Geologic Provinces: On the Border of Two Provinces
In addition to
being a great spot to view medicinal plants,
Sugar Hill has geological significance. Geologists divide the
earth into hundreds of physiographic provinces, each of which
represents a unique land form and helps determine the type of plants
and animals which will live there. Sugar Hill is located within
the Ridge and Valley Province, a portion of the Appalachian Mountains
where the underlying rocks have been folded like a crumpled up carpet
into a serious of parallel ridges divided by long river valleys.
Sugar Hill is wedged into the Clinch River valley north of the Clinch
Mountain, a ridge that runs in a nearly straight line for about 150
miles from Burke’s Garden, Virginia, to Knoxville, Tennessee.
Just north and
west of Sugar Hill, however, the form of the land changes. Here
on the Cumberland Plateau, the land more closely resembles a crumpled
up paper towel with stream valleys running in all directions. The
elevation on the Cumberland Plateau is also higher than that in the
Ridge and Valley Province and different plants and animals call this
region home.
Ecologists call
the border of two ecosystems an ecotone --- for example, the shrubby
plants growing along the fence between a pasture and the forest form
one type of ecotone. Ecotones often contain more types of plants
and animals than can be found in either of the two ecosystems they
divide, a phenomenon known as the edge effect. So it should come
as no surprise that Sugar Hill, located on the border of two
physiographic provinces, is home to such a diversity of life.
Keep your eyes open for misplaced Cumberland Plateau species as you
hike the trails around Sugar Hill.
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