I have a new favorite kind of landscape: the granite outcrop. Fascination, awe, excitement, surprise, the thrill of discovery, I was feeling it all investigating the granite rock outcrop landscape just five miles southeast of Athens that is part of the Rock and Shoals Outcrop Natural Area. Granite outcrops are a unique environment (the most notable example in Georgia being Stone Mountain which rises 825 feet about the surrounding topography).
The granite outcrop outside Athens is somewhat bowl shaped and because water can collect in and around the rock the herbaceous plant communities are extradinarily diverse and truly marvelous!
The plants that have adapted to this environment are growing in between 0-15" of soil. I was struck by the patterns and forms and textures. I began to see a "minaturization" of the earth's biomes in these little landscapes.
A cluster of moss and lichen aside a little pool of water looked like the birds eye view of a mountain lake and a tree canopy from 15,000 feet. Everywhere I looked was a new little "fairy garden"--a microcosm of nature in a tiny 6" by 6" space. These photos hardly do the landscape justice.
A cluster of moss and lichen aside a little pool of water looked like the birds eye view of a mountain lake and a tree canopy from 15,000 feet. Everywhere I looked was a new little "fairy garden"--a microcosm of nature in a tiny 6" by 6" space. These photos hardly do the landscape justice.
1 comments:
That's really cool. I want to go to Athens. Both of them.
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