Name:
Quercus alba - Quercus (falcata, stellata) Forest Alliance
Reference:
Southeastern Ecology Working Gro...
Description:
This alliance contains vegetation that can be described as dry oak and oak-hickory forests. These often are successional forests following logging and/or agricultural cropping (and possibly also chestnut blight in the southern Appalachians). Some examples occur in upland flats and have been called xerohydric because they occasionally will have standing water in the winter due to a perched water table, but are droughty by the end of the growing season. Other occurrences are found on well-drained sandy loam or clay loam soils that are often, although not always, shallow. Karst topography can be found in areas where this alliance occurs. Soils are most often a well-drained sandy loam, although clay loams are not uncommon. Forests of this alliance may occupy narrow bands of dry-mesic habitat transitional between lower and midslope mesic communities and xeric ridgetops. This alliance is found in the Upper East Gulf Coastal Plain, Piedmont, low mountains (including Cumberlands, Ridge and Valley, and low parts of the Southern Blue Ridge), and Interior Low Plateau. Distribution in the Atlantic Coastal Plain, East Gulf Coastal Plain, and Upper West Gulf Coastal Plain needs assessment. In the Shawnee Hills, Knobs, Coastal Plain, and Appalachian Plateau regions of Kentucky, these forests form a common matrix vegetation over acid sandstone and shales. These Kentucky forests are dominated by Quercus alba with little or no Quercus falcata and occupy middle to upper slope positions. In the southern Illinois portion of the range, examples occur on south- to west-facing slopes where increased temperatures favor Quercus falcata over Quercus rubra. These forests are usually dominated by a mixture of Quercus alba and Quercus falcata; Quercus stellata may be dominant or codominant. In addition, Quercus coccinea, Quercus velutina, Quercus marilandica, Carya alba, Carya glabra, Carya pallida, Carya carolinae-septentrionalis, Carya ovata, and Fraxinus americana often are present. Common subcanopy and shrub species include Oxydendrum arboreum, Acer rubrum, Ulmus alata, Juniperus virginiana var. virginiana, Vaccinium arboreum, Cornus florida, Sassafras albidum, Gaylussacia frondosa (= var. frondosa), Gaylussacia baccata, Vaccinium pallidum, and Vaccinium stamineum. Herbaceous species that may be present include Chimaphila maculata, Polystichum acrostichoides, Asplenium platyneuron, Hexastylis arifolia, Coreopsis major, Tephrosia virginiana, Sanicula canadensis, Desmodium nudiflorum, Desmodium nuttallii, Symphyotrichum urophyllum? (= Aster sagittifolius?), Symphyotrichum patens (= Aster patens), Solidago ulmifolia, and Hieracium venosum.
Accession Code:
VB.CC.18179.QUERCUSALBAQUER
Plot-observations of this Community Concept:
0
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