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:
Tree Cover
70
%
Shrub Cover
15
%
Field Cover
15
%
Nonvascular Cover
30
%
Misc Fields:
Observation Narrative
An old growth Quercus montana- and Quercus rubra -dominated forest on light-colored resistant sandstone boulder talus. The soil, for at least the shallower rooted species and perhaps also the trees, consists entirely of interstitial duff and humus. This community, on a southeast aspect, was sampled to complement the similar sandstone boulder talus forest plots from the other side of the main ridge, with a more or less northwest aspect (see GJNF304, GJNF334). This community has strong floristic affinities with that on the opposite aspect, but also some conspicuous differences: the lush moss cover of the northwest aspect is absent here, replaced by foliose lichens and rock tripe, and there is consequently much less habitat for shallow rooted herbs; species such as Menziesia pilosa and Ilex montana, which favor a north aspect, are aspect here; Carya ovalis and Oxydendrum arboreum are elements in the tree layer on this warmer aspect but absent from the northwest aspect; and both tree and shrub gaps are more frequent here, which is likely related to drier conditions and absence of soil-making mosses, and Vitis aestivalis var. bicolor and Parthenocissus quinquefolia are consequently very abundant.
Quercus rubra in plot measured at 81 cm dbh.
Plot located ca. 1.6 km NNW of Morning Knob, ca. 200 ft northwest and directly upslope from deepest part of topographic depression shown as sinkhole on Jordan Mines quad on eastern slope of Peters Mountain.
