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
1000
m²
Plot Quality Fields:
Plot Validation Level
(2) classification plot: sufficient for inclusion in a classification revision
Overall Plot Vegetation Fields:
Tree Height
36
m
Shrub Height
6
m
Field Height
75
m
Tree Cover
80
%
Shrub Cover
15
%
Field Cover
45
%
Nonvascular Cover
0.5
%
Misc Fields:
Observation Narrative
Plot is situated in a shallow floodplain swale about 20 meters from the main channel of the Blackwater River. The site is separated from the river by a low levee and is probably shallowly flooded during the winter and spring but exposed for most of the growing season. On the back side is a disturbed, cut-over mesic upland on a low ridge. A 1000 square meter (20 X 50 m) plot was sampled to capture the representative composition of a ~ 100 year old mixed hardwood forest with no clear overstory dominants among Quercus laurifolia, Q. lyrata, Carya aquatica, and Liquidambar styraciflua. Understory Fraxinus caroliniana was observed in fruit, thus the ID is confident. The sedges Carex louisianica and C. typhina dominate a patchy to locally dense herb layer.
