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
50
%
Field Cover
70
%
Nonvascular Cover
15
%
Misc Fields:
Observation Narrative
The vegetation of this plot is dominated by an open stand of gnarled chestnut oak (Quercus montana) which evidently were spared when this area was logged in the 1920s. Habitat conditions here are rather stressfully xeric and nutrient poor, as reflected by high densities of mountain laurel (kalmia latifolia), black huckleberry (Gaylussacia baccata), blueberries (Vaccinium spp.) and other heaths in the shrub and herbaceous layers. This community has been altered by the loss of blight killed chestnut (Castanea dentata), which persists in the form of numerous root sprouts. A dead (fallen) pitch pine (Pinus rigida), fire scars on oaks, and charcoal fragments in the duff, all speak to past disturbances by fire. Damage to oak foliage by gypsy moth larvae currently is light, but can be expected to become severe as populations of this pest build to outbreak levels. The plot is representative of oak-ericad stands occupying the south and southwest facing slopes and spurs on the steeply dipping Middle Mountain east flank. This is a very typical community type on drier, warmer slopes throughout the ridge and valley province in Virginia.
Trees measured in plot (dbh in cm): Quercus montana (44, 40).