History of the use of "cedar glades" and other descriptive terms for vegetation on rocky limestone soils in the Central Basin of Tennessee

Jerry M. Baskin, Carol C. Baskin

Research output: Contribution to journalReview articlepeer-review

22 Scopus citations

Abstract

Use of "cedar glades" and other terms by geologists, botanists, soil scientists, and zoologists to describe vegetation on rocky limestone soils in the Central (Nashville) Basin of Tennessee from 1851 to 2003 is reviewed. Historically, in the Central Basin "cedar glades" has been applied to the rocky openings/redcedar/redcedar-hardwood/hardwood forest complex primarily on the (thin-bedded) Lebanon limestone but also on other (thick-bedded) Ordovician limestones. However, "cedar glades," "limestone glades," and "limestone cedar glades" increasingly are being used by botanists and plant ecologists for the rocky openings only, which have C4 native annual grass-C3 annual/perennial forb-cryptogam-dominated vegetation. Some erroneous statements in the literature that have resulted from misinterpretation or misunderstanding of "cedar glades" and other terms are discussed. Finally, a graphical model of the (apparent) pathways of development of cedar glade vegetation from bare rock to forest in the Central Basin is presented.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)403-424
Number of pages22
JournalBotanical Review
Volume70
Issue number4
DOIs
StatePublished - Oct 2004

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics
  • Plant Science

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