No formal inventory of the plants present had been made. Previous work involved only surveys for rare plants conducted by personnel of the Oklahoma Natural Heritage Inventory and The Nature Conservancy. This lack of information is especially significant because of the high floristic diversity of the region. In addition, knowledge of the plants present is needed to evaluate success in restoring pre-settlement forest conditions. As noted above, the absence of fire has resulted in dramatic shifts in the nature of the forest community.
Baseline information is needed in order to make comparisons as fire regimes are developed.
Information on the understory communities will be presented in a later publication. The former comprises moderate to deep, and moderately to excessively drained, loamy soils over sandstone and shale. Summers are hot with high humidity levels. Average annual precipitation is 122 cm, with April and May the wettest months. Days with snow cover of 2.5 cm or more are typically only three per year.