Landscapes of Texas [antikvár]

Preface Many visitors come to Texas expecting to find a landscape of unremitting sand and cactus. As a matter of fact, Texas contains five of the seven major physiographic regions that exist within the borders of the United States. Only the Pacific highlands to the west and the Appalachian highlands to the east are not represented in the Lone Star state. For some, Texas will be a winter vacationland of palm trees and sunny beaches. A visitor to the Panhandle will find endless vistas of windblown croplands. To others, Texas will offer desolate mountains that challenge the outdoorsman or mysterious caverns awaiting the dedicated spelunker. Still others will recall green hills and fat cattle, bluebonnets and red clover. It all depends upon which part of Texas you visit. A variety of climates in Texas also contributes to the diversity of landscapes. About the only generalization anyone can make about the Texas climate is that it's mostly warm. Three of the four climatic regions in the state, all except the area at the top of the Panhandle, are "subtropical." To the east is the humid subtropical area, with high temperatures, a long growing season, and enough rain to support vast forests. The average annual rainfall varies from about 56 inches at the Sabine River to about 30 at the western extension of the zone. By contrast, the subtropical desert region of West Texas has perhaps 8 inches of rain a year. Between these two areas, the subtropical steppe region sweeps from Brownsville on Texas' southern tip to Amarillo in the Panhandle and covers some three-fifths of the state along the way. Rainfall can be from 10 to 30 inches a year, and is, if you ask the farmers and ranchers, totally unreliable. Natural vegetation here means grass and shrub, compared with lush forests to the east and cactus and other desert plants to the west. Only the Panhandle north of the Canadian River, part of a climatic region that extends all the way through the central United States and into Canada, has truly cold weather—and the shortest growing season in the state