Читать книгу Afoot & Afield: Atlanta. 108 Spectacular Outings in North-Central Georgia онлайн

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OAK–HICKORY FOREST

The north Georgia mountains fall into the oak–hickory forest classification. Here you will find a wide variety of oaks such as white, chestnut, red, scarlet, and black. Some of the hickory species include shagbark, bitternut, and pignut. North Georgia’s mountain slopes and stream basins are also home to hemlocks, which can grow to be 100 feet tall with trunks 4 feet in diameter. You’ll see sweet birch as well in the hardwood coves of the mountains. Moist mountain areas support black cherry as well as butternut trees, which produce a fruit with a hairy yellow-green hull. Red maples grow on the slopes and in the valleys of the mountain region (and are also common in the Piedmont). One prominent tree in the region is the sourwood, with trunks that sometimes bend at great angles. Older sourwood trees have bark that resembles alligator skin with deep furrows.

Whether you’re hiking in the Valley and Ridge, Blue Ridge, or Piedmont regions, you will notice a change in tree types in moist coves and along stream banks. River birch is common along streams and is identified by bark that peels off in curls. This is also the habitat for blue beech (20 to 30 feet high), as well as the much taller and often-seen American beech. This tree can be 80 feet high and has easily recognizable smooth, gray bark. Areas with moist soil in these parts of the state give life to Fraser magnolias, which have smooth, gray-brown bark and long, broad leaves that are green and glossy. In such regions, yellow poplars are common and grow to more than 100 feet in height. Yellow poplars have smooth bark that appears gray on older trees. In bottomlands and along stream banks, American sycamores can also be found.