The mixed deciduous forest is at it’s very best on the south slope of Kentucky’s Pine Mountain. Within the mixed deciduous, elsewhere known as the Appalachian Cove Forest, it's common to find forest communities that boast a shared dominance of 25 or more species of trees.
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| Huge Persimmon at Pine Mountain SRP |
There are five discernible layers in this complex assemblage – a top canopy of mature trees, a mid-story of trees that are aspiring to the canopy, an under-story of smaller trees and shrubs, a ground layer of showy flowering plants, and a surface layer of mosses and lichens. The mixed deciduous forest, comprised of deciduous hardwoods, towering evergreens, and myriad herbaceous plants is recognized as the oldest and most intricate forest association in eastern North America.
Pine Mountain State Resort Park is a very special place. Here, ravine gorges and wooded coves are clothed in a rich robe of vegetation that is more stable, complex, and varied than any other in Kentucky. Region wide, over 130 species of trees and 1400 different species of flowering herbs have found quiet sanctuary in these forest surroundings that date back thousands of years.
Massive trees abound in isolated, undisturbed mature stands throughout the park and include hemlock, tulip poplar, white oak, black oak, chestnut oak, and formerly, American chestnut. Closely associated with them are a lesser group of trees that include sugar maple, red maple, basswood, yellow buckeye, red oak, black walnut, white ash, and an assortment of magnolias among others.
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| Fragmented Old Growth Forest at Pine Mountain SRP |
Unlike northern boreal forests prehistorically overrun and displaced by glaciers over 12,000 years ago, the forests of the Cumberland Mountains remained untouched by ice. As the Cumberland Mountains were just south of the glacial ice advance, they served as an important refuge for northern species that migrated southward ahead of the glacier to the less extreme, more hospitable climate. Now, mixed forests of hardwoods, evergreens, and herbaceous plants featuring northern and southern species living virtually side-by-side is tangible evidence of that relocation. A hike from the top of Pine Mountain, by traversing the dry upland ridges and descending into the moist ravine gorges is comparable to undertaking a great journey from southern Ontario southward to northern Georgia.
