Fire Runs Through It. The Longleaf & Canebrake Landscape

摘要

Where drought, hurricanes, insects, and fire excluded so many % / other plant species, longleaf pine (Pinus palustris) thrived as %/ %/ an avant-garde pioneer in the harsh, uplands of the south-T T eastern United States. Over untold decades, these trees would take root and form a sweeping forest witnessed by early explorers tothe region. Ik^H^^^L^MA^I Wr^Down slope of these forests, in the oft-flooded bottomland and riparian buffers, the system was too harsh even for the hardy longleaf pine. However, it was within this dominion that a 'sibling' habitat known as canebrake (Anmdinaria spp.) would gain dominance and also become wide-spread. Though not as easy to navigate as the open and airy longleaf pine forests, the same early explorers made frequent accounts of immense 'canebrakes' separating these islands of longleaf pine like vast bodies of water. Occupying slightly different ecological niches, both habitats were vital to the biodiversity of the Southeast. Furthermore, amongst andbetween the longleaf pine forests and canebrakes, an expansive assemblage of plants and animals could be found.