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
34
m
Shrub Height
6
m
Field Height
5
m
Tree Cover
85
%
Shrub Cover
30
%
Field Cover
20
%
Nonvascular Cover
0.5
%
Misc Fields:
Observation Narrative
The plot was placed in a mature, very mixed forest with an overstory of red oak, hickories, beech, and red maple. White oak, black oak, and tulip-poplar are locally important overstory trees outside the plot. Despite the presence of large canopy-class oaks, oak regeneration is nearly absent in the stand, and the understory is dominated by heavy recruitment of mesophytic species (particularly beech, maples, and hemlock). Excepting the unpalatable New York and Christmas ferns, herb cover appears to be constrained by heavy grazing pressure by white-tailed deer. This vegetation forms a large patch on the middle slopes of the ridge east of Quebec along the Appalachian Trail. Downslope it grades into typical acidic cove forest with dense Rhododendron shrub layer on the lower slopes along the South Fork Holston River.
