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
Stem Observation Area
400
m²
Plot Quality Fields:
Plot Validation Level
(2) classification plot: sufficient for inclusion in a classification revision
Overall Plot Vegetation Fields:
Tree Height
15
m
Tree Cover
70
%
Shrub Cover
10
%
Field Cover
90
%
Nonvascular Cover
12
%
Misc Fields:
Observation Narrative
The vegetation of this upper slope and summit is an orchard-like, Quercus rubra-dominated forest with somewhat gnarled and stunted trees and a dense herb layer with patch-dominance by Dennstaedtia punctilobula, Deschampsia flexuosa var. flexuosa, Lysimachia quadrifolia, and Calamagrostis porteri. The near absence of understory layers and a gap in the diameters of red oak stems between ca. 5 cm and 25 cm DBH suggests a period of suppressed recruitment, perhaps because of livestock grazing.
Plot location: upper S slope of Hogback Mountain, 0.4 mi. WSW of the summit.