ABSTRACT
This chapter concerns the hardwood forests that cover the ridges, slopes, and coves of the Southern Appalachian Mountains and its associated provinces. It deals with the broadleaf woodlands of the Fall Line Sandhills, the Piedmont, the West Florida sandhills, the loessal Bluff Hills of western Mississippi and Tennessee, the Interior Highlands of Arkansas, Missouri, and Oklahoma, the Post Oak Belt of Texas, and, of course, the hardwoods that accompany the 11 pine species found throughout the region that grow beyond the reaches of flood waters along the streams and rivers. Broadleaf vegetation over the millenia of time has introduced, through its leaf litter, an organic component that, in turn, results in the development of a deep, mull humus layer. These soils are generally low in nitrogen and available phosphorus, and low to high in potassium. Throughout the South’s uplands, including most of the pinelands, broadleaf species formed the climax forests.
