The woody flora of the Big South Fork National River and Recreation Area was collected during two growing seasons from 1999 to 2000. The 123,000 acre study area lies on the Cumberland Plateau in Tennessee and Kentucky. Seven hundred and sixty accessions yielded 51 families, 100 genera, and 183 species. County records totaled 128. Magnolia fraseri was collected for the first time from the Cumberland Plateau in Tennessee. Fourteen Federal or State listed taxa were collected including Comptonia peregrina, which has only been collected two other times dating back to 1842. Voucher specimens were deposited in the herbarium of the University of Tennessee, Knoxville.
Comparisons were drawn between the BSFNRRA and several other floras in the surrounding southern Appalachians. The BSFNRRA is also directly compared to the epitome of richness for the eastern USA, the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. These comparisons yielded unexpected results in that the BSFNRRA contains more woody families than does the GSMNP and is the richest among all of the natural areas of the Cumberland Plateau.
An artificial key to the known and expected woody plants of the BSFNRRA was created and accompanies the great amount of data compiled in this study, all of which is available on the companion CD.
With this work, I hope to elevate public awareness of this national land and help to secure its preservation for future biological entities
