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Whitewater Interlobate Area
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↑About the Whitewater Interlobate Area
The Whitewater Interlobate Area is a unique part of the Eastern Corn Belt Plains, located mostly in eastern Indiana, stretching barely into Ohio. It centers around the whitewater river and its numerous tributaries.This region was formed when two glacial lobes converged, dumping large amounts of glacial debris, which has led to a more hetereogeneous soil type and more irregular topography than the surroundings. Local relief here ranges from 25-225 feet, not as pronounced as the hillier Mad River Interlobate Area farther east. This area is characterized by cool-water perennial streams fed by abundant groundwater. The waterways feature fish species not found in surrounding areas.
In the north of this region, the uplands are hillier and the streams flow through broader, flatter floodplains, but towards the south the waterways have etched narrower valleys through their flatter, higher-elevation surroundings. This diversity of topography creates greater diversity of forest types than in the surrounding regions.
Natural forest cover here was mostly beech forest, with elm-ash swamp forest on the wetter, poorly-drained sites, and oak-hickory forest on the drier sites.
Like most of the surrounding areas, this region is heavily utilized for agriculture, mostly corn, soybean, and livestock farmland. However, there is greater forest cover than in the surrounding Loamy High Lime Till Plains. Most of the forest cover is along riparian areas, and is less a result of intentional conservation and more a function of the steep topography along the rivers and streams hindering building and agriculture.
Richmond is the largest city here, followed by New Castle and Connersville, all in Indiana.
This region is mostly surrounded by the Loamy High Lime Till Plains, but to the south it directly borders the Outer Bluegrass region, which has even greater forest cover.
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.
