I’ve gotten a few questions on what the ILP is.
It’s an abbreviation for a region centered among four major forked uplift regions in between the Ozark's and ancient mountains region(interior highland plat and central plains nebulous matrix), and the Appalachian Mountain range( very intensely complicated series of ecological and geological concepts that I really should break up into their geological range but the list is massive). Above it is sections of the great Plaines prairie peninsula corridor, great lakes region, central lowland, driftless ect. below is the extremely complex depression savannah matrix we love to call the southern/ or distal/lower coastal plains.
Believe it or not the reason why I got into botany was because of the ILP, specifically the biodiversity of being center to so many unique ecosystems means the diversity here captivated me, specifically Red River Gorge or RRG captivated me as a child, doesn’t get much better than that. As for what the ILP is... I can’t tell you, I honestly don’t think a single person has the time to explain the vast geological / ecological/ anthropological history of the ecoregion. I can’t even give you a good briefing but I can give you the general sense of an idea of what it is spatially and minimalisticly
this is essentially it. though the KY section in the above image is missing a good portion of it and same with Indiana.
So the ILP is geologically diverse and sedimentary,
The map above shows major true karst sheet exposure regions and the ILP is one of the largest. With Sandstone sections we can look at Shawnee Hills, Hoosier Nat forest, sections of Adam’s county Ohio, extremely small sections of Hamilton (well not anymore), Red River Gorge(almost turned into a lake and would of been quarried but luckily we still have it), Cumberland, Grundy County Matrix in TN ect.
Take a good look at that karst map :)
