To the N ca. 10 m there is a step N slope with a red oak - sugar maple forest which quickly changes to a weedy forest of mostly sycamore / common mugwort. To the NE ca. 200m to the river there is some exposed limestone with Thuja occidentalis. To the W ca. 100 m is the Smokehole road. This community continues ca. 30 m downslope then loses the pine component. There are 2 plots on alimestone bluff above Echo Park ca. 800 m S;Somewhat open, young or stunted forest with an even mixture of oak and pine. Most of the trees are even aged. Perhaps successional after fire? The forest floor is covered with grasses mostly poverty oatgrass and hairgrass. Several (+100) clumps of the S2G2 Paxistima canbyi are growing within the plot. There is a small 1 m tall band of exposed limestone at the bottom of the plot. Several of the Symphyotrichum plants in the plot are heavily browsed. Paxistima scale was found on some of the plants on the downhill edge of the plot.
Representativeness
Small patch of mixed evergreen - deciduous woodland on NW shaly slopes. Plot was placed to sample forest above newly discovered population of rat-stripper.
Overall Taxon Cover Values are Automatically Calculated?
no
Plot Quality Fields:
Plot Validation Level
(2) classification plot: sufficient for inclusion in a classification revision
Floristic Quality
complete
Bryophyte Quality
complete (species >=1% cover)
Overall Plot Vegetation Fields:
--no data--
Misc Fields:
Observation Narrative
Pinus virginiana - Quercus rubra / Acer saccharum / Danthonia spicata woodland; Over 100 clumps of rat stripper observed consisiting of 2-5 stems 17-15 cm in length. On closer inspection many of the plants are infected with scale.
