Moss on Mount Mitchell in Yancey County
About this photograph
- Date created
- July 18, 2006
- Location
- Mount Mitchell, Yancey County, North Carolina
- License
- This photograph copyright ©2006. Terms of use
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- Search LEARN NC for Elisha Mitchell, moss, Mount Mitchell, moutains, North Carolina, plants, and Yancey County.
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This is a close-up of seedlings growing in a lush mound of moss on Mount Mitchell. Mount Mitchell is the highest peak in eastern North America, towering at 6,684 feet. It is named after Elisha Mitchell, a University of North Carolina professor who returned to the mountain in 1857 to confirm his previous measurement of its height and ended up falling to his death at a place now known as Mitchell Falls. The mountain is part of the Black Mountain chain. It has eroded less than the surrounding peaks due to the igneous and metamorphic rocks that cover it, and therefore stands taller today.
Mount Mitchell sustains a very interesting ecological system. Many of its native species are plants and animals more suited to colder, northern environments. These species thrived all over during the cold Pleistocene Era, but as temperatures increased, the flora and fauna that still remained were restricted to the tallest mountains in the area, including Mount Mitchell.
