Home » Regions » North America » Eastern Temperate Forests » Ozark, Oauchita-Appalachian Forests » Southwestern Appalachians

Southwestern Appalachians

To check where a specific point lies, you can look it up in our Ecoregion Locator.

↑Map Legend & Subregion List

This list will help you navigate the regions in case you have problems with viewing or clicking the interactive map above.

Name	†	Color on Map	EPA Code‡
Cumberland Plateau	○		68a
Sequatchie Valley	…		68b
Plateau Escarpment	✓		68c
Southern Table Plateaus	○		68d
Dissected Plateau	…		68e
Shale Hills	…		68f

† Status: ✓ = Complete ○ = Needs Image … = Incomplete ∅ = Stub Only

‡ This code refers to the US EPA's Level 4 ecoregion codes for the continental U.S., see here.

↑Progress

↑About the Southwestern Appalachians

The Southwestern Appalachians is the southwesternmost portion of the Appalachians, stretching from northern Alabama, northeast through Tennessee into a small portion of Kentucky. It makes up only a small portion of each of these states.

The climate here is humid and subtropical, with hot, humid summers and relatively mild winters. The terrain in this region is locally variable, with gently rolling plateaus, only weakly dissected in some areas, but deeply dissected and opening into rugged hills in others. Some areas have steep cliffs and gorges.

At higher elevations, the forest here consists mostly of a mixture of oaks, especially white oak and southern red oak, with shortleaf pine and some hickories. Some mixed mesophytic forests can be found in the deepest ravines and steepest slopes, but most of this forest type occurs farther north. The mixed mesophytic forest here includes maple, buckeye, American beech, various ash, American basswood, sweetgum, and various oaks.

This area is mostly still forested, although there is some agriculture, with major crops being soybean, corn, hay, wheat, and tobacco. At the southern end of this region these is some poultry and egg production. There is also some coal mining here. There are no large cities here but are quite a few towns and small cities.

Plant Lists & In-Region Search

↑References

1. Wiken, E., Griffith, G. "North American Terrestrial Ecoregions - Level III", Commission for Environmental Cooperation, (2011) Web.