Forest
Diverse cove hardwood forests— which include yellow poplar, white oak, red oak, and hemlock— are found in the bottomlands along stream beds. The ridge slopes are covered by a mixed hardwood-pine forest consisting primarily of white oak, red oak, and hickory in moist areas and substantial stands of white pine, pitch pine, and shortleaf pine on drier slopes and ridgecrests.
While most of the forest is second-growth, two pockets of old growth forest remain within the wilderness area. One is a 187-acre (0.76 km2) stand of primarily beech and maple in the vicinity of Falls Branch Falls, which is easily accessible from the Cherohala Skyway via the Falls Branch Falls Trail. The other is an isolated 200-acre (0.81 km2) patch of hemlock near Glenn Gap.
Read more about this topic: Citico Creek Wilderness
Famous quotes containing the word forest:
“What is most striking in the Maine wilderness is the continuousness of the forest, with fewer open intervals or glades than you had imagined. Except the few burnt lands, the narrow intervals on the rivers, the bare tops of the high mountains, and the lakes and streams, the forest is uninterrupted.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“The forest waves, the morning breaks,
The pastures sleep, ripple the lakes,
Leaves twinkle, flowers like persons be
And life pulsates in rock or tree.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)