The New River is a river which flows through the U.S. states of North Carolina, Virginia, and West Virginia before joining with the Gauley River to form the Kanawha River at the town of Gauley Bridge, West Virginia. Part of the Ohio River watershed, it is about 360 miles (580 km) long.
Mount Tamalpais, known locally as Mount Tam, is a peak in Marin County, California, United States, often considered symbolic of Marin County. Much of Mount Tamalpais is protected within public lands such as Mount Tamalpais State Park, the Marin Municipal Water District watershed, and National Park Service land, such as Muir Woods.
The Sandhills or Carolina Sandhills is a 10-35 mi wide physiographic region within the U.S. Atlantic Coastal Plain province, along the updip (inland) margin of this province in the States of North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia. The extent of the Carolina Sandhills is shown clearly in maps of the ecoregions of North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia.
Serpentine soil is an uncommon soil type produced by weathered ultramafic rock such as peridotite and its metamorphic derivatives such as serpentinite. More precisely, serpentine soil contains minerals of the serpentine subgroup, especially antigorite, lizardite, and chrysotile or white asbestos, all of which are commonly found in ultramafic rocks. The term "serpentine" is commonly used to refer to both the soil type and the mineral group which forms its parent materials.
Pine barrens, pine plains, sand plains, or pinelands occur throughout the U.S. from Florida to Maine as well as the Midwest, West, and Canada and parts of Eurasia. Pine barrens are plant communities that occur on dry, acidic, infertile soils, dominated by grasses, forbs, low shrubs, and small to medium-sized pines. The most extensive barrens occur in large areas of sandy glacial deposits, lakebeds, and outwash terraces along rivers.
William Penn State Forest is a Pennsylvania State Forest in Pennsylvania Bureau of Forestry District #17. The main offices are located in Elverson in Chester County, Pennsylvania in the United States.
Packera is a genus of about 64 species of plants in the daisy family, Asteraceae. Most species are commonly called ragworts or grounsels. Its members were previously included in the genus Senecio, but were divided out based on chromosome numbers, a variety of morphological characters, and molecular phylogeny.
The Croatan National Forest is a U.S. National Forest, was established on July 29, 1936, and is located on the Atlantic coast of North Carolina. It is administered by the United States Forest Service, a part of the United States Department of Agriculture. The forest is managed together with the other three North Carolina National Forests from common headquarters in Asheville, North Carolina. However, Croatan has a local ranger district office in New Bern.
San Benito Mountain is the highest mountain in the Diablo Range of California. The summit is at an elevation of 5,267 feet (1,605 m). The rock is composed of asbestos (chrysotile), an ultramafic rock. It weathers to produce serpentine soils with characteristically low levels of nutrients like nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, and calcium, and high levels of magnesium and heavy metals including nickel and chromium. This means little vegetation grows in the area though there are some plants that only grow on such soils like the local endemic San Benito evening primrose. The Clear Creek Management Area includes the San Benito Mountain Research Natural Area, recognized for its unique pine and incense cedar forest assemblage. The Mediterranean climate is punctuated by cool, wet winters and hot, dry summers.
Barren vegetation describes an area of land where plant growth may be sparse, stunted, and/or contain limited biodiversity. Environmental conditions such as toxic or infertile soil, high winds, coastal salt-spray, and climatic conditions are often key factors in poor plant growth and development. Barren vegetation can be categorized depending on the climate, geology, and geographic location of a specific area.
Alexander State Forest is located in Rapides Parish, Louisiana near the town of Woodworth. It was established in 1923 as a state demonstration forest. It contains the Indian Creek Recreation Area and the Alexander State Forest Headquarters Building, constructed in 1935, is on the National Register of Historic Places.
Quercus ilicifolia, commonly known as bear oak or scrub oak, is a small shrubby oak native to the eastern United States and southeastern Canada. Its range extends in the United States from Maine to North Carolina, with reports of a few populations north of the international frontier in Ontario. The name ilicifolia means "holly-leaved."
Symphyotrichum depauperatum, commonly known as serpentine aster or starved aster, is a rare species in the family Asteraceae adapted to serpentine barrens, an ecosystem with a high concentration of toxic metals in the soil. It has been found in Pennsylvania, Maryland, and on some diabase glades in North Carolina. It grows to 50 centimeters and has white ray florets surrounding a center of yellow disk florets.
Packera layneae, known by the common name Layne's ragwort and Layne's butterweed, is a rare species of flowering plant in the aster family.
Packera macounii is a species of flowering plant in the aster family known by the common name Siskiyou Mountains ragwort. It is native to the west coast of North America from British Columbia to far northern California, where it grows in chaparral and mountain forests, often on serpentine soils.
Packera werneriifolia, known by the common names alpine rock butterweed and hoary groundsel, is a species of flowering plant in the aster family. It is native to the western United States in the Sierra Nevada mountain habitat in subalpine and alpine climates, including forests and barren talus.
Adiantum viridimontanum, commonly known as Green Mountain maidenhair fern, is a rare fern found only in outcrops of serpentine rock in New England and Eastern Canada. The leaf blade is cut into finger-like segments, themselves once-divided, which are borne on the outer side of a curved, dark, glossy rachis. These finger-like segments are not individual leaves, but parts of a single compound leaf. The "fingers" may be drooping or erect, depending on whether the individual fern grows in shade or sunlight. Spores are borne under false indusia at the edge of the subdivisions of the leaf, a characteristic unique to the genus Adiantum.
Packera castoreus is a rare species of flowering plant in the aster family known by the common names Beaver Mountain groundsel and Beaver Mountain ragwort. It is endemic to Utah in the United States, where it occurs only in the Tushar Mountains.
Salix brachycarpa is a species of flowering plant in the willow family known by the common names barren-ground willow, small-fruit willow and shortfruit willow.
Symphyotrichum rhiannon is a species of flowering plant endemic to a serpentine barren in western North Carolina. It has been given the vernacular Rhiannon's aster and is also known as Buck Creek aster. It is a perennial, herbaceous plant in the family Asteraceae.
