Rail road tracks about 100 yards inland, bridge across Shenandoah about 1/4 mile downstream. Across the river it is roadless. Adjacent communities include Justicia beds, Platanus woodland, and floodplain forest.;Community includes a few small battered Catalpa, Platanus, and some Salix spp., but is essentially an herbaceous physiognomy, with lots of bare rock. Kept open by a combination of high energy flooding and bedrock substrate. One medium tall but stressed Platanus shades part of the plot part of the day. Herbs include many exotic weeds and weedy natives and the pretty blue Eupatorium coelestinum in bloom. There are a few low sandy places with aquatics. These areas likely held water early in the growing season.
Representativeness
Plot covers most of a small patch of very open , near horizontal bedrock on the edge of a large river channel shelf. Plot is irregularly shaped to include a full 400 sq meters without crossing ecotones.
Natural flooding, probably high energy for extended periods every year. Water pollution, Corbicula clams, exotic plant seeds, noise pollution. (exotic plants, ditching/hydrological alteration-upstream cummulative effects)