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
90
%
Shrub Cover
90
%
Field Cover
15
%
Nonvascular Cover
15
%
Misc Fields:
Observation Narrative
Significant old-growth forest element occurrence. A strongly acidic, oligotrophic, but mesic, Rhododendron maximum-dominated, narrow first-order stream bottom. In this plot dense R. maximum cover is mosaic, and the herb layer is proportionally more developed and species richness higher than many other sites where habitat conditions and the tree layer are near identical, but R. maximum cover is near 100%. This community has the same species as the oligotrophic Quercus montana- and heath-dominated forests on the slopes above the bottom and adjacent low slopes, with the additions or higher importance of species responding to the mesic and/or somewhat more fertile conditions: e.g., R. maximum, Quercus alba, and Liriodendron tulipifera, all of which in places climb well up the north slopes, and Adiantum pedatum, Prosartes lanuginosa and some others, which are more restricted to the rocky alluvial bottom. The R. maximum terminates abruptly downstream where the stream bottom cuts across limestone and upstream drops out roughly at the same place that the streamflow becomes seasonal.
Plot located ca. 1.4 mi east of Hematite. Plot center is a few m south of intermittent stream channel, under dense Rhododendron maximum.
