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
20
m
Shrub Height
6
m
Field Height
1
m
Tree Cover
75
%
Shrub Cover
40
%
Field Cover
60
%
Nonvascular Cover
1
%
Misc Fields:
Observation Narrative
The south slope of Bald Knob, a classic western mafic Piedmont monadnock, is vegetated largely with wooded herbaceous vegetation of massive actinolite schist outcrops on the upper and middle slopes and an ash-hickory-redcedar woodland on the rocky lower slopes, where some soil has accumulated. This plot documents an expression of this rather variable woodland in which Piptochaetium avenaceum is the dominant herb. Soil is shallow to bedrock and trees are permanently stunted. Small, open-canopied flatrocks occur throughout the woodland, but these were avoided in plot placement in order to keep the vegetation as homogeneous as possible and avoid potential autocorrelation in analysis with plots of the herbaceous barrens. Mafic-soil indicators are numerous here, including Clematis ochroleuca, Parthenium auriculatum, Allium cernuum, and Asclepias verticillata. The dominant hickories in this plot are very confusing, having the indehiscent, pyriform nuts and slightly pilose rachises and leaves of Carya glabra, along with somewhat shaggy bark and marginal leaflet hairs suggestive of Carya ovata. They were treated as Carya glabra.
