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
33
m
Shrub Height
6
m
Field Height
1
m
Tree Cover
75
%
Shrub Cover
5
%
Field Cover
45
%
Nonvascular Cover
2
%
Misc Fields:
Observation Narrative
Plot located in the shallowly seasonally flooded head of a swale / slough in the Nottoway River floodplain. Hydrology is somewhat difficult to assess, but the habitat is likely flooded mostly during the winter and spring, and drawn down for most of the summer. This location was chosen because the vegetation is a remnant of older forest that predates extensive logging about 40 years ago. The stand has a mixed overstory of Carya aquatica, Fraxinus pennsylvanica, Nyssa aquatica, and Quercus lyrata, with an open understory and sparse shrub layer. The herb layer is patch-dominated by Symphyotrichum lateriflorum at one end of the plot, and by mixed sedges at the other. As the swale deepens to the south, Nyssa aquatica becomes progressively more dominant.