Releve Virginia Division of Natural Heritage, see http://www.dcr.virginia.gov/natural_heritage/documents/nh_plotform_instructions.pdf
Overall Taxon Cover Values are Automatically Calculated?
no
Stem Observation Area
400
m²
Plot Quality Fields:
Plot Validation Level
(2) classification plot: sufficient for inclusion in a classification revision
Overall Plot Vegetation Fields:
Tree Height
36
m
Shrub Height
6
m
Field Height
8
m
Tree Cover
95
%
Shrub Cover
65
%
Field Cover
60
%
Nonvascular Cover
25
%
Misc Fields:
Observation Narrative
The plot is located at the base of a very bouldery, colluvium-filled concavity in the bluff along the Potomac River floodplain. Highly calcareous soil and a sheltered, cool aspect have fostered a mature forest of tall, well-formed trees, particularly Liriodendron tulipifera, Fraxinus americana, Fagus grandifolia, and Carya cordiformis. Herb cover is locally lush, but somewhat limited by the abundance of surficial and subsurficial boulders. Update October 2004: a 100 cm DBH Fraxinus americana which was the largest canopy tree in the plot, was blown down by Hurricane Isabel in 2003. Much of the plot area is now covered with impenetrable tangles of wood from this tree.
Variable leaf litter/ duff.
A horizon is a dark silt loam, with some clay -- colluvial with many small stone fragments.
Soils locally interstitial in boulderfield