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
18
m
Shrub Height
6
m
Field Height
1
m
Tree Cover
80
%
Shrub Cover
4
%
Field Cover
60
%
Nonvascular Cover
15
%
Misc Fields:
Observation Narrative
The plot is located within an upper-slope, SE-facing montane oak-hickory forest covering about 120 acres and reported by Bill Moorhead to be an exemplary old-growth stand. However, this is a very uneven-aged stand with obvious cohorts, primarily an old-age cohort of large-diameter (possibly ~ open-grown) oaks, and a younger cohort of small-diameter Carya ovalis that has recruited into the gaps. Stand development may have been interrupted by historical livestock grazing, partial clearing, or some other disturbance in the distant past. However, there is no evidence of any recent disturbance and the stand contains some oak recruitment along with extensive hickory recruitment, and lacks mesophytic understory invaders such as red maple. Currently, a shrub layer is virtually absent from much of the stand, and graminoids dominate the herb layer. Additional species common in the vicinity of the plot sample included Quercus rubra, Elymus hystrix var. hystrix, Dichanthelium boscii, Fraxinus americana, Muhlenbergia tenuiflora, Amphicarpaea bracteata, Vicia caroliniana, Bromus pubescens, and Scrophularia lanceolata. Plot sample had a species-richness of 63 taxa per 400 sq. m., which is typical of this community type.
