1. VASCULAR FLORA AND PLANT COMMUNITIES OF DEAD HORSE KNOB (RUCKER'S KNOB), MADISON COUNTY, KENTUCKY.
- Author
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Thompson, Ralph L., Poindexter, Derick B., and Abbott, J. Richard
- Subjects
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PLANTS , *PLANT diversity , *SOILS , *DEVONIAN Period , *BLACK shales , *PINE , *VASCULAR plants - Abstract
A descriptive floristic study was conducted during the growing seasons of 2010-2011 and spring 2012 at Dead Horse Knob (Rucker's Knob), an isolated 2.6 ha steep eroded hill with a 312 m conical summit in southern Madison County, Berea, Kentucky. This Dead Horse Knob survey is the first comprehensive flora of a solitary knob in the Knobs Region of east-central Kentucky. The knob is comprised of four residual and colluvial soils from weathering of Devonian black shales. Dry-Mesic Oak-Hickory Forest with interspersed planted pines is the major forest type. Plant communities have been altered through the anthropogenic effects of excessive land use, livestock disturbances, and the presence of naturalized invasive species. The vascular flora is comprised of 291 species (this total includes infraspecific taxa), in 191 genera from 67 families, which consists of two Monilophytes, five Gymnosperms, and 284 Angiosperms (71 Monocots; 213 "Dicots"). One hundred and sixteen species (39.9% of the total flora) were exotic and 52 were invasive, with Lonicera maackii as the most detrimental. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2012