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
28
m
Misc Fields:
Observation Narrative
Plot location: ca. 60 m W of entrance road to Boxley Quarries, at a point 175 m N of Rt. 665.
This site is located on a nearly level upland underlain by plutonic rocks (anorthosite) and apparently characterized by impermeable clay hardpans. A small complex of seasonally flooded depression ponds occupies the upland "flatwoods" between Rt. 665 and the Boxley Quarries operation near Piney River. Both the low relief of this area and the depression pond are quite unusual for the western Piedmont at such close proximity to the Blue Ridge. The site is zoologically noteworthy for a strongly disjunct population of the rare salamander Ambystoma talpoideum (G5S1). Construction of a bermed quarry access road may have caused some alterations to the hydroperiod or mean flooding depth of largest and most permanent pond in this complex. The plot documents vegetation in one of the hydrologically intact ponds away from the road. Composition of this stand is very similar to depression ponds situated much farther east in the Piedmont.
