Integrative Natural History of the Blue Ridge Province, Part 3: The Cliff Dweller | Raven's Roost Overlook, Blue Ridge Parkway, Virginia, USA
Facing northwestward on a beautiful summer's day in the Old Dominion. What a magnificently scenic, botanical, and geological state this is.
I found this characteristic example of a Table Mountain Pine (Pinus pungens) and some of its siblings inhabiting an outcrop of metabasalt (metamorphosed basalt) of the Upper Neoproterozoic Catoctin Formation. I'll focus on that rock unit, as exposed here and at the Greenstone Overlook, in separate photos and descriptions.
The Table Mountain Pine is found in the mountains of the Eastern US, from Pennsylvania to Georgia. Its fairly linear, montane distribution makes it one of the more exotic tree species for a Midwestern botanist to find.
Part 4 of this series offers a close-up of this species's needles and cones.
You'll find the other photos and descriptions of this series in my Integrative Natural History of the Blue Ridge Province album.
Integrative Natural History of the Blue Ridge Province, Part 3: The Cliff Dweller | Raven's Roost Overlook, Blue Ridge Parkway, Virginia, USA
Facing northwestward on a beautiful summer's day in the Old Dominion. What a magnificently scenic, botanical, and geological state this is.
I found this characteristic example of a Table Mountain Pine (Pinus pungens) and some of its siblings inhabiting an outcrop of metabasalt (metamorphosed basalt) of the Upper Neoproterozoic Catoctin Formation. I'll focus on that rock unit, as exposed here and at the Greenstone Overlook, in separate photos and descriptions.
The Table Mountain Pine is found in the mountains of the Eastern US, from Pennsylvania to Georgia. Its fairly linear, montane distribution makes it one of the more exotic tree species for a Midwestern botanist to find.
Part 4 of this series offers a close-up of this species's needles and cones.
You'll find the other photos and descriptions of this series in my Integrative Natural History of the Blue Ridge Province album.