ILLUSTRATED FLORA OF EAST TEXAS - Brit - Botanical Research ...

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PRESETTLEMENT AND EARLY SETTLEMENT CONDITIONS ON BLACKLAND PRAIRIE/INTRODUCTION 135 FIG. 78/ARTIST’S RENDITION OF THE PRESETTLEMENT BLACKLAND PRAIRIE OF TEXAS. FROM THE DUST JACKET OF SHINNERS & MAHLER’S ILLUSTRATED FLORA OF NORTH CENTRAL TEXAS (DIGGS ET AL. 1999). PAINTING BY LINNY HEAGY COPYRIGHT ©1999. BY PERMISSION OF THE ARTIST. places by ‘mottes’ or clumps of live oaks on uplands, pecan, bois d’arc, walnut and oaks in the stream bottoms; juniper and sumac where stony slopes exist, and post oak and black-jack in the sandy belts. Smythe (1852) described the eastern edge of the Blackland Prairie as having “… a view of almost boundless Prairie stretching to the north, as far as the eye could reach.…” He further referred to it as …a boundless plain scarcely broken by a single slope or valley, and nearly destitute of trees; (the mesquite appearing but seldom.) Several times during the forenoon not a single shrub or tree could be seen in any direction…. The grazing has reached its climax, it would be impossible for natural pasturage to excell [excel] this. Olmsted’s (1857) description of an outlying piece of the Blackland Prairie (Fayette Prairie) was almost poetic: …we came out suddenly, as if a curtain had risen, upon a broad prairie, reaching in swells like the ocean after a great storm, to the horizon before us.… Gideon Lincecum in 1835 (Lincecum & Phillips 1994) described the southern Blackland Prairie as follows: The day’s journey passed us over the most delightful prairie country I had ever seen. As we passed over the dividing ridge, between the two tributaries of the Colorado and the Navidad and La Vaca, there was a vast, greatly undulating plain looking South, and the branches of the two above named little rivers, lay spread out before us, resembling a pair of enormous fans. The course of their branches were distinctly marked by the streaks of timber on the margins, presenting to our view a shade of darker green engraved in the face of the boundless plain of grass that slightly dipped away gulf-wards to the far-off smoky obstruction. Kendall (1845) also described the southern part of the Blackland Prairie as …rolling and beautiful prairies, occasionally relieved by the slight skirting of timber which fringes the margins of the small streams, or by a small grove of timber so regularly planted by nature that it would almost seem the hand of man had assisted in its production. Ferdinand Roemer’s (1849) descriptions of the same region included “open prairie,” “extensive prairies” with mesquite trees and scattered oak groves, “undulating prairie extending… an immeasurable distance,” and “gently rolling, almost treeless plain.” Indeed, on the Blackland Prairie, trees were often rare except as riverine forests along streams or as occasional scattered groves or mottes “such as the one near Kentuckytown that gave Pilot Grove [in southeastern
136 INTRODUCTION/PRESETTLEMENT AND EARLY SETTLEMENT CONDITIONS ON BLACKLAND PRAIRIE Grayson County] its name, the trees being a major landmark in a featureless terrain.” (McLeRoy 1993). The riverine forests along Big Mineral Creek (Grayson County) were described by Parker (1856) as “a rich bottom, thickly grown up with large cotton wood, honey locust, overcup [actually bur oak], and other heavy timber, besides plenty of the bois d’arc.” Maclura pomifera (bois d’arc) was apparently endemic to a small area in northeast TX (12 counties, mostly in the Blackland Prairie) and adjacent OK and AR (Little 1971; Weniger 1996). Based on early explorer accounts (e.g., Marryat 1843), this species sometimes formed impenetrable thickets along creeks in the northern Blackland Prairie (see detailed discussion in Weniger 1996). Roemer (1849) described a trading post he visited in Falls County as “on a hill covered with oak trees, two miles distant from the Brazos, above the broad forested bottom of Tohawacony Creek.” He further described the wooded bottomland as having “high, dense trees.” The presence of such wooded bottomlands was probably quite striking in the midst of vast stretches of prairie. In summary, the original vegetation of the Blackland Prairie seems to have been predominantly tall grass prairie with trees along watercourses, sometimes scattered on the prairie, or concentrated in certain areas (e.g., Pilot Grove), possibly as the result of locally favorable soil conditions or topography. THE ROLE OF FIRE ON THE PRESETTLEMENT BLACKLAND PRAIRIE—Fire was probably an important (if not the most important) factor in the maintenance of the presettlement Blackland Prairie vegetation, and it undoubtedly had a major impact on the structure of plant communities (Anderson 1990; Collins & Gibson 1990; Strickland & Fox 1993; Jones & Cushman 2004). Axelrod (1985) argued that fire was a primary factor in the rise of the extensive North American grasslands after the end of the last glacial maximum. Unlike woody plants, which are usually killed or severely damaged by fire, grasses are highly fire-adapted, with a number of specific adaptations allowing them not only to survive but prosper under conditions of recurrent fire (and also grazing and trampling). These adaptations include the presence of intercalary meristems (located in the culms just above the nodes and in the leaves near the ligules, thus allowing growth from the base even if terminal parts are damaged), the large amount of below ground biomass, and the tendency to branch (“tiller”) or produce stolons or rhizomes near or below ground level. During early settlement times, huge grassland fires were well known in central North America—for example, a massive 1885 fire described by Haley (1929) began in western Kansas and burned across northern Texas, a total distance of 282 km (175 miles). Haley (1929) also gave many other examples of large-scale grass fires. He quoted Hank Smith, an early settler in Crosby County in the Texas plains country, about a fire in 1879: The fire swept thousands of square miles of country to the south and southwest, north and northeast of Mount Blanco. All through the country at that time, especially along the streams were hundreds of magnificent groves of fine timber, particularly cottonwood and hackberry.… That fire killed the timber and in effect literally wiped it out. Another example is a 1905 fire that started at Hyannis, Nebraska, presumably ignited by lightning. “It traveled over 165 miles and finally burned out within the watersheds of the Middle Loup and Dismal Rivers, apparently stopped by both rivers” (Komarek 1966). The Blackland Prairie, located at the extreme southern end of the True Prairie grassland association (Gould & Shaw 1983), would appear to have been especially susceptible to prairie fires. The high summer temperatures, extremely irregular summer rainfall, periodic droughts, strong winds, frequent summer lightning storms, and resulting recurrent fires during hot dry periods would have been potent forces in shaping the vegetation
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ILLUSTRATED FLORA OF EAST TEXAS
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ALLDREDGE, LINDA & JACK BATTERBAE,
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We would like to recognize and expr
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ISSN 0833-1475 ISBN 1-889878-12-X S
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“DEEP EAST TEXAS IS AN OLD, QUIET
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Elray S. Nixon E lray Nixon was bor
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ILLUSTRATED FLORA OF EAST TEXAS TAB
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TABLE OFCONTENTS/ PAGE APPENDICES A
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Hymenocallis liriosme
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ILLUSTRATED FLORA OF EAST TEXAS OVE
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4 INTRODUCTION/GEOGRAPHIC AREA OF E
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10 INTRODUCTION/MAJOR RIVERS OF EAS
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12 INTRODUCTION/PLANTS TREATED The
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14 INTRODUCTION/GUIDE TO ARRANGEMEN
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16 INTRODUCTION/GUIDE TO SOURCES OF
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18 INTRODUCTION/GUIDE TO GEOGRAPHIC
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20 INTRODUCTION/GUIDE TO ENDANGERED
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22 INTRODUCTION/GUIDE TO GLOSSARY,
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24 INTRODUCTION/GUIDE TO ABBREVIATI
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26 INTRODUCTION/SUMMARY DATA ON FLO
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28 INTRODUCTION/ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Kar
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30 INTRODUCTION/AUTHORS’ NOTE Pre
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32 INTRODUCTION/GENERAL GEOLOGY OF
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46 INTRODUCTION/SOILS SOIL ORDER DE
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48 INTRODUCTION/SOILS, EAST TEXAS B
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50 INTRODUCTION/SOIL-RELATED GEOLOG
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60 INTRODUCTION/SOILS OF BLACKLAND
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66 INTRODUCTION/CLIMATE OF EAST TEX
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Forests define East Texas, and to a
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78 INTRODUCTION/GEOLOGY OF PINEYWOO
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80 INTRODUCTION/PRESETTLEMENT, EARL
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82 INTRODUCTION/PRESETTLEMENT, EARL
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Page 163 and 164: 146 INTRODUCTION/FUTURE OF BLACKLAN
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186 INTRODUCTION/HISTORY OF BIG THI
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188 INTRODUCTION/HISTORY OF BIG THI
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190 INTRODUCTION/CONSERVATION IN BI
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200 INTRODUCTION/ORIGIN AND DIVERSI
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228 INTRODUCTION/CONSERVATION IN EA
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234 INTRODUCTION/HISTORY OF BOTANY
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244 INTRODUCTION/BOTANY IN NORTH CE
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246 INTRODUCTION/BOTANY IN NORTH CE
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248 INTRODUCTION/BOTANY AT UNIVERSI
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250 INTRODUCTION/BOTANY AT TEXAS A&
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252 INTRODUCTION/BOTANY AT TEXAS A&
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254 INTRODUCTION/OTHER CONTRIBUTION
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256 INTRODUCTION/CURRENT BOTANICAL
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258 INTRODUCTION/BOTANICAL ART IN E
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