A trip through Big South Fork country reveals a rich landscape of plants of all imaginable colors, textures, form, and function. The area’s woodlands, cliff lines, stream sides, and other habitats harbor a tremendous richness of plant species. The Big South Fork area is part of the greater southern Appalachian region, which is widely known as one of the most biologically diverse temperate forest regions in the world. While plants in Big South Fork National River and Recreation Area bear many similarities to other parts of the southern Appalachians, such as the Great Smoky Mountains, the combination of habitats and plants that occur at Big South Fork distinguish it as a special place to explore and protect. At the heart of this landscape lies the Big South Fork gorge; a forty-mile rift through the northern Cumberland Plateau. It is this gorge and the processes that helped form it over thousands of years that are, in part, responsible for the area’s unique plant assemblage.
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