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
70
%
Nonvascular Cover
30
%
Misc Fields:
Observation Narrative
A very small occurrence of a permesotrophic forest on a mesic site with exposed limestone and soils undoubtedly influenced by a basic bedrock. Low on the north slope of a ravine which cuts through Ordovician limestones at the core of a "whaleback," a secondary anticlinal ridge running parallel to and at the foot of the main Peters Mountain ridge. The community just upslope is a drier, meso- or submesotrophic Quercus alba - Quercus montana / Muhlenbergia tenuifolia forest, which grades upward into a Quercus montana- dominated forest. The transition from the former downslope into this Acer saccharum - Fraxinus americana - Tilia americana - Liriodendron dominated rich cove forest where the limestone is exposed is sudden and striking. This community covers only a tiny portion of the study area.
Plot located ca. 1.1 mi east of Hematite, one steep lower slopes with limestone outcrops just north of a small perennial stream.