Plant Life in Kentucky
From its highest elevation at Black Mountain to its lowest elevation at the Mississippi River, Kentucky, nicknamed the "Bluegrass State," has a rich array of plant life throughout its varying topography. Kentucky summers are usually warm and humid. Its winters are moderately cold, offering an ideal environment to many temperate-loving plants. Does this Spark an idea?
Other People Are Reading
-
Soil
-
Kentucky has more than 90 different soil types.
Illinois University at Urbana claims that the highly productive Crider soils, which cover 500,000 acres in 35 counties, and support crops such as hay, soybeans, corn and tobacco. Much of this prime farmland is reserved for pasture.
According to USDA Forest Service, about 73 percent of the Daniel Boone National Forest has deep-loamy and fine soil, loamy-skeletal soil or coarse-loamy soil. Twenty-three percent has clay, fine-silty, deep fine-loamy and deep loamy soil.
Geography
-
According to Netstate, out of Kentucky's 40,411 square miles, 39,732 square miles of Kentucky are land (for terrestrial plants) and 679 square miles are water (for aquatic plants).
Kentucky has five geographic regions, each with its own array of plant life. Its northern central area, the Bluegrass Region, has rolling meadows surrounded by sandstone "knobs."
Western Coal Field in northwestern Kentucky, although named for its large coal deposits, has farmland where it borders the Ohio River.
Cumberland Plateau, a part of the Appalachian Plateau that covers eastern Kentucky, features valleys, plateaus and mountains.
Pennyroyal Region, along the southern border of Kentucky, contains mostly flat lands with occasionally rolling hills.
Jackson Purchase Region, located at Kentucky's far western tip, features low hills and floodplains as it is bordered by Kentucky Lake, and the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers.
-
Climate
-
With an annual average temperature 57 degrees Fahrenheit, most of Kentucky has an average annual minimum temperature -10 to 0 degrees Fahrenheit in USDA hardiness zones 6a and 6b, with a couple of higher elevations at -10 to -15 degrees Fahrenheit.
Kentucky has an average of 166 days of growing season for those plants that perish at 32 degrees Fahrenheit.
The annual average precipitation of 48 inches is evenly dispersed throughout the year, with southern Kentucky receiving about 50 inches per year and the northern part receiving 40 inches.
History
-
From state line to state line, Kentucky was covered with trees such as Ohio buckeye, yellow poplar (state tree), chestnut, sycamore, walnut and hickory. By the end of the 19th century, more than 700,000 acres had been cut down due to conversion for development purposes. Reforestation since 2004 has reintroduced many of these trees back into Kentucky until as of 2010, according to the University of Kentucky College of Agriculture Cooperative Extension Service. Trees cover 47 percent of Kentucky, or 12 million acres.
Types
-
The more than 12,000 plant species that live in Kentucky fall into seven basic categories: native trees (such as eastern redbud, yellow poplar, shagbark, and Kentucky Coffeetree); shrubs and bushes (i.e. members of Heath, Holly, Rose, Honeysuckle and Sumac Families); as well as cultivated plants, mosses and liverworts (i.e. sphagnum or peat moss); grasses and ferns (i.e. big and little bluestern grasses, prairie cord grasses, and lady fern); vines and creepers (i.e. morning glories, Virginia creeper, and poison ivy); and herbaceous flowering plants (i.e. goldenrod, lay slippers and penny royal).
-
References
Resources
- Photo Credit Plants image by Viktor Alevetdinov from Fotolia.com
