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
27
m
Shrub Height
6
m
Field Height
1
m
Tree Cover
75
%
Shrub Cover
25
%
Field Cover
50
%
Nonvascular Cover
1
%
Misc Fields:
Observation Narrative
This plot sample was located on an eroding bluff of Tertiary gravels subtending the Potomac River near Freestone Point. The targeted forest vegetation and plot are on the more or less stabilized part of bluff, above an actively eroding "cliff." The soils in the plot are stabilized and now vegetated with dense tussocks of Deschampsia flexuosa, which is characteristic of this type of habitat in the northern Coastal Plain of Maryland and Virginia. Quercus montana strongly dominates the overstory; shrub cover is patchy and consists mostly of ericads and Hamamelis virginiana.