A descriptive study was made in 1981 and 1982 of the vegetation and flora on an 18-year-old surface-mined area near Lily in Laurel County, Kentucky. More than 100 woody and herbaceous taxa were planted on about 25 percent of the area in 1965 and 1966. Some of the planted area and most of the unplanted area subsequently were re-vegetated by natural plant succession. The natural plant community was sampled by the belt transect and quadrat methods; the vascular flora was documented by field reconnaissance; and planted experimental plots were inventoried for surviving species. A Virginia pine-mixed hardwoods community was the major natural vegetation type. The vascular flora comprised 350 taxa from 84 families; 77 of these were nonindigenous taxa. Thirty-seven indigenous and 41 nonindigenous species have persisted from the original experimental plantings.