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
30
m
Shrub Height
6
m
Field Height
1
m
Tree Cover
90
%
Shrub Cover
60
%
Field Cover
25
%
Nonvascular Cover
5
%
Misc Fields:
Observation Narrative
An "upland depression swamp" forest, dry on the date of sampling but shallowly and irregularly flooded with perched groundwater during the winter and spring months. The stand is exceptionally mature, with Quercus palustris (pin oak) and Quercus bicolor (swamp white oak) up to ca. 90 cm DBH dominating the overstory. Oak recruitment is poor and greatly outnumbered by that of Acer rubrum (red maple), Fraxinus pennsylvanica (green ash), and Ulmus americana (American elm). Climaceum americanum (American tree moss) is the dominant bryophyte on seasonally wet hummocks. This stand is one of the larger (~ 5 acres) extant occurrences of this community type known in Virginia. It is thinly buffered by a narrow stand of oak-hickory forest on both adjacent slopes. Exotics, particularly Microstegium vimineum, are present in large numbers in adjacent disturbed habitats.
Typical profile:
Variable leaf litter, 0 to 2 cm deep
A horizon = light brown silty clay loam
sticky clay with white mottles @ 4-5 cm below soil surface
Disturbance Data:
Disturbance Type
Disturbance Intensity
Disturbance Comment
unknown
Probably cleared, logged, and/or grazed in distant past. Not disturbed recently.