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:
--no data--
Misc Fields:
Observation Narrative
The plot represents an unusual, open-canopied woodland of small, even-aged bald-cypress trees growing in a very coarse, poorly decomposed, and locally quaking peat. The habitat is frequently flooded by wind tides and retains standing water for most or all of the growing season. In addition, it is possible that groundwater inputs form the adjacent upland edge have influenced substrate development and hydrologic conditions in this wetland. Despite their 50 to 70 year ages, the bald-cypress trees here are apparently stressed and scarcely 6.0 meters tall, averaging about 10 cm dbh. The overall vegetation is somewhat transitional between the Northwest River’s forested swamps and low-stature wind-tidal marshes, but also features an assemblage of species rarely found in either, including Pogonia ophioglossoides, Rhynchospora glomerata, Coreopsis falcata, and Ilex laevigata. This is the only community seen in the study area in which Zizania aquatica and Carex canescens ssp. disjuncta are dominant or very important components.
Plot location: Edge of Northwest River Bottomland ca. 0.8 miles NW of the VA/NC line where it crosses the river channel. Plot center marked by a 1" white PVC pipe.
Nutrient Regime: Oligotrophic.
