Part 7. Vegetation

Before the coming of the Europeans, almost half the territory of the country was taken up by forests, covering the whole of the Appalachian region in the east and the Cordillera slopes in the west. Considerable areas in the Central Plains were covered with prairies. By the 1970’s almost half the forests had been cut down, and large territories in the prairies had been ploughed.

In the north-east of the country and in the region of the Great Lakes there are mixed forests of pine, fir, silver-fir, lime and ash. Further south they are replaced by broad-leaf forests of oak, maple, tulip-tree and plane-tree; still further south, below north latitudes 35-39º, there appear magnolia, laurel, and other evergreen plants.

In the Central Plains the tall-grass prairie vegetation gradually passes (beyond the 100º west meridian) into dry steppe, which is ploughed only partly and mostly used as pastures.

In the Great Basin there are deserts and semi-deserts.

The vegetation in the Cordillera is represented by coniferous, and at the height of 3000 m by alpine meadows.

In California one can come across sequoia, or red-wood, a tree that attracts many tourists because it reaches up to 100 metres high and lives for many hundreds of years.

The prevailing vegetation in the dry Southwest is brushwood of sclerophyllous shrubs and trees.

QUESTIONS.

1. What parts of the United States are covered with forests? Where are the prairies?

2. What trees grow in the mixed forests of the north-eastern part of the country?

3. How does the vegetation of the eastern part of the country change from north to south?

4. How does the vegetation of the Central Plains change from east to west?

5. In what part of the country is the vegetation poorest?

6. What is the vegetation in the Cordilleras represented by?

7. Why does sequoia attract tourists? Where does it grow?

8. What is the prevailing vegetation in the dry Southwest?