|
|
Welcome to the Pineywoods Plants Digital Gallery!
(Version 8.04)
The "Pineywoods"
represent the
forested eastern edge of Texas
along with the the
ecologically-similar forests of adjacent northwestern and central Louisiana. Markedly different from most of Texas, tall stands of pines and
broad-leaved deciduous trees cover much of the
gently rolling landscape.
There is a rich variety of natural habitats: dry sandy upland pine-oak
communities, remnants of once-extensive longleaf pine woodlands,
pine-deciduous mixed forests, vast "bottomland hardwood" forests on the
floodplains of the region's numerous rivers, baldcypress swamps, and much
more. The climate is warm and humid; some areas experience as much as 50"
(1270 mm) of rainfall a year. Timber, poultry, and ranching are some
important local industries and much of the Pineywoods remains relatively
free from urbanization. Public lands such as
Kisatchie National Forest (Louisiana),
the
National Forests &
Grasslands of Texas,
and the
Big Thicket National Preserve
enable one to easily explore the rich and varied flora which includes more
than 2100 species. In this gallery you will find pictures of native and
naturalized vascular plants from this fascinating, and to many, little
known, part of North America.
The gallery, a product of more
than six years of photographic field excursions, currently contains 4337
photographs representing nearly 1,000 native and naturalized species, almost
half of the local vascular plant flora. Nearly all species that a causal
observer is likely to encounter during a typical walk in the woods are
represented along with most habitat-type indicator species. Most
images were obtained at either 1200x1600 or 1704x2272-pixel resolution.
Nomenclature
and
family circumscriptions
follow the
newly-published Volume I of the Illustrated Flora of East Texas (Diggs et
al. 2006) for ferns, Lycophytes, gymnosperms, and monocots;
Kartesz
(1999) for all other vascular
plant groups; and the Bryoflora of North America website for bryophytes. Diggs et al. (1999) and Correl
and Johnston (1979) were among the many sources consulted for species
identification. The division of the major
groups of flowering plants into Monocotyledons, Nymphaeids, Magnoliids and Eudicotyledons in the gallery is according to the Angiosperm
Phylogeny Group (APG) classification (APG 1998, 2003).
-
Currently one may browse by
botanical family names within each of the major groups of plants. Click
here or click the
"Browse the Gallery" link.
-
In the future, we hope to
enable browsing by easily-recognized characters such as flower color as well
as by habitat type. The gallery will continue to connect students,
laymen, and professionals with the plants that are the foundation of both
the ecosystems and economy of east Texas.
|
Links
 |
