The Piedmont Plateau

I know very little about this area so I'm going to do a little googling and share. So apparently Maryland breaks down into several regions with varying habitats because of it's close location to the Atlantic and Appalachian Mountains and it's a weird shape. I myself can attest to the very strange weather here. In Michigan, storms came from the west (usually). In Florida storms usually just popped up every day do to heat and humidity. You just came to expect them. Here we seem to get weather from the west, east, north, south depending on  where the jet stream is moving through. I would really hate to be a weather person here although it might keep things exciting:)

Anyhow, I was getting to what“Piedmont” stands for: Foot (pied) Hill (mont) so quite literally the foothills of the Appalachian. The dirt contains a lot of different sediments but is heavily clay and fairly fertile. It runs from New Jersey to Alabama and right through Maryland.

As I do a little more digging I am in awe of how much I either don't know or never learned about ecology as a botany major. Perhaps an oversight. Apparently the woods near me is located in the Paint Branch Park, a part of the Paint Branch Watershed which is a tributary of the Anacostia River. This tributary seems to be the most natural and least developed which is good for me:) It is mostly “Riparian Zone” I could tell you to google it but I will save you the trouble. The Riparian zone is one of the 15 land biomes on Earth and is the buffer area around a river. Because Riparian zones are so important to the health of the river (prevent run off, erosion, pollution and great place for animals to hang out) many are under national protection. I think this area is. It is all park with miles of walking trails running through it.

This is an example:

There are areas in a Riparian Zone including: woodland, forest, buffer and strip. At least in wikipedia, I can't seem to find these anywhere else.  Fertile soil and moisture contribute to a Riparian zones diversity which is much greater then other biomes. Knowing this, I expect to find large numbers of plant species in my forest. Apparently the Riparian zones in Maryland are “key microhabitats” which makes sense as to why driving is a pain around here. Only a limited number of roads run east west to avoid cutting through the parks.

“Dominant overstory species in early- and mid-successional stands were tulip poplar, birch, white basswood, and black cherry. Late-successional and old growth stands were dominated by hemlock, white pine, and oak. “ I will probably start with looking for types of trees.

http://pubs.ext.vt.edu/420/420-152/420-152.html