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
21
m
Shrub Height
6
m
Field Height
1
m
Tree Cover
75
%
Shrub Cover
75
%
Field Cover
70
%
Nonvascular Cover
1
%
Misc Fields:
Observation Narrative
The south slope of Bald Knob, a classic western Piedmont mafic 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 Danthonia spicata and Muhlenbergia sobolifera are prominent herbs and Piptochaetium avenaceum is absent. Soil is shallow to bedrock and trees are permanently stunted. A small, open-canopied flatrock occurs immediately west of the plot, but this was avoided in order to keep the vegetation as homogeneous as possible and avoid potential autocorrelation in analysis with plots of the herbaceous barrens. Hickories in this plot are quite confusing; the majority were treated as C. ovalis based on fruit morphology.
