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
Plot Quality Fields:
Plot Validation Level
(2) classification plot: sufficient for inclusion in a classification revision
Overall Plot Vegetation Fields:
Field Height
5
m
Field Cover
98
%
Misc Fields:
Observation Narrative
This wetland occupies a ~one-acre abandoned meander / oxbow of Roseville Run, a small stream in the Shenandoah Valley. Although it may occasionally be flooded by extreme overland flow events, the oxbow is primarily seasonally flooded by groundwater emanating from at least two slope-base springs. Both the wetland and adjacent uplands have a long history of intensive clearing and agricultural use; consequently most of the wetland has probably been hydrologically altered (dried to some extent) by attempts to ditch and drain it into Roseville Run. More recently, the drier portions of the wetland have been invaded by Phalaris arundinacea, which now forms nearly monospecific stands to the near-exclusion of other species. The plot, however, is located in a small area (ca. 200 sq. m.) adjacent to the largest and most powerful of the springs. This area is much wetter than the rest of the site and supports a much greater diversity of native flora. This vegetation may represent what most of the wetland was like at one time, and more or less fits the concept of a calcareous spring marsh / muck fen. The herbaceous flora is very dense and stratified, with Vernonia noveboracensis, Sagittaria latifolia, Peltandra virginica, Leersia oryzoides, Carex suberecta, and Eleocharis erythropoda all abundant.
