Black land prairies
Description: This area is a transition between the plains of the West Texas
Panhandle and the Pineywoods of East Texas. It’s sometimes called the
crosstimbers prairie because of patches of woodland that run along small
portions of it. Once, tall prairie grasses grew all across this region but settlers
built farms and produce crops on it now. Conservation biologists are trying to
restore some of the prairies that wildlife depend upon for survival. Farming and
ranching are the two primary forms of agricultural production on this type of
land.
Size: 25,000 square miles
Topography: The landscape is gently rolling to nearly level, and elevations range
from 300 to 800 feet above sea level.
Soil Type: Typically, soils are uniformly dark-colored clays, often referred to as
"black gumbo" they tend to be dry and hard in the summer and wet, thick and
sticky in the winter.
Plant life:
Pecan,
Black hickory,
Black walnut,
Sycamore,
Burr oak,
Eastern cottonwood,
Post oak,
Persimmon,
Wax myrtle,
Buckeye,
Mexican plum,
Sugarberry
Green, ash,
Red oak,
Flameleaf, sumac,
Green hawthorne,
Black cherry,
American, elderberry,
Bald cypress,
Buttonbush,
Wildlife:
Plains pocket gopher,
Beaver
Raccoon,
Porcupine,
Hispid, cotton rat,
Ornate box turtle,
Green-winged teal,
Bobwhite quail,
Red-shouldered hawk,
Scissortail flycatcher, White-tailed deer,
Brazilian free-tailed bat,
Ringtail
Nine-banded armadillo,
Texas horned lizard,
Eastern hognose snake,
Tarantula,
Northern mockingbird.
Climate: Temperate prairies with an average rainfall of 28-40 inches per year.
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