of level sandstone plateau, lightly furrowed and dimpled with shallow groove-like valleys and hills. The trees are mostly oaks, planted wide apart like those in the Wisconsin woods. A good many
pine trees here and there, forty to eighty feet high, and most of the ground is covered with showy flowers. Polygalas [milkworts], solidagoes [goldenrods], and asters were especially abundant. I came to a cool clear brook every half mile or so, the banks planted with Osmunda regalis, Osmunda cinnamomea, and handsome sedges. The few larger streams were fringed with laurels [likely Kalmia] and azaleas. Large areas beneath the trees are covered with formidable green briers and brambles, armed with hooked claws, and almost impenetrable. Houses are far apart and uninhabited, orchards and fences in ruins — sad marks of war.
About noon my road became dim and at last vanished among desolate fields. Lost and hungry, I knew my direction but could not keep it on account of the briers. My path was indeed strewn with flowers, but as thorny, also, as mortal ever trod. In trying to force a way through these cat-plants [Smilax] one is not simply clawed and
pricked through all one’s clothing, but caught and held fast. The toothed arching branches come down over and above you like cruel living arms, and the more you struggle the more desperately you are entangled, and your
wounds deepened and multiplied. The South has plant fly-catchers. It also has plant man-catchers.”
From a A Thousand-Mile Walk to the Gulf by John Muir (1867) p. 26-27
September 12. Awoke drenched with mountain mist, which made a grand show, as it moved away before the hot sun. Passed Montgomery, a shabby village at the head of the east slope of the Cumberland Mountains. Obtained breakfast in a clean house and began the descent of the mountains. Obtained fine views of a wide, open country, and distant flanking ridges and spurs. Crossed a wide cool stream [Emory River], a branch of the Clinch River.
There is nothing more eloquent in Nature than a mountain stream, and this is the first I ever saw. Its banks are luxuriantly peopled with rare and lovely flowers and overarching trees, making one of Nature’s coolest and most hospitable places. Every tree, every flower, every ripple and eddy of this lovely stream seemed solemnly to feel the presence of the great Creator. Lingered in this sanctuary a long time thanking the Lord with all my heart for his goodness in allowing me to enter and enjoy it.
Discovered two ferns, Dicksonia and a small matted polypod on trees [likely Pleopeltis michauxiana – resurrection fern], common farther South. Also a species of magnolia with verylarge leaves and scarlet conical fruit. Near this stream I spent some joyous time in a grand rock-dwelling full of mosses, birds, and flowers. Most heavenly place I ever entered. The long narrow valleys of the mountainside, all well watered and nobly adorned with oaks, magnolias, laurels, azaleas, asters, ferns, Hypnum mosses, Madotheca [Scale-mosses], etc. Also towering clumps of beautiful hemlocks [Tsuga canadensis]. The hemlock, judging from the common species of Canada, I regarded as the least noble of the conifers. But those of the eastern valleys of the Cumberland Mountains are as perfect in form and regal in port as the pines themselves. The latter [pines] abundant. Obtained fine glimpses from open places as I descended to the great valley between these mountains and the Unaka Mountains on the state line. Forded the Clinch, a beautiful clear stream, that knows many of the dearest mountain retreats that ever heard the music of running water. Reached Kingston
before dark. Sent back my plant collections by express to my brother in Wisconsin.“
From a A Thousand-Mile Walk to the Gulf by John Muir (1867) p. 30-32
“The eastern part of the County (White County, TN) for six or eight miles is Cumberland Mountain Plateau. It is mostly gently rolling and is suitable for fruits and vegetables and fine for grazing…Coves and small valleys cut their way into the mountain on its Western side. These coves are very fertile. Leaves washed down make a rich mold. These coves often open into wider valleys, as the Valley of the Calfkiller which runs through the County, widening as it reaches Southward. Through the center of the County west of Calfkiller Valley there runs a narrow mountain range, the highest peak being the Gum Spring Mountain, named from a gum [Nyssa] around a boiling spring. The peak is twenty-seven feet higher than the opposite Cumberland mountain.”
From a History of White County, Tennessee by Monroe Seals (1867), p. 53
“The area of the coal-bearing strata amounts to 5,100 square miles, and over this vast extent of country from one to sixteen seams occur. The coal fields include the counties of Scott, Morgan and Cumberland, the greater portions of Pickett, Fentress, Van Buren, Bledsoe, Grundy, Sequatchie and Marion; considerable portions of Claiborne, Campbell, Anderson, Rhea, Roane, Overton, Hamilton, Putnam, White and Franklin, and small portions of Warren and Coffee. About 1,000 square miles of the northeastern portion of this tract consists of a series of short irregular mountain chains, breaking away from the main Cumberland Mountain ridge, and casting heavenward numerous peaks of great height. The remainder of the coal tract, except certain portions in the southern part, is the true Cumberland Table-land or plateau. The upper coal measures embrace one or two principal sandstones (one of which may be a conglomerate) and an equal number of coal horizons in which one or more beds of coal may be expected. These and their accompanying strata compose the upper plateau, and have a thickness of from 200 to 300 feet, but are not typical of the tract of 1,000 square miles, to which reference was made above. The conglomerate sandstone [Crab Orchard Mountains Group], upon which the upper coal measures rest, usually contains numerous small white quartz pebbles, and is sometimes a double seam, embracing an important coal horizon. The lower coal measures consist of a series of sandstones and shales with from one to three or four coal veins, and constitute the most important division of the carboniferous period in the State and over a considerable area the only one available as a source of coal. Excluding the Cliff rock the thickness of this division ranges from a few feet to 300. These characteristics are, in general, typical only of the southern, western and northwestern portions of the table-land, as the northeastern portion and a strip along the eastern side, in the counties of Claiborne, Scott, Campbell, Anderson and Morgan, have a thickness of the upper coal measures, in some places of over 2,000 feet. The coal measures above the conglomerate have been much denuded, particularly on the western side of the table-land, and at points where the formations are much elevated, the reverse being true where the elevations are low. Where the coal measures are thickest the conglomerate is depressed and the waste by denudation is measurably compensated by the superior development, at many points, of the lower coal measures.”
From a History of Tennessee by Westin A. Goodspeed (1886) pp. 27-28
“The northern coal district is made to embrace that part of the tableland lying north of Van Buren and Bledsoe Counties and west of the Crab Orchard range, and a line running through Montgomery and Huntsville, and within its limits are parts of White, Cumberland, Morgan, Putnam, Overton, Fentress, Pickett and Scott Counties. Here the top of the table-land is usually a flat surface, and back from the slopes appears an upper plateau..”
From a History of Tennessee by Westin A. Goodspeed (1886) p. 31
“The soil of the Cumberland Table-land, which covers over 5,000 square miles of the State, is sandy and thin, though there are areas of moderate fertility at the foot of knobs and ridges, where fertile washings from the slopes are gathered. All the valleys are fertile, and accordingly productive. No lime appears, all being sand, and compost soon sinks below plant roots. The yellowish red subsoil, with a thin coating of humus, is more valuable than that with less iron and little or no humus. The former, with care and proper composts, may be made highly productive; not so the latter, which is too porous and tender, and, when uncultivated, produces nothing but shrubby trees, hardy, coarse weeds and grass, lichens and mosses. The glades and wet lands along the streams may be made valuable by drainage and by the use of alkalies to neutralize the abundant acid liberated by the decomposition of a superabundance of vegetable remains.”
From a History of Tennessee by Westin A. Goodspeed (1886) p. 27
“..the western iron region, which occupies a belt of high lands contiguous to the western valley and a part of the valley itself, and extends from Kentucky to Alabama..
“Several wild or indigenous grasses grow spontaneously, one of which is the barren, or prairie grass [likely Schizachyrium scoparium or Little Bluestem]. It covered all the prairie lands when the country was first settled by white people. It springs up about the 1st of April, grows to the height of two feet, and affords good pasturage from April to the 1st of August, when it becomes hard and woody so that stock refuse to eat it. Wherever the forest is not so dense as to exclude the light and heat of the sun, on the streams and tablelands of the Cumberland Mountains and on the sandy, flinty and siliceous “flat woods” of the whole State, this grass still holds possession, and is a blessing to the inhabitants of all lands which are deficient in lime.”
From a History of Tennessee by Westin A. Goodspeed (1886) p. 243
“Chestnut [Castanea dentata] is a valuable timber on account of its durability, and is abundant in the State. Large forests are found on the ridges of East Tennessee, on the sandstone soils of the Cumberland Table-land, and in portions of the Highland Rim..”
From a History of Tennessee by Westin A. Goodspeed (1886) p. 255
“A man named Robbins is reported to have erected a steam sawmill—the first in the area—at Moffat in the 1870s. From the great chestnut [Castanea dentata] and poplar [Liriodendron tulipifera] logs first sawed out, those eight feet in diameter might yield 1800 board feet of lumber! The modesty of John Moffat may have been a factor in changing the name of the town on January 12, 1881, to Mont Eagle, after the English nobleman Lord Mounteagle, who was a friend of Moffats. Not until October 1, 1925, was the present spelling adopted—Monteagle.”
From Tennessee County History Series: Grundy County by James L. Nicholson (1982) p. 60
“The great stands of timber in the coves were mostly walnut [Juglans], ash [Fraxinus], and poplar [Liriodendron tulipifera]; oak [Quercus] predominated on top of the mountain, with some pine [Pinus].”
From Tennessee County History Series: Grundy County by James L. Nicholson (1982) p. 2
“East Tennessee, September 1, 1880
…The above address is vague, as this range of highlands extends for some 200 miles through this state [Tennessee] and Kentucky; but though fixed as fate myself, I can for the moment put no more definite heading to my letters…We are some 1800 feet above the sea, and after the great heat of New York, Newport, and Cincinnati, the freshness and delight of this brisk mountain air are quite past describing. For physical enjoyment, I have certainly scarcely ever felt its equal, and can imagine nothing finer.”
From First Letter from Rugby: The Cumberland Mouontains by Thomas Hughes (1880)
“Meantime, I heard sounds which announced the up-risings of “the boys,” and in a few minutes several appeared in flannel shirts and trousers, bound for one of the two rivers which run close by, in gullies 200 feet, below us. They had heard of a pool 10 feet deep, and surrounded with great rocks, lying in a copse of rhododendrons, azaleas, and magnolias, which literally form the underwood of the pines and white oak along these gullies. The water is of a temperature which allows folks whose blood is not so hot as it used to be to lie for a half hour on its surface, and play about without a sensation of chilliness…
With this view Mr. Hill was placed, in the spring of this year, in charge of the only cleared space available. All the rest is beautiful open forestland. You can ride or drive almost anywhere under the trees, but there is no cultivated spot for many miles…
…Manure was out of the question, except little ashes, which he painfully gathered from here and there from the reckless log-fires which abound in the woods. He calls his garden a failure for the year…
…It is a slightly building, with deep verandahs prettily latticed from which one gets glimpses through the trees of magnificent ranges of blue forest-covered mountains…
…The bridle-path leads from the hotel down to the Clear Fork, one of the streams at the junction of which the town site is situate. The descent is about 200 feet, and the stream, when you get to it, from 30 to 50 feet wide, – a mountain stream, with deep pools and big boulders. Your columns are not the place for descriptions of scenery, so I will only say these gorges of the Clear Fork and White Oak are as fine as any of their size that I know of in Scotland, and not unlike in character, with this difference, that the chief underwood consists of rhododendron (called laurel here), and azalea, and a kind of magnolia I have not seen before, and of which I forgot the name. I passed huge faggots of rhododendron, 12 and 14 feet long, lying by the walks which had been cleared away ruthlessly while grading them…They have been named the Lover’s Walks, appropriately enough, for no more well-adapted place could possibly be found for that time-honored business, especially in spring, when the whole gorges under the tall pines and white oak are one blaze of purple, yellow, and white blossom.”
From Second Letter from Rugby: The Cumberland Mouontains by Thomas Hughes (1880)
“In presenting to the public this guide book to the grand and romantic beauties of that wonderful cloud-land – the Cumberland Plateau of Tennessee – its marvelous natural attractions, its remarkable healthfulness, its easy accessibility, and its many desirable features as a pleasure resort and great sanitarium for the country at large, and for the people of the South in particular, some acknowledgements are due and are herby made…
Picturesque Tennessee: Mont Eagle Springs, the famous Health and Pleasure Resort in that Wonderful Cloud-Land, The Cumberland Plateau by Charles E. Robert (1881) Preface
“The Flora of the Mountain
The writer above quoted has this to say of one of the chief charms of this mountain region: ‘The flora of the Plateau cannot be forgotten in the mention of its natural beauties. A resident there, from Massachussetts, spoke with enthusiasm of the profusion and beauty of its wild flowers – in variety continually renewed from early spring through autumn. At the time of our visits the slopes were brilliant with scarlet phlox; on the borders of streams bigonia were gorgeous among the foliage of the trees, and laurels and rhododendrons along banks and in the glens. Among specimens we secured was a section of a rhododendron-trunk, about six inches in diameter. Imagine the splendor of such a tree in full flower! Coves were gay with extraordinary waterplants, and tiniest bright blossoms hid among grasses. The sensitive-plant and golden-rod were neighbors at the roadsides. It is safe to predict that when access to this region – this vast picnic ground – is opened, that its attractions of entire healthfulness, mineral springs, cool breezes and rural beauties, will make it a convenient and favorite summer resort, not only from the South, as is now that portion reached by Southern railroads, but from Kentucky and Ohio, and to the North.’
The following conclusion to our account of the flora of the Plateau, written by General E. Kirby Smith, Professor of Mathematics in the University of the South, at Sewanee, will also be found especially pleasing:
‘The flora of Sewanee forms a connecting link between the North and South. Forms characteristic of the highlands and the Green Mountains and Adirondacks mingle with forms from the Gulf and Atlantic slopes, and with occasional wanderers from the trans-Mississippi. Southern types of leguminose, Northern and Western compositae, delicate polygalas, and showy gerardias, hypericums, euphorbias, oenotheras, graceful bluets, and humble hepaticae, meet on this common border-ground, and claim fellowship for every section of this great republic.’
It occurs to us, however, that much more can be truthfully said on this subject, for the verdure and flora of the mountain is simply superb and almost perennial. The wild flowers here in the Spring make a magnificent display. The whole face of this upland earth is covered with violets, pansies, wild roses, wild geraniums and ‘the painted populace that dwell in fields, and lead ambrosial lives.’ As summer approaches they grow more luxurious. the mountain is a vast flower garden with its parterres and terraces, its bowers and natural arbors. The lily-of-the-valley tinkles its fairy bells and sends out the harmony of ‘invisible music,’ while jasmine and honey-suckle, tube-rose and myrtle lift their petals or nod their plumes of blue, of white, pink, scarlet and purple, and grow more fascinating as the days grow long. The landscape is dotted with many-tinted flowerets and vari-colored glows – thicker even than the clustered stars in the distant nebulae. Five distinct varieties of the highly prized azaleas, the very soul and emblem of romance, are to be found, while innumerable classes, orders, and genera, indigenous to the mountain countries, embellish the earth with beauty and freight the air with fragrant and ever-grateful inflorescence.
…The mountain-top is now [in Autumn] rich with woodbine, mistletoe, laurel and holly, besides the princess pine, which is considered a choice bit of shrubbery. An infinite variety of ferns, at least thirty or thirty-five different kinds, may be found, while the ledges are covered with lichens and mosses. Trailing arbutus, pink and white, is to be seen everywhere, but is sweetest when it comes peeping through the snow, a shy little darling, perhaps to win the kisses of the nice but very naughty and very flirtatious sun.
Other Attractions of the Plateau.
Close kin, and indeed, the elder brothers of the flowers, we next contemplate the extraordinary timber-growth of the Plateau. The woods are so extensive and the varieties so numerous, we can only mention, at random, those mainly characteristic of this region. This includes vast forests of oaks – red, white, black, chestnut, and some few water oaks; black-walnut, in great quantities; cedars, pines – spruce, white, yellow and ‘old-field’; white and shagbark hickory, chestnut, beech, chincapin; sugar-maple, red flowering maple, poplar or tulip-tree, iron-wood or hornbeam, black gum, buckeye, dogwood, persimmon, black and red haw, and Irish juniper – besides a large number of trees of less frequent growth.
Wild grapes, summer and winter varieties, grow in the woods in great profusion; wild locusts and wild honey – the food of John the Baptist – may be had for the gathering. Huckleberries, wild gooseberries and mulberries may be found in great abundance, while certain portions of the upland – no exaggeration – covered with blackberries, high and low-bush, and of the finest sort.
Probably nothing strikes the traveler more favorably than the wild luxuriance and beauty of the mountain grasses and forage plants. When the woods are thin and the undergrowth absent, which is annually accomplished by being burned, the surface is clothed in a mantle of verdure from April until November, and thousands of cattle browse over these extensive tracts until their sirloins fairly roll in fat. When looking over these broad stretches where the grass fluorishes in primeval beauty, and sometimes untrodden by a single hoof, the wild flowers emblazoning these natural pastures with their modest beauty, and no human habitation to be seen, and no evidences of occupancy, it is not difficult to imagine this mountain landscape as it appeared before the discovery of Americy by Columbus.’
Picturesque Tennessee: Mont Eagle Springs, the famous Health and Pleasure Resort in that Wonderful Cloud-Land, The Cumberland Plateau by Charles E. Robert (1881) pp. 19-21
“For the last fifty miles we ran almost entirely through forests, which are, however, falling rapidly all along the side of the line, and yielding place to cornfields in the rich bottoms, wherever any reasonably level ground bordered on the water courses, up which we, could glance as we hurried past…I sit here writing in the verandah, the light of my lamp throwing out into strong relief the stems of the nearest trees. Above, the vault is blue beyond all description, and studded with stars as bright as though they were all Venuses. The katydids are making delightful music in the trees, and the summer lightning is playing over the Western heaven; while a gentle breeze, cool and refreshing as if it came straight off a western sea, is lifting, every now and then, the corner of my paper.”
From First Letter from Rugby: The Cumberland Mouontains by Thomas Hughes (1880)
“The pine is one of the most abundant, and at the same time one of the most valuable of the forest growths of the State. There are two species, the white [Pinus strobus] [eastern white pine] and the yellow [Pinus echinata] [shortleaf pine]. The latter [shortleaf pine] grows in considerable quantities in the vicinity of Knoxville, and in many of the parallel ridges in the valley of East Tennessee. It is also found in extensive forests in the Cumberland Table-land, and forms considerable belts in Hardin and Lawrence Counties…It abounds on poor soils, those usually of sandstone, but often on red clay with gravel. It takes possession of abandoned old fields, and grows with rapidity when the soil is too sterile to produce other vegetation. In the regions where it abounds it forms the principal timbers for domestic purposes. The [eastern] white pine is not so abundant as the preceding; it is distributed in greater or less quantities over the slopes of the Unaka Mountains, and is found locally on the Cumberland Table-land. It grows to a larger size than the yellow pine, and makes a quality of lumber highly prized on account of its lightness and comparative freedom from resinous exudations.”
From a History of Tennessee by Westin A. Goodspeed (1886) p. 256
Growth. — This county is still, for the most part, covered with its native forest, which includes a vast amount and a great variety of valuable timber. Its large growth consists, in the order of their abundance, of oaks [Quercus], pines [Pinus], gums [Nyssa], hickories [Carya], dogwoods [Benthamidia / Cornus], cedars [Juniperus virginiana], chestnut [Castanea], poplar [Liriodendron tulipifera], cypress [Taxodium distichum], etc. The oaks are principally post oaks [Quercus stellata] and black jacks [Quercus marilandica], with a considerable mixture of red [Quercus rubra], Spanish [Quercus falcata], white [Quercus alba], and chestnut oaks [Quercus montana]. The pines are of both the short [Pinus echinata] and long leaf [Pinus palustris] varieties, though chiefly of the former. The gums are of the sweet and sour kind [Nyssa sylvatica, Nyssa aquatica], and the hickories are of the several species. The dogwoods are of the comparatively low grounds, while the cedars [Juniperus virginiana] cover the limestone ridges, knolls, and glades. The chestnut [Castanea dentata], poplar [Liriodendron tulipifera], and cypress [Taxodium distichum] were once abundant, but are now quite scarce.
From Jefferson County and Birmingham, Alabama Biographical and Historical (1887) by John Witherspoon p. 21
“Like an island in an emerald ocean, the Cumberland Plateau rises from the surrounding valleys, inviting alike to the health seeker the [..?] or the man of capital. There is no plateau like it on the continent. It is unique. No other bears such a treasure of iron and coal and timber. So great a wealth of natural resources cannot be found so closely associated.
In this respect, it stands without a peer. The broad, level areas are carpeted with native grasses, and are adapted to farming. Fruit and vegetables fluorish. It is the natural home for sheep and cattle and hogs, which can live the year round.
Coal exists in vast measures which underlie the entire area, except where cut by streams, and these little valleys give access to it. It is used at South Pittsburgh and other places and makes a good quality of coke. It is also prized as a domestic fuel for steaming, as it leaves no clinkers. One county that lies in the region can of itself furnish enough coke for all the furnaces in the south, were there transportation. This is Cumberland. Its county seat is Crossville, which lies at the center of one of the best coal regions in America. For its coal and iron, Cumberland is fully equal to Allegheny County, Pa. Its value may be the better understood when it is known that no coal exists between this field and the Atlantic Ocean and for hundreds of miles to the westward…”
From the Chattanooga News, July 5th, 1891
“The Cumberland Plateau is one of the great natural divisions of the State of Tennessee. Its area is about 5100 square miles and its average elevation about 2000 feet above sea level. The climate is cool in summer and equable in winter, rendering a healthy and most desirable place to live…The landscape is diversified with hill and dale and there are great rolling parklike areas. For the most part the land is well covered with timber, principally pine [Pinus], oak [Quercus], hickory [Carya] and cedar [Juniperus virginiana]. The ground is carpeted more or less thickly with native grasses which are nutritious and furnish substance to large numbers of cattle and sheep that roam over the Plateau. The country is well watered by a series of sparkling mountain streams whose beds have often sunk to some considerable depth through the ever active process of erosion. Thus many quaint and picturesque valleys and coves are produced, and here and there where the streams have spread out, a rich alluvial soil is found along the river course.”
From A visit to the Cumberland Plateau Tennessee Midsummer Ninteen Hundred by Andrew M. Soule (1900) pp. 4-5
“For the most part, the soil is sandy and even leechy in some places, though over much of the area it is of fair quality and in some places exceptionalloy good.”
From A visit to the Cumberland Plateau Tennessee Midsummer Ninteen Hundred by Andrew M. Soule (1900) p. 3
Another range of mountain flora we find in the Cumberland Mountains. Selecting the Lookout near Chattanooga for a type, we find its summit wooded with Quercus prinus [montana] [chestnut oak], Quercus rubra [northern red oak], Quercus alba [white oak], Quercus obtusiloba [stellata] [post oak], and Quercus nigra [water oak] [sic this probably refers to black oak or Quercus velutina]; Pinus inops [virginiana] [scrub pine], Pinus taeda [loblolly pine], Pinus mitis [echinata] [shortleaf pine]; Betula lutea [alleghaniensis] [yellow birch], Gleditsia, triacanthos [honey locust], Robinia pseudoacacia [black locust], several Caryas [hickories] and C. microcarpa [glabra] [pignut hickory] among them. Of shrubs: Robinia hispida [bristly locust], Diervilla rivularis [native bush honeysuckle], Ilex mollis [montana] [mountain winterberry], Stuartia pentagyna [ovata] [mountain camellia], Hydrangea radiata [snowy hydrangea], and again (but very rare) Buckleya distichophylla [piratebush], Nemopanthes canadensis [Ilex mucronata] [mountain holly], and in a swamp Dirca palustris [eastern leatherwood]. Of herbaceous plants: Utricularia gibba [humped bladderwort], Juncus canadensis [Canadian rush], and Arundinaria tecta [switchcane]. On flat rocks: Diamorpha pusilla [Sedum pusillum] [granite stonecrop], Fimbristylis capillaris [Bulbostylis capillaris] [dense-tuft hairsedge], Krigia virginica [Virginia dwarf dandelion], Arenaria glabra [Geocarpon glabrum] [Appalachian stitchwort]. On the cliffs of the crest: Stipa avenacea [Piptochaetium avenaceum] [black oat grass], Silene rotundifolia [roundleaf catchfly], Linaria canadensis [blue toadflax], Campanula divaricata [Appalachian bellflower], Thalictrum clavatum [Mountain meadowrue]. Near the base of the mountain, on limestone ledges: Gatesia laetevirens [Yeatesia viridiflora] [yellow bractspike], Callicarpa americana [American beautyberry], Triosteum perfoliatum [horse gentian], Silphium brachiatum [Cumberland rosinweed]. ‘The Cumberlands excel the Alleghanies in a greater variety of ferns. Besides all species of the latter, we also find here Asplemum bradleyi [Bradley’s spleenwort], Asplenium pinnatifidum [lobed spleenwort], Lygodium palmatum [American climbing fern], Scolopendrium vulgare [hart’s tongue fern], and Trichomanes radicans [Vandenboschia boschiana] [Appalachian filmy fern], Asplenium viride [green spleenwort], Adiantum capillus-veneris [southern maidenhair fern].
From a The Flora of Tennessee and a Philosophy of Botany by Augustin Gattinger (1901) pp. 18-19
Alabama
Carolinian Area or Flora
“A line drawn from the northwestern corner of the State to the lower part of Lee County, crossing the Coosa Valley near Childersburg, makes the limit of the highlands having an average elevation of 800 feet above sea level (E. A. Smith). This line coincides approximately with the isothermal line of 60 deg F., and may be regarded as the boundary in Alabama of the Upper and Lower Austral zones, therefore of the Carolinian and Austroriparian or Louisianian areas. It winds its way from northwest to southeast and southward to the “fall line.”‘ Accepting this zonal line, a botanical limit is gained, northward of which is found a flora different in character from that to the southward, generally described as the flora of the great Central Mississippi Valley, and distinguished by the feeble representation, if not total absence, of the subtropical element and the exclusive prevalence of deciduous forests. Various shrubs and trees coincide in their limits of northern and southern distribution closely with this boundary line, and serve as unerring guides in pointing out its course. Such truly zonal plants are:
Pinus virginiana (scrub [Virginia] pine), Prunus americana (American plum), Quercus acuminata [Q. muehlenbergii] (yellow bark chestnut oak) [Chinquapin oak], Azalea [Rhododendron] arborescens (sweet-scented azalea), Stuartia pentagyna [Stewartia malecodendron] (fringed stuartia) [silky camellia], Quercus prinus [Quercus montana] (mountain [chestnut] oak). Butneria fertilis (mountain spicewood or smooth Calycanthus) [Calycanthus floridus (Sweetshrub)], Quercus coccinea (scarlet oak), Quercus rubra (red oak), Rhus aromatica (aromatic sumac), Acer leucoderme (white-bark sugar maple) [chalk maple], Adelia [Forestiera] ligustrina (southern [glade] privet).
These all find in Alabama their southern limit on this line. Although the vegetation of the Carolinian area presents in its broad features great uniformity, particularly in its tree growth, there exist in its range of nine degrees of latitude differences in the latitudinal distribution of heat, which necessarily affect the distribution of plants within its limits and present insurmountable obstacles to the extension of a number of species northward. Due to this temperature element, there is a most pronounced limit beyond which the successful cultivation of the cotton crop can not be pushed, and which also presents a barrier to several trees and a number of other plants of Southern distribution that are only rarely met farther north, as for example, the willow oak (Quercus phellos), loblolly pine (Pinus taeda), longleaf pine (Pinus palustris) and cane (Arundinaria macrosperma [gigantea]). This line, roughly extending from the Atlantic Coast at the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay westward to southwestern Missouri and northern Arkansas, was located by Gray along latitude 30 deg 36′, and by him was regarded as the line of separation between the two principal floral divisions of eastern North America, namely, the flora of the northern United States and Canada and the flora of the Southern States. In Alabama it is only this lower belt of the Carolinian area, embracing the mountain region and the lower hills with which we are concerned.”
From the Plant Life of Alabama by Charles Mohr (1901) pp 57-58
“The Silicious Soils [sandy or otherwise composed of silica, such as chert] of the Mountains or Elevated Lands. These soils cover the highlands or barrens, and the table-lands. They are usually of a light gray color and often are not much more than sand or pure silicious matter. Up to a few years ago they were regarded as almost worthless for all agricultural purposes, but of late years, by kind treatment and the use, in small quantities, on them of suitable composts, they have been found to be fine for cotton, corn, tobacco, small grains, grasses and root and fruit crops. The greatest objection to them is that they do not hold, or retain well, organic matter or fertilizers, and hence in many localities they look as if they had been leached, so completely have all traces of organic matter been washed out of them.”
From Northern Alabama Historical and Biographical Illustrated (1888) p. 11
JACKSON COUNTY
“The general appearance of this county is much more broken, and its scenery greatly diversified. It is made up of high mountain tracts of level lands extending for many miles. These mountains are cut back into by many beautiful coves and valleys of level and fertile lands, some of which are three or four miles wide, shut in by steep mountain slopes, covered with forest growth of valuable timber; indeed, the whole of the valley lands are said by geologists to have been cut out of what was at one time, a level mountain surface, by the flow of the Tennessee River and its numerous tributaries. This mountain surface at that time was all the Cumberland Mountain, but is now cut in two by the river, at the point known as the Boiling Pot, this side of Chattanooga, and has cut out the Tennessee River Valley in which this county is situated: leaving that part of the mountain north of the river known as the Cumberland Mountain, and that part of the mountain south of the river, known as the Raccoon Mountain, or Sand Mountain, as it is called by the natives. Both these mountains extend through north Alabama, and have an average width of about twenty miles; hence the main valley lands lie along the Tennessee River, and are as fine farming lands for all kinds of farming purposes, as can be found in the South
Along the high table lands of the county are numerous small farms which are surrounded with all the evidences of plenty and contentment. The streams are the Tennessee and Paint Rock rivers, and Big and Little Raccoon, Mud, Wido, Big Crow, Jones’ Santa, Big Lanne, and Williams’ creeks, and Hurricane and Larkins’ forks. Besides these, numerous mountain springs abound, the water of which is pure and perpetual. The county is unexcelled in its water supply. The hills and mountain flanks are densely wooded, while some of the alluvial valleys are still uncleared and are covered over with valuable timber. On the uplands are found black [Quercus velutina] and red oaks [Quercus rubra/falcata], pine [Pinus], cedar [Juniperus virginiana] and hickory [Carya]. Along the valleys are found poplar [Liriodendron tulipifera], ash [Fraxinus], maple [Acer], beech [Fagus grandifolia], walnut [Juglans], sweet gum [Liquidambar styraciflua], cherry [Prunus virginiana] and giant white oak [Quercus alba]. Indeed, both upon the table lands and in the valleys, many of the forests remain in their virgin state. They extend along the broad and deep streams of the county, and timber hewn from them may be easily rafted. The inclination of the different water course is such as to favor the erection of manufactories, and for local demands such do exist.”
From Northern Alabama Historical and Biographical Illustrated (1888) p. 92-93
“TABLE-LANDS OF THE WARRIOR AND COOSA BASINS.
PHYSIOGRAPHICAL FEATURES AND CLIMATE.
This area comprises about 4,500 square miles, including all of Cullman, Winston, Walker, and Blount counties, nearly all of Marshall and Dekalb, and small portions of Etowah and Cherokee counties, with the detached spurs of the Cumberland Mountains in the northeastern part of the Tennessee Valley in Jackson County. About three quarters of this area contains the coal measures, with their drainage level above the Subcarboniferous limestone lands.
The extreme southern spurs of the westerly Alleghanian ranges, including the Cumberland Mountains and all of the strata of the lower coal measures and underlying Subcarboniferous rocks, constitute this floral subdivision. It comprises the extensive table-lands drained by the Warrior River and of the coal field drained by the Coosa River, covering fully three-quarters of the area of the mountain region, and also the valleys with their water level not below 700 or 800 feet above the sea.
The lower Carboniferous sandstones and conglomerates [Pottsville formation] form the surface rock of these table-lands. Their surface is furrowed by the narrow beds and deep gorges through which the numerous tributaries of the main channels of drainage have worn their way. The soil resulting from the disintegration of the strata is a light, more or less sandy, loam, and where shallow, full of thin rocky fragments.
The mean annual temperature on these highlands at their average elevation of from 800 to 1,500 feet is about 55° F., with a mean of 45° for the winter and 75° for the summer months; average minimum 12° in January, and maximum 87° in August. The mean annual precipitation amounts to 55 inches; mean for the winter months 18 inches, for the summer months 14 inches. The larger streams forming the main channels of drainage have cut their bed through the Subcarboniferous limestone. The calcareous strata constitute the floor of the wide valleys of erosion by which the diverging ranges are separated and also of their foothills.
VEGETATION OF THE PLATEAUS, MOUNTAIN SLOPES AND HIGHER VALLEYS
Xerophile forests – An uninterrupted forest of a varied growth of deciduous-leaved trees and evergreen cone bearers originally covered this subdivision. On the broad expanse of the table-lands above 900 or l000 feet the tan-bark or mountain oak [Quercus montana] largely prevails, associated with post oak [Quercus stellata] and Spanish oak [Quercus falcata], or more rarely with black-jack [Quercus marilandica] and black oak [Quercus velutina], occasionally with scarlet oak [Quercus coccinea], a rare tree in this State; also with mockernut [Carya tomentosa], pignut hickory [Carya glabra], and fine chestnut [Castanea dentata] trees (the latter rapidly disappearing, having been eagerly sought for on account of their durable timber for fencings or wantonly destroyed for the nuts), and with white oak (Quercus alba) and highland gum (Nyssa sylvatica). Among the tree growth of smaller size the sourwood (Oxydendrum arboreum) is most frequent, here attaining its largest development, not infrequently becoming 40 feet in height and over a foot in diameter; together with dogwood [Cornus florida], persimmon [Diospyros virginiana], sassafras [Sassafras albidum], and the Southern palebark maple (Acer leucoderme), and in localities with a deeper soil, the Nortliern sugar maple (Acer saccharum barbatum), tulip tree [Liriodendron tulipifera], box elder (Acer negundo) and angelica tree (Aralia spinosa). On Sand Mountain, in Cullman County, where these forests have been more closely investigated, the woodlantls support from 25 to 35 timber trees of various species per acre, affording from 5,000 to 6,000 feet B. M. of merchantable lumber of all grades, the largest amounts being derived from the Spanish oak [Quercus falcata] and the less valuable black oak (Quercus velutina). The lumber finds a ready maiket in the mining districts.
Wherever the mountain oak [Quercus montana] prevails pines are rarely seen. On the ridges of a lower altitude, with a thinner soil, the short-leaf pine (Pinus echinata) forms from 20 to 30 per cent of the timber growth, and. together with the loblolly pine (Pinus taeda), supplies pine lumber, which always finds a ready market. Dense groves of the latter cover the shallow depressions deficient in drainage, which are particularly frequent on the Warrior table-land. On these swales, from a fraction of an acre to several acres in extent, the loblolly pine [Pinus taeda] arrives at its perfection, scarcely surpassed anywhere in its dimensions and in the quality of its timber. The trees average about 24 inches in diameter, with a height of from 110 to 120 feet, the trunks free of knots for a length of from 45 to 70 feet and with but a small proportion of sapwood.
The scrub pine (Pinus virginiana) is found on the most broken and poorest places at an elevation mostly above 1,200 feet, and is not frequent. Under the cover of the mostly rather open forest a variety of shrubs contribute to form a dense undergrowth. Blueberries (Vaccinium vacillans, V. .stamineum) are met with everywhere in the mountain region, and a bushy low form of the common azalea or honeysuckle (Azalea nudiflora) [possibly here referring to Rhododendron alabamense – Alabama azalea], conspicuous by the abundance of its mostly snowwhite flowers, borne in close clusters, almost hides the ground. The fringed stuartia (Stuartia pentagyna), mountain holly (Ilex monticola [I. montana]), and its variety (I. monticola mollis), with soft hairy leaves, extend northerly on the lower of the western Alleghenian ranges to southeastern Kentucky, western Virginia, and Pennsylvania, and reach their southern limit on Sand Mountain. Ilex longipes [Georgia or Chapman holly] extends from North Carolina and Tennessee to the Louisianian area, and the rare Ilex dubia [I. amelanchier] [Sarvis holly] is found on the richer slopes, with Darbya [Nestronia] umbellulata [Nestronia or Indian olive], which of late has also been discovered on the edge of the metamorphic hills in Lee County. The last occurs also in a few localities in North Carolina and middle Georgia. Seven bark [Oakleaf hydrange] (Hydrangea quercifolia), one of the most ornamental shrubs, adorns the open woods and rocky hillsides throughout the region, being also common on the lower hills and extending to the Coast Pine belt. The following shade the rocky borders of the water courses:
Vaccinium tenellum (small-leaved huckleberry [Southen dwarf blueberry]), Stuartia virginiana(?) [Stewartia ovata?] (Virginia stuartia), Kalmia latifolia (evergreen kalmia [mountain laurel]), Aronia arbutifolia (chokeberry), Pyrus [Malus] angustifolia (Southern crabapple), Azalea arborescens (sweet-scented azalea).
The chokeberry [Aronia arbutifolia], which is here of arborescent habit, presents a beautiful sight when loaded with its bright scarlet fruit, which remains from early autunm through the winter. The following add to the number of mesophile shrubs, which prefer a damper and deeper soil:
Chionanthus virginica (fringe tree), Crataegus crus-galli (cockspur [haw]thorn), Pyrus [Malus] angustifolia (Southern crab apple), Crataegus mollis (downy haw[thorn]), Crataegus coccinea (scarlet haw[thorn]), Crataegus uniflora (winter haw), Crataegus spathulata (sugar [littlehip] haw) .
Of woody creepers and climbers —
Smilax rotundifolia (horse brier [common greenbriar]), Clematis virginiana (common virgin’s bower), are confined to the mountain region, extending to the Alleghenian area; while —
Bignonia capreolata (cross vine), Berchemia volubilis [scandens] (supple-jack), Tecoma [Campsis] radicans (trumpet vine), Vitis aestivalis (summer grape), are widely distributed in the Carolinian and Louisianian divisions.
Mesophile forests. — Where the sandstones give way to clayey shales more subject to erosion, the channels of the water courses become wider and the valleys are flanked by ridges of a gentler slope and are covered with deeper and richer soil. In these secluded valleys of the table-land, particularly where they begin to slope almost imperecptibly toward their southern and southwestern borders, the arboreal growth is of groat luxuriance and variety. Besides many of the trees of the uplands, the following are found:
Quercus michauxii (cow oak [swamp chestnut oak]). Magnolia umbellata [tripetala] (umbrella [magnolia] tree), (Fagus americana (beech) . Magnolia acuminata (common cucumber tree), Ulmus americana ([American] elm), Juglans cinerea (butternut) (rare). Magnolia macrophylla (large-leaf magnolia), Tilia americana (basswood), Tilia heterophylla [T. americana var heterophylla] (mountain basswood) .
These deciduous-leaved magnolias in these sheltered valleys arrive at their best development, the last having been observed with a trunk fully 20 inches in diameter. In such a valley on the northern border of Winston County, near a branch of the east fork of the Sipsey River, the yellow-fiowered magnolia [cucumber magnolia] (Magnolia acuminata cordata), first described as a distinct species by Michaux the elder, was discovered by the writer in 1882. Since the original discovery of this rare and beautiful tree by this great investigator of the trees of eastern North America, on the banks of the upper waters of the Savannah River, the range of its distribution had remained obscure. It can now be said, however, to extend from upper South Carolina and the upper mountain region of Georgia to northwestern Alabama. Here this tree has been observed as large as a full-grown common cucumber tree, of which species Professor Sargent regards it as a variety. When unfolding under full exposure to the sun, the flowers are from a dingy canary to a golden yellow color, but are of a greenish tint when opening under the shade of the dense foliage. In the shape and size of the mature leaves the yellow-fiowered variety can scarcely be distinguished from the typical form; it is only in the foliage of the young vigorous shoots that the heart-shaped form of the leaves is observed.
Entering near the same valley the cliff -bound channel of the Sipsey fork, one finds to his surprise the rocky defile shaded by groves of stately hemlock (Tsuga canadensis). This inhabitant of the coniferous forests of northern regions extends southward along the highest summits of the Appalachian ranges to (Georgia and northwestern Alabama, where it follows this mountain torrent for a distance of about 10 miles, nearly to the falls of Clear Creek, in Winston County, there reaching its southern limit. In this valley the hemlock is accompanied by the sweet or cherry birch, Betula lenta, at home in the same northern life zone.
Xerophile and mesophile herbaceous plant associations. — Belonging to the former, many ferns peculiar to the mountain region take root in the chinks of the bare rocks. Such are:
Cheilanthes [Myriopteris] tomentosa [wooly lipfern], Asplenium montanum [mountain spleenwort], Cheilanthes [Myriopteris] lanosa [hairy lipfern], Asplenium ruta-muraria [American wall rue], Cheilanthes [Myriopteris] alabamensis [Alabama lipfern], Asplenium pinnatifidum [lobed spleenwort], Pellaea atropurpurea [purple cliff-brake],
In similar situations are found the following flowering plants:
Silene rotundifolia [sandstone fire pink], Arenaria stricta [Sabulina michauxii] [rock sandwort], Silene caroliniana [rock catchfly], Lacinaria graminifolia [Liatris pilosa, grass-leaf blazingstar], Saxifraga virginica [Micranthes virginiensis] [early saxifrage], Senecio obovatus [Packera obovata] [roundleaf groundsel].
Other species of ferns on the border line of xerophile and mesophile associations prefer the more sheltered rocky ledges, as:
Asplenium parvulum [resiliens] [blackstem spleenwort], Dicksonia punctilobula [Sitobolium punctilobulum] [hay scented fern], Woodsia obtusa [blunt-lobed cliff fern], Camptosorus rhizophyllus [Asplenium rhizophyllum] [walking fern], Polypodia vulgare [Polypodium sp.] [rockcap fern], Cystopteris fragilis [fragile fern].
Carex picta (C. bootiana) [painted sedge] covers in dense tufts the rocky shelves on the banks of the head waters of the eastern Sipsey fork, in Winston County, where this pretty and rare plant was collected by the late Judge T. M. Peters.
Associated with Carex picta are C. nigro-marginata [black-edged sedge], C. virescens [ribbed sedge], and C. digitalis [slender woodland sedge], Tipularia unifolia [discolor] [cranefly orchid] (of a widely disrupted distribution from the Gulf coast to Lake Huron in the Allegheuian area), and the northern Peramium (Goodyera) repens [lesser rattlesnake orchid]. Therofon (Boykinia) aconitifolium [aconitifolia] [brook saxifrage] inhabits the bare rocks forming the brink of streams, and Diamorpha pusilla [Sedum pusillum] [Puck’s orpine] is found in similar localities — both extending hither from the lower mountains of South Carolina and Georgia. Heuchera americana [American alumroot] grows in more open, and H. rugelii [H. parviflora var parviflora] [Cumberland grotto alumroot], Viola multicaulis [possibly Viola walteri, Walter’s violet], and Hepatica hepatica [H. acutiloba or H. americana] [Hepatica] in deeply shaded situations; and where the rocky walls are constantly kept moist by the dripping water, Thalictrum clavatum [mountain meadow rue], Viola rostrata [long spurred violet], V. blanda [sweet white violet] and V. striata [pale violet] are found.
In the open woods of a light dry soil where pines are mingled with the hardwood trees, and in the openings of old fields and pastures, where the progeny of the pine is apt to take possession of the ground, there are present numerous xerophile species, which are characteristic of the mountain region in general. Of these, the following glumaceous plants (grasses and sedges — Poaceae and Cyperaceae) are scantily diffused throughout woods and fields having a thin thirsty soil:
Erianthus alopecuroides [silver plume grass], Eragrostis pectinacea (Carolina lovegrass), Andropogon sroparius [Schizochyrium scoparium] [common little bluestem], Poa chapmaniana [Chapman’s bluegrass], Andropogon furcatus [gerardi] [big bluestem], Carex laxiflora [broad loose-flowered sedge], Chrysopogon avenaceus [Sorghastrum nutans] [yellow Indiangrass], Carex laxiflora varians [broad loose-flowered sedge], Sieglingia seslerioides [Tridens flavus] [tall redtop], Carex cephalophora, Melica mutica [two-flowered melic], Carex leavenworthii [Leavenworth’s sedge].
Among the largely predominating Compositae (Asteraceae) tall rosinweeds and coarse sunflowers are conspicuous, particularly the former, which present a number of types rarely or not at all observed in the State outside of this subdivision; for example, Silphium mohrii [Mohr’s rosinweed] and S. gatesii [S. asteriscus var asteriscus], both known from Cullman County; S. trifoliatum [S. asteriscus] [starry rosinweed], ranging from the plains of the Ohio Valley to the Central Prairies region; S. laevigatum [S. asteriscus var laevigatum], Helianthus schweinitzii [Schweinitz’s sunflower] and H. glaucus [glaucophyllus?] [white-leaf sunflower?] from the lower mountains of South Carolina and Georgia, and S. compositum [var compositum] [Carolina rosinweed], abundant throughout the region. The following are frequent in dry thin soils all over the Mountain region, some extending all over the State:
Helianthus atrorubens [Appalachian sunflower], Lactuca hirsuta [red wood lettuce], Helianthus hirsutus [hairy sunflower], Lactuca sagittaefolia(?), Helianthus microcephalus [small-headed sunflower], Nabalus fraseri [barbatus] [barbed rattlesnake root], Helianthus divaricatus [woodland sunflower], Lechea racemulosa [Appalachian pinweed], Heliopsis helianthoides [Eastern sunflower-everlasting], Lechea leggettii [pulchella] [Leggett’s pinweed], Parthenium integrifolium [common wild quinine], Koellia pycnanthemoides, Sericocarpus asteroides [toothed white-topped aster], Blephilia ciliata [downy woodmint], Aster divaricatis [Eurybia divaricata] [common white heart-leaved aster], Monarda fistulosa [Appalachian bergamot], Eupatorium sessilifolium [sessile-leaf eupatorium], Monarda bradburiana [Bradbury beebalm], Solidago caesia [axillary goldenrod], Dasystoma virginiana [Aureolaria virginica] [Virginia oak-leech], Solidago erecta [slender goldenrod], Gerardia [Agalinis] tenuifolia [slender leaf agalinis], Chrysopsis mariana [Maryland goldenaster], Physalis virginiana [Virginia ground cherry], Brauneria purpurea [Echinacea purpurea] [purple coneflower], Physalis pubescens [downy ground cherry], Rudbeckia hirta [black-eyed Susan], Physalis pruinosa [grisea/pubescens], Rudbeckia spathulata, Sabbatia boykinii(?) [rosepink sp.], Coreopsis grandiflora [large flowered coreopsis], Thaspium aureum trifoliatum [Thaspium trifoliatum var aureum], Coreopsis pubescens [hairy coreopsis], Oxalis recurva [Oxalis sp.], Coreopsis auriculata [lobed coreopsis], Tragia urticaefolia [nettleleaf noseburn], Carduus virginicus [Cirsium virginianum] [Virginia thistle], Meibomia [Desmodium] (many species), Andropogon virginicus, Lespedeza (many species) .
Vicia caroliniana [wood vetch] and buffalo clover, Trifolium reflexum, are frequcnt on these table-lands, and Lathyrus venosus [smooth forest pea] in Alabama is contined to them.
Strictly mesophile herhaceous plant association. — Ferns abound in the shade of the forests.
Characteristic species are:
Adiantum pedatum [maidenhair fern], Botrychium obliquum [dissectum] [cut-leaf grape fern], Asplenium plalyneuron [ebony spleenwort], Dryopteris [Amauropelta] noveboracensis [New York fern], Phegopteris hexagonoptera [broad beech fern], Dryopteris marginata [marginal woodfern], Botrychium virginianum [common grape fern], Dryopterls acrostichoides [Christmas fern]
Asplenium angustifolium(?), which is most frequent in the Ohio valley, occurs very rarely. Of grasses and sedges Muhlenbergia diffusa [schreberi] [nimblewill] forms dense plots, and the following prefer the shade of woods:
Brachyelytrum erectum [common shorthusk], Poa autumnalis [bluegrass], Festuca nutans [subverticillata?] [nodding fescue], Carex laxiflora [broad loose-flowered sedge], Festuca shortii [paradoxa], Carex laxiflora varians, Poa sylvestris [forest bluegrass], Carex laxiflora patulifolia.
The following are frequent in the openings of woods and on their borders:
Vagnera racemosa [Maianthemum racemosum] [false Solomon’s seal], Tiarella cordifolia [Piedmont foamflower], Uvularia puberula [Carolina bellwort], Hypericum virgatum [coppery St. John’s wort], Uvularia sessillfolia [merrybells], Scutellaria incana, Iris cristata [dwarf crested iris], Phlox divaricata [eastern blue phlox], Syndesmon [Thalictrum] thalictroides [rue anemone], Mertensia virginica [Virginia bluebells], Anemone quinquefolia [wood anemone], Vincetoxicum hirsutum(?) [possibly Matelea], Anemone virginiana [thimbleweed], Gentiana villosa [striped gentian], Ranunculus recurvatus [hooked buttercup], Galium circaezans [licorice bedstraw], Cimicifuga racemosa [black cohosh], Houstonia caerulea [Quaker ladies], Trautvetteria carolinensis [false bugbane], Deringa canadensis [Cryptotaenia canadensis] [wild chervil], Viola hastata [halberd-leaf violet]. Podophyllum pelatatum [mayapple], Viola multicaulis [possibly Viola walteri, Walter’s violet], Sanguinaria canadensis [bloodroot], Viola pubescens [hairy yellow forest violet].
On the higher shady banks of water courses are found:
Porteranthus (Gillenia) stipulaceus [stipulata] [Midwestern Indian physic], Stachys cordata [heart-leaved hedge nettle], Porteranthus trifoliatus [Gillenia trifoliata] [mountain Indian physic], Zanthorhiza apiifolia [Xanthorhiza simplicissima] [yellowroot].
In the more or less dense forest, covering hill and dale, are to be found:
Orchis [Galearis] spectabilis [showy orchid], Aralia racemosa [spikenard], Cypripedium parviflorum [small yellow lady’s slipper], Sanicula marilandica (rare) [black snakeroot], Arisaema quinatum [southern Jack in the pulpit], Phryma leptostachya [American lopseed], Circaea lutetiana [canadensis] [Canada enchanter’s nightshade], Frasera carolinensis [American columbo], Hydrastis canadensis (scarce) [goldenseal], Cynoglossum virginicum [Anersonglossum virginianum] [southern wild comfrey], Bicuculla cucullaria [Dicentra cucullaria] [Dutchman’s breeches], Obolaria virginica [pennywort], Dentaria [Cardamine] diphylla [toothwort], Solidago flexicaulis [zigzag goldenrod], Cubelium concolor [eastern green violet], Solidago vaseyi [Vasey’s goldenrod], Panax quinquefolius [American ginseng].
The Solidago vaseyi [Vasey’s goldenrod] has been collected near Holmes Gap (1,500 feet), and is known from a few localities on the highest ranges of the Carolinas and Georgia,
On the restricted flat semiswampy places, not infrequently met with on the Warrior table-land, open or slightly under cover, the following are most frequently seen:
Cyperus pseudo-vegetus (green flatsedge), Phlox maculata [northern meadow phlox], Carex lupulina [hop sedge], Lysimachia quadrifolia [whorled loosestrife], Carex lurida [sallow sedge], Gentiana elliottii [catesbyi] [coastal plain gentian], Habenaria [Platanthera] ciliaris [yellow fringed orchid], Bidens involucrata [polylepis] [Midwestern tickseed sunflower], Xyris flexuosa [caroliniana] [pineland yellow-eyed grass], Coreopsis grandiflora [large-flowered coreopsis], Rhexia virginica [Virginia meadow beauty], Doellingeria infirma [Appalachian flat-topped white aster], Ludwigia alternifolia [alternate-leaved seedbox].
Mesophile plant associations of rock houses. — On the perpendicular walls at the head of the deep narrow gorges are found shelves of hard, resisting sandstone with the softer strata beneath them worn away by the action of the percolating surface water. The wide and deep excavations thus formed are called by the people of the country “rock houses.” In these gloomy recesses, never visited by the direct rays of the sun, their roots and walls constantly moistened by the water oozing from every crevice, some of the rarest and most delicate ferns find a shelter from wind and sudden changes of temperature. Trichomanes [Didymoglossum] petersii [dwarf filmy fern], the tiniest of this order in the United States, and confined to Northern Alabama, is at home in these rock houses, and thence it way first brought to light Judge T. M. Peters, who discovered it on the banks of the head waters of Sipsey River. The filiform horizontal rhizomes are interwoven into dense patches, their fronds of dark green scarcely an inch high, somewhat resembling the thallus of a large liverwort. This fern was subsequently found in a similar locality on the western edge of the table-land by Prof. E. A. Smith, and later by the writer on its eastern border at the falls of Black Creek, in Etowah County. Trichomanes radicans [Vandenboschia boschiana] [Appalachian filmy fern] is also a frequent inhabitant of these rock houses, being found on wet, deeply shaded, rocky walls northward to the Cumberland Mountains of Kentucky. The long creeping rootstock of this beautiful fern, adhering firmly to the rock, decorates the roof and walls of these recesses. Asplenium trichomanes [maidenhair spleenwort], with its fronds of brightest green, and the thallus of a large liverwort (Dumortiera sp.) are the frequent companions of the above. Of plants of higher orders only a few have been observed in these cavities. Thin grass (Agrostis perennans) [Autumn bentgrass] with its weak, decumbent stems, occurs here, where its foliage is scarcely ever affected by frost and never touched by the direct sunlight, and Heuchera rugelii [Heuchera parviflora var. parviflora] [Cumberland grotto alumroot] is also quite frequently found on the damp ledges which form the threshold of the caves, but rarely penetrates beyond them.
Hydrophilic plant associations (paludial plants). — On the table-land beyond the channels of the large streams and their very numerous branches no areas of great extent of a water-soaked or submerged soil are foimd, and the narrow channels through which the water rushes toward the lowlands afford but little chance for the spread of a hydrophile vegetation. The wet grassy swales are inhabited by the following:
Andropogon virginicus [Anatherium virginicum] [broomsedge], Carex granularis [limestone meadow sedge], Homalocenchrus (Leersia) virginicus [virginica] [Virginia cutgrass], Eleocharis tenuis [slender spikerush], Panicularia nervata [Glyceria striata] [Panicularia nervata], Eleocharis acicularis [needle spikerush], Panicum rostratum [Coleataenia anceps] [beaked panic grass], Eleocharis ovata, Panicum comutatum [Dichanthelium commutatum] [variable witchgrass], Scirpus polyphyllus, Panicum polyanthes [Dichanthelium polyanthes] [small-fruited witch grass], Dichromena [Rhynchospora] colorata [narrowleaf whitetop sedge], Panicum [Dichanthelium] sphaerocarpon [round-fruited witchgrass], Kobresia pumila(?), Carex lurida (sallow sedge), Juncus marginatus [grass-leaved rush], Carex lupulina [hop sedge], Juncus (common species), Carex intumescens [bladder sedge], Cicuta maculata [water hemlock], Carex squarrosa (rare) [squarrose sedge], Coreopsis [Anacis] tripteris [tall coreopsis], Carex torta [streambed sedge], Eupatorium maculatum [spotted Joe-Pye weed].
In the brooks where during its lowest stage the water becomes stagnant, a large Fontinalis, F. lescurii [novae-anglii], is found. Hymenocallis occidentalis [woodland spiderlily] occurs in deep clefts of rocks barely rising above the water. Sagittaria latifolia [common arrowhead] and S. longirostris australis [long-lobed arrowhead] are found on the miry banks of Ryans Creek, Cullman County, with Peltandra virginica [green arrow arum]. Orontium aquaticum [golden club] is common in the streams of the wider valleys not above 1,000 feet. On the loose stones in the swiftly running brooks and shallow streams Podostemon abrotanoides [ceratophyllum] [threadfoot] a type of the southern Alleghenies is not rare on the Warrior table-land, and P. ceratophyllum of northern distribution is known in the State, but only from the vicinity of Auburn.
Vegetation of Lookout Mountain. — Near the northern frontier of the State the most easterly of the spurs of the Appalachian ranges belonging to this subdivision rises abruptly at Valley Head to an elevation fully 800 feet above Little Wills Valley, with its floor at this point 1,150 feet above tide water.
The summit of Lookout Mountain spreads out to a wide table-land of the same character as the plateau of the Warrior coal field, and terminates suddenly in the precipitous escarpment abutting upon the Tennessee River known as the most prominent landmark in the Tennessee basin. Near Mentone, Little River, a pretty stream which follows the southern extension of this table-land, leaps over a ledge into its narrow channel, some 125 feet below. By reason of a rainfall more copious than in other sections of the mountain region (64.4 inches), and toward its northern extremity of a generally deeper and fresher soil, this mountain was recently covered with a fine hard-wood forest, chiefly of oaks, and was noted for the abundance of white oak timber (Quercus alba) and tan-bark oak [likely Quercus montana, Chestnut oak]; but this timber wealth is now almost exhausted. On its flanks the black locust (Robinia pseudoacacia) is found, one of the few localities in Alabama where it can be considered to be indigenous. The short-leaf pine [Pinus echinata] is rarely met with on these heights. The scrub pine is more frequent, reaching its best development on rocky benches and declivities with a scanty covering of soil.
On the brow of this mountain, and particularly along the low, damp banks of Little River, there occurs a strong mingling of types that are at home in the Alleghenian area of the adjoining States and of North Carolina with plants of the lower ranges within the Carolinian area, giving rise to a varied flora, the like of which has not been observed in any other part of the mountain region of Alabama. When the low elevation of this extremely limited spot is considered (not quite 2,000 feet above the sea), the suffusion of types from different life zones admits of no explanation on the ground of climate or local influences controlling plant distribution, but points clearly to a disjunction of floral conditions due to geological changes. Among the woody plants peculiar to the Alleghenian area, Rhododendron catawbiense [Catawba rhododendron] is the most prominent. In the beginning of summer, when covered with the profuse clusters of its purple or lilac llowers, this shrub, from 6 to 10 feet in height. massed in dense thickets along the banks of Little River forms one of the most attractive sights. ‘I’he home of this shrub is ascribed to the highest crests of the southern chains of the mountains from western Virginia to Roan Mountain, on the border of North Carolina and Tennessee, at an altitude of 6000 feet. It has. however. been found by Mr. Small, at a much lower elevation on Table Mountain. At its extreme southern limit in Alabama it is associated with the, Azalea arborescens [sweet azalea] and Kalmia latifolia [mountain laurel]. Of other shrubs Viburnum cassinoides [northern wild raisin], extending to the Canadian zone, is abundant on the banks of this stream. Viburnum dentatum [arrowood viburnum], Rubus enslenii [Enslen’s blackberry] and Celastrus scandens [Ameircan bittersweet] of the same range of distribution, are frequent among the shrubs of the more exposed rocky heights.
With these Alleghenian shrubs occur a host of other species, which are at home on the southern extremity of the lower ranges within the Carolinian area, and are more or less frequent throuuhout our mountain region. For example:
Butneria (Calycanthus) fertilis [Calycanthus floridus] [sweetshrub]. Hydrangea arborescens cordata [smooth Hydrangea], Ilex monticola [Ilex montana] [mountain holly]. Philadelphus hirsutus [Cumberland mock-orange], Vaccinium melanocarpum [V. stamineum] [deerberry], Diervilla rivularis [hairy southern bush honeysuckle], Vaccinium pallidum [hillside deerberry].
The Vaccinium pallidum [hillside deerberry] is reported as scarce on some of the highest summits of North Carolina (Buckley). Crataegus biltmoreana [C. intricata var biltmoreana] [Biltmore hawthorn], C. austromontana [valleyhead hawthorn], and C. sargenti[i] [Sargent’s hawthorn] are new discoveries made on the declivities of the mountain by Mr. Beadle of the Biltmore Herbarium in 1899, which have also become known from western North Carolina, eastern Tennessee, and northern Georgia. The prostrate stems of the northern Rubus hispidus [swamp dewberry] cover open, miry places.
The large lichen, Umbilicaria pustulata papulosa which covers the naked cliffs, forms an association strongly expressive of the Alleghenian character of the flora of this locality. In the soil, rich in humus, shaded by the rocks, and on the shaded ledges lining the banks of Little River, mesophile ferns are also abundant. Asplenium bradleyi [Bradley’s spleenwort] of very local distribution in the Cumberland Mountains of Tennessee and Kentucky, occurs here, together with the more frequent —
Asplenium parvulum [A. resiliens] [blackstem spleenwort], Asplenium montanum [mountain spleenwort], Asplenium trichomanes [maidenhair spleenwort], Asplenium pinnatifidum [lobed spleenwort], Asplenium felix-foemena [Athyrium asplenoides] [southern lady fern], Dryopteris marginalis [marginal woodfern], Dicksonia punctilobula [Sitobolium punctilobulum] [hay-scented fern].
The last three are xerophile species, occurring on somewhat exposed rocks. Other herbaceous southern Appalachian types here found are:
Galax aphylla [likely Galax urceolata, but possibly Nemophylla aphylla] [Galax], Viola blanda [sweet white violet], Thalictrum clavatum [mountain meadowrue], Viola rostrata [long-spurred violet], Viola multicaulis [possibly Viola walteri, Walter’s violet], Eatonia pensylvanica [Sphenophilis pensylvanica] [swamp oats].
Of these the first is the most prominent, frequenting springy, rocky banks and dripping ledges, and the others are all more or less frequent in similar localities throughout the mountain region. Sarracenia catesbaei [Sarracenia oreophila, Green Pitcher plant] and Isoetes engelmanni valida are paludial plants so far only known in the State from the banks of Little River near De Soto Falls. There occurs also Danthonia glabra [D. sericea] [silky oat-grass], a most rare plant, lately described, from upper Georgia (Nash), with Danthonia compressa [mountain oat-grass], and Deschampsia [Avenella] flexuosum [common hairgrass] so far not yet reported from any other locality in the State, while Carex virescens [ribbed sedge], Tiarella cordifolia [Piedmont foamflower], Ascleplas quadrifolia [fourleaf milkweed], and Asarum macranthum [Hexastylis shuttleworthii] [large-flower heartleaf] frequent the rocky dells and more or less open copses. The tiny Arenaria brevifolia [A. leptoclados] [slender sandwort], known from a few localities in upper Georgia and the Cumberland Mountains of Tennessee, roots in crevices of rocks among the dark-green cushions of mosses (Grimmia, Hedwigia), with the three-leaf stonecrop (Sedum ternatum) [mountain stonecrop] and the round-leaf talinum (Talinum teretifolium) [Phemeranthus teretifolium] [Appalachian rock-pink] a fleshy perennial with rose-purple flowers adorning exposed rocks in the mountains northward to Pennsylvania. On the exposed rocks close to the edge and above the falls of Little River dense tufts of filiform leaves produced by a many-branched rootstock deeply sunk in the crevices attract the attention. Specimens of this plant in flower obtained in September proved to be Chondrophora virgata (Bigelovia Nutt) [Bigelowia nudata] [ray-less goldenrod]. The identity of our plant with Nuttal’s specimens is, however, not free from doubt. In the type collected by Nuttall in lower New Jersey and preserved in the Herbarium of the Academy of Sciences at Philadelphia the radical leaves, which furnish the decisive character, are wanting; furthermore, the similarity to Euthamia graminifolia [northern smooth goldentop] ascribed by Nuttall to his type is not recognized in our plant. The locality quoted by Nuttall is also doubtful, his plant having never been found afterwards, although the ground has been closely investigated by later botanists.
Under the umbrageous cover of the high forest on the upper flanks of the mountain, in the deep soil, rich in humus, tall umbelliferous herbs are conspicuous, among which are Ligusticum canadense [American lovage], frequent throughout the mountains northward to Pennsylvania, Thaspium pinnatifidum [cut-leaf meadow parsnip], and Thaspium barbinode [hairy-joint meadow parsnip], which extends north to the Ohio Valley. Together with these occur Oxalis grandis [great yellow wood sorrel], Polygonatum commutatum [P. biflorum var. commutatum] [large Solomon’s seal], widely distributed through the Alleghenian area, Trillium stylosum [T. catesbyi] [Catesby’s trillium] of the southern Appalachian ranges, and Cypidpedium acaule [pink lady’s slipper], found in more open boggy places.
Cultural plant associations. — Scarcely 20 per cent of the area of the table-lands is reduced to a state of cultivation; the rest consists of more or less devastated woodlands and of high forests, which, however, near the settlements and highways of commerce are largely stripped of merchantable timber and are suffering from the inroads of fire and cattle.
Scarcely more than a quarter of a century ago, before these tablelands were made easily acccssible to the immigrant by the great trunk lines leading from the centers of population in the North to the Gulf coast, they were but sparsely inhabitated. The earlier settlers who had squatted upon them depended for their support more on the chase than upon the cultivation of a soil which was looked upon as too poor to afford an adequate return. This, however, has all been changed by the influx of a population which was attracted by the mild and salubrious climate, and which, coming with the determination to establish its home here, has succecded in conquering the unpromising soil and developed its possibilities. With the rapid increase in population these lands have come much into demand, and under rational management almost every crop raised in the Northern States can be successfully grown on these tahle-lands by the side of cotton.
The meadow grasses of the North, with red clover and similar forage plants, do well here. Much attention is given to the production of breadstuffs, chiefly corn, to which the greater part of the arable land is devoted. Small grains, as wheat and rye, supply a part of the home demand. Irish and sweet potatoes are profitable summer crops, and nearly all of the root crops and vegetables grown in the temperate zone are produced here in abundance and perfection. Of small fruits, the strawberry has heen found highly profitable, usually being harvested hefore the end of April. This fruit finds a ready sale in the distant northern markets. Orchards of fruit trees on a large scale do not yet exist, although apples, pears, and peaches are successfully grown. The cultivation of the grape was given great attention by the earlier of the German immigrants until the appearance of a fungous disease proved a great drawback. But with the successful employment of remedies to subdue this disease, viticulture, particularly of grapes for table use, has received a new impetus.”
From the Plant Life of Alabama by Charles Mohr (1901) pp 69-80
Paint Rock Valley
“These Coves nestle in this valley between the river and the mountains, like the parts of a jig-saw puzzle. As the land in the valley and on the sides of the mountains was so rich, it was covered with a very dense forest of large trees of many kinds. If this timber were here now, it would be worth a fortune of more than a million dollars.
When the first’ settlers came, they made their homes up in the Coves and on the sides of the Mountains. Down near the river, there were so much big timber, vines, canes, ponds, lagoons and lakes, the climate was unhealthful and the land was difficult to clear for cultivation. The land in the coves and on the hillsides was more easily cleared and very rich and loose. It is said that in the spring of the year a man could bend over a dogwood sapling large enough for a good hand spike—a stick used to roll logs—and pull it up by the roots, because the ground was so rich and loose. The foregoing conditions account for most of the old graveyards being located up on the sides of the mountains.
As the first settlers had small fields or patches of corn in cultivation, some years the squirrels, coons and bears would eat up nearly all of it. It was the habit of the bear to go into the field at night and gather 40 or 50 ears of corn, pile it up and sit down to eat all he wanted. The women did not need to raise turkeys for there were great flocks of wild turkeys in the woods near. When they wanted a turkey for dinner, the man would go out and shoot one, or if the ammunition was scarce, he would build a pen to catch them alive. The writer has seen a few — pens. These pens were built of ten-foot rails, about — six or eight rails high, covered with rails so that when the turkeys got in the pen they could not get out. About six or eight feet from one side of the pen, a ditch 18 inches or two feet deep was dug under the bottom rail of the pen and to the center, and covered the ditch two or three feet inside the pen, then scattered shelled corn in the ditch. The turkeys would go in. When they got in and raised up their heads, they never stooped down again to go back out, but put their time in going round the pen trying to get out at a crack.
As a rule there were so much beech [Fagus grandifolia] mast, acorns, hickory [Carya] nuts and chestnuts [Castanea] that their hogs got fat enough for meat in the woods with but little or no feed at all.
Birds were so numerous that boys with traps could keep a supply for the table without great effort. Some winters such flocks of wild carrier pigeons [Ectopistes migratorius – Passenger pigeons] came and as their habit was to select certain trees to roost in, so many would get on a limb that they would break it off. These pigeons are now extinct, like the buffalo. For many years, millions of these pigeons were killed in the north and shipped to market. Agriculture was the main industry of the people of the valley. It was hard to clear the land and dispose of the great amount of timber. Before it could be cultivated, they cut and rolled logs for many days before planting the crop. They lived in log houses with either a dirt floor or a puncheon floor—that was slabs split out of logs and hewn smooth with a broadax. Malecome Thompson, a great-uncle of John K. Thompson, once owned the place where John Beason lives, at Princeton. To build his dwelling, he cut a large poplar tree [Liriodendron tulipifera], sawed off two logs, split them into long thin slabs, hewed them in proper shape and put up a two-room house of good size.
To make a wheat bin, one would go down in the bottoms, cut a large hollow sycamore [Platanus occidentalis], cut off about six feet, nail plank on one end and use it to put grain in. These Sycamores were so large that once W. W. Thompson’s father led his horse with his saddle on, through a big hollow cut. All the cedars [Juniperus virginiana] were big, old trees, which grew on the sides of the mountains. If one now had all the cedar that was burned to kindle fires and to make molasses, he would be rich.”
From History of Jackson County, Alabama (1935) by John Robert Kennamer pp. 137-139
“Though we have no written description of these early pioneer scenes, we have some faint records preserved only in memory and brought down to us by tradition. The earliest white trappers and hunters to visit this territory would often build a hut for shelter and after a short time return laden with his furs and skins to the markets on the eastern coast. His only neighbor was the Cherokee Indian [sic] with whom he exchanged knives, guns and other articles for skins and furs.
The valleys of the Tennessee, Paint Rock and the low level lands lying along Crow, Mud and Sauta Creeks were covered with dense cane-brakes [Arundinaria gigantea], brushwood and briers matted together with vines; and towering above all this were large oak [Quercus], poplar [Liriodendron tulipifera], gum [Liquidambar styraciflua] and other trees, with a lake or lagoon here and there.
The ridges and coves which were bordered by the Cumberland, Sand and Gunter’s Mountain were fertile and had a luxuriant growth of cane and forest. The mountain tops were better suited for the early settler to make his home, or to live while hunting, with no undergrowth except tall grass, with trees far enough apart that one could drive a team and wagon for miles without a road. Deer were plentiful and turkeys as numerous as chickens are at the present time. One has described these mountains as follows: “The mountain air sighed through the treetops as pure and sweet as the breath of a maiden; squirrels gambled in the forest trees; turkeys gobbled and strutted on the mountains; eagles screamed from ~ their lofty perch on towering cliffs; and doves cooed their story of love on every hill and in every dale.”
From History of Jackson County, Alabama (1935) by John Robert Kennamer pp. 6-7
The small farmer settled back on the mountains and in the hill section of the county [circa 1817-1818]. He had come in search of economic freedom and more liberty of life in the forest. He loved his rifle and the pursuit of the game in the woods. He built his house of logs, cleared his corn patches and raised his hogs and cattle on the range. The ring of the axe in the forest was a familiar sound among the pioneers, and to clear the land was a great task. The usual mode was to ‘belt‘ or deaden all the timber save the smaller saplings, and commence cultivating before the roots and small stumps were out of the way. This ‘New’ ground was planted in corn.”
From History of Jackson County, Alabama (1935) by John Robert Kennamer p. 12
“However, the great bulk of the county was uncultivated and lay wild in native forest. It ‘was a county of springs. No purer water ever gushed from under hill or mountain in any land, and rippled cheerily on toward the larger streams all the year around.”
From History of Jackson County, Alabama (1935) by John Robert Kennamer p. 13