Great Smoky Mountains - Flora

Flora

Heavy logging in the late 19th-century and early 20th-century devastated much of the forests of the Smokies, but the National Park Service estimates 187,000 acres (760 km2) of old growth forest remains, comprising the largest old growth stand in the Eastern United States. Most of the forest is a mature second-growth hardwood forest. The range's 1,600 species of flowering plants include over 100 species of native trees and 100 species of native shrubs. The Great Smokies are also home to over 450 species of non-vascular plants, and 2,000 species of fungi.

The forests of the Smokies are typically divided into three zones— the cove hardwood forests in the stream valleys, coves, and lower mountain slopes, the northern hardwood forests on the higher mountain slopes, and the spruce-fir or boreal forest at the very highest elevations. Balds— patches of land where trees are unexpectedly absent or sparse— are interspersed through the mid-to-upper elevations in the range. Balds include grassy balds, which are highland meadows covered primarily by thick grasses, and heath balds, which are dense thickets of rhododendron and mountain laurel typically occurring on narrow ridges. Mixed oak-pine forests are found on dry ridges, especially on the south-facing North Carolina side of the range. Stands dominated by the Eastern Hemlock are occasionally found along streams and broad slopes above 3,500 feet (1,100 m).