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Darby Plains
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↑About the Darby Plains
The Darby Plains are a small, unique region in Ohio that has unique terrain and historically had a distinctive forest type from its surroundings.This region, like the Loamy High Lime Till Plains which surrounds this region to the east, south, and southwest, is covered in loamy, lime-rich glacial deposits, underlain by carbonate bedrock. However, this region is covered by sorted particles of glacial drift, contrasting with the unsorted glacial till deposits. This results in soils that tend to be more poorly-drained. A number of terminal moraines are also found throughout the region. The region has some seasonal ponds.
The climate is humid and continental, with precipitation peaking in May and being somewhat lower September through February.
Original vegetation cover here was mixed oak forest, with wet prairies found on glacial moraines. Especially in the south of this region, poorly-drained sites supported elm-ash swamp forest as well as wet prairies.
This area is now heavily farmed, producing corn, soybeans, and wheat, and there is also some pastureland. This area has some of the highest crop yields of anywhere in Ohio. There is very little remaining forest cover; throughout most of the region what little forest remains exists as isolated woodlots separated from each other by large distances. The largest portion of forest cover exists along Big Darby Creek, some of which is protected as part of Battelle Darby Creek Metro Park.
This region is surrounded to the east, south, and southwest by the similar but better-drained Loamy High Lime Till Plains. It is bordered to the northwest by the more forested Mad River Interlobate Area, and to the northeast by the more clay-rich and poorly-drained Clayey High Lime Till Plains.
Plant Lists & In-Region Search
We do not yet have data to generate plant lists for a region as fine-tuned as this one. However you can move up to the broader Eastern Corn Belt Plains and generate lists for that region: native plants or all plants. Or search that region's plants here:
↑References
1. Woods, A.J, Omernik, J.M., Brockman, C.S., Gerber, T.D., Hosteter, W.D., Azevedo, S.H. "Ecoregions of Indiana and Ohio (Poster)", US Geological Survey (1998) Web.
