Name:
Pinus echinata Forest Alliance
Reference:
Southeastern Ecology Working Gro...
Description:
This alliance includes forests dominated by Pinus echinata, which on very dry sites may be virtually the only tree species present. This is a wide-ranging alliance; it is currently known from wide areas of the eastern United States from the Central Appalachians south, through the Southern Blue Ridge and Cumberland Plateau and Mountains, extending into the Piedmont, and in the central United States in the Ouachita Mountains and Ozarks, extending south into the Gulf Coastal Plain. Other pine species may be present in small amounts; these vary with geography and include Pinus taeda, Pinus virginiana, Pinus pungens, and Pinus rigida. Typical hardwood associates include Quercus alba, Quercus falcata, Quercus velutina, Quercus coccinea, Quercus marilandica, Nyssa sylvatica, Liquidambar styraciflua, Carya alba, and Carya glabra. Understory species vary across the range of the alliance, but some common components are Vaccinium arboreum, Vaccinium pallidum, Vaccinium stamineum, Symplocos tinctoria, Ulmus alata, Diospyros virginiana, Acer rubrum, Cornus florida, and Oxydendrum arboreum. One association in the West Gulf Coastal Plain of Arkansas has Vaccinium elliottii, Aesculus pavia var. pavia, and Chasmanthium laxum. Common herbaceous species in this Coastal Plain association include Smilax glauca, Silphium compositum, Pteridium aquilinum var. latiusculum, Scleria oligantha, Piptochaetium avenaceum, and Tephrosia virginiana. Some associations can result from natural or anthropogenic disturbances such as fire or windstorms, while others occur naturally on the landscape, are maintained by edaphic situations, and may even represent "climax" vegetation on these sites. Soils of these forests are acidic and are derived from sandstone, chert or granitic rock situated on ravines, ridges, and steep, often south-facing, slopes; the surface is often rocky. In the Coastal Plain, this alliance is particularly typical of clay soils, on hillsides, ridges, flats, and low hills. In the Ouachita Mountains and Ozarks, forests of this alliance typically occur on south-facing slopes and saddles, and rocky outcrops and bluffs, but may also occur on lower, north-facing slopes and flat uplands, especially in the Piedmont.
Accession Code:
VB.CC.23857.PINUSECHINATAFO
Plot-observations of this Community Concept:
0
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