Just below plot is an old road bed which is heavily eroded and rarely used as a foot trail. Below that is a large back channel and across that is an extensive floodplain forest. Phyllite bedrock outcrop forms this colluvial slope, riverside bedrock, and Bull Falls.;Steep, west facing bouldery slope just above the floodplain of the Shenandoah River. Community is a forest dominated by mature Quercus rubra and Q. prinus over a well developed tall shrub layer dominated by Hamamellis virginiana. Dryopteris marginalis is dominant in the herb layer. The ground is very rocky with flat pieces of phyllite of various sizes. Soil is limited to a fibric mat and root entangled gravel with few patches of mineral accumulation. Rocks appear to be sliding downhill, with flat faces parrallel to slope.
Representativeness
Typical of this northwest aspect slope on Phyllite. Sampled to compare with plots with more northerly aspects. Betula lenta appears to be missing here.