The term Cross Timbers, also known as Ecoregion 29, Central Oklahoma/Texas Plains, is used to describe a strip of land in the United States that runs from southeastern Kansas across Central Oklahoma to Central Texas. Made up of a mix of prairie, savanna, and woodland, it forms part of the boundary between the more heavily forested eastern country and the almost treeless Great Plains, and also marks the western habitat limit of many mammals and insects.
No major metropolitan areas lie wholly within the Cross Timbers, although roughly the western half of the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex does, including the cities of Fort Worth, Denton, Arlington, and Weatherford. The western suburbs of the Tulsa metropolitan area and the northeastern suburbs of the Oklahoma City metropolitan area also lie within this area. The main highways that cross the region are I-35 and I-35W going north to south (although they tend to skirt the Cross Timbers' eastern fringe south of Fort Worth) and I-40 going east to west. Numerous U.S. Highways also cross the area. I-35 means a portion of Austin and Travis County is also included in the Cross Timbers.
Cross Timbers eco region is a host to scrub forms of Quercus marilandica, blackjack oak and they dominate on many chert glades along with post oak, Quercus stellata. Quercus marilandica Münchhausen var. ashei Sudworth, grows in the western portions of its range – northern Texas, Oklahoma, and into southern Kansas. In this area, blackjack and post oak form a semi-savanna area composed of forested strips intermixed with prairie grass glades along the eastern edge of the southern Great Plains.
Trees
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| Blackjack Oak, Quercus marilandica Leaf found in the lower portion of a mature tree Gray Bark |
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| Quercus stellata, the post oak or iron oak, is a North American species of oak in the white oak section. It is a slow-growing oak that lives in dry areas on the edges of fields, tops of ridges, and also grows in poor soils, and is resistant to rot, fire, and drought. |
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REFERENCES
- Francaviglia, Richard V. The Cast Iron Forest: A Natural and Cultural History of the North American Cross Timbers. University of Texas Press, 2000. ISBN 0-292-72515-9
- Gregg, Josiah. "The Cross Timbers". Commerce of the Prairies. 1845. V. II, Ch. 10, pp. 199–201. https://web.archive.org/web/20021123022419/http://www.kancoll.org/books/gregg/gr_ch10_2.htm
- The Cross Timbers Segments of Washington Irving’s Tour on the Oklahoma Prairies : 1832 and Today. Rev ed., Publisher Not Identified, 2014.
- Cross Timbers : gateway from forest to prairie Author:Oklahoma Biological Survey; Crawford, Priscilla; Johnson, Erin (Erin Kathleen) (Creator) Summary:The woodlands of central Oklahoma are the transition from our eastern forests
- The Cast Iron Forest : A Natural and Cultural History of the North American Cross Timbers. 1st ed., University of Texas Press, 2000.
- Cranford, David J, et al. Geoarchaeology and the Cross Timbers. Oklahoma Anthropological Society, 2009.
- Missouri oak identification, https://mdc.mo.gov/discover-nature/field-guide/blackjack-oak
- Dale, Edward Everett. The Cross Timbers: Memories of a North Texas Boyhood. Austin, TX: University of Texas Press, 1966. ISBN 0-292-73611-8
- Roach, Joyce. Wild Rose: A Folk History of a Cross Timbers Settlement, Keller, Texas. Denton, TX: University of North Texas Press, 1996. ISBN 0-89865-972-8
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#Cross timbers #post oak #blackjack oak
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