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
50
%
Shrub Cover
15
%
Field Cover
30
%
Misc Fields:
Observation Narrative
A dry submesotrophic open hardwood forest on a steep southeast aspect on shaley soil. This plot is on a doubly convex southeast-facing slope; therefore, compared with easterly aspect straight or concave slopes, it is drier and more open in the woody strata, and the litter accumulation in thin and patchy on the forest floor (all characteristic of southerly aspect steep slopes on shaley soils). These factors together likely promote species richness of the herb layer here and at plot GJNF301. It has a number of elements characteristic of most steep easterly aspects (and some less xeric south aspects) with all slope shapes in the shale country : the relative unimportance of pines; the prominence of Quercus montana with an admixture of Quercus alba, Quercus rubra and Quercus velutina; the strong presence of Carya alba and/or C. glabra and/or C. ovalis; and the relative unimportance of heaths and prominence in the herb layer of herbs, especially sedges. The soil here appears from the soil test results to have some calcareous influence; hence the heath cover is sparse in spite of the convexity of the slope. On other less fertile easterly aspects, slope convexity promotes heath dominance of the herb layer. Though it doesn't look it, an old age stand: 46-cm dbh coppice sprouts of Q. montana are 175 years old; coppice habit suggests fire or logging in early 1800's.
Plot located 2.7 mi NNE of Morning Knob, on horizontally convex slope 100-200 ft above and north of FR 722.
