Name:
NY Heritage: Red cedar rocky summit
Reference:
Ecological Communities of New York, 2nd Ed.
Description:
A community that occurs on warm, dry, rocky ridgetops and summits where the bedrock is calcareous (such as limestone or dolomite, but also marble, amphibolite, and calcsilicate rock), and the soils are more or less calcareous. The vegetation may be sparse or patchy, with numerous lichen covered rock outcrops. This community is often surrounded by Appalachian oak-hickory forest.
Characteristic trees include eastern red cedar (Juniperus virginiana), red oak (Quercus rubra), shagbark hickory (Carya ovata), white ash (Fraxinus americana), hop hornbeam (Ostrya virginiana), and shadbushes (Amelanchier spp.). In many examples many dead or dying red cedars may be evident which is often associated with severe heat stress characteristic of this community.
Characteristic shrubs include sapling canopy trees along with common juniper (Juniperus communis), downy arrow-wood (Viburnum rafinesquianum), prickly ash (Zanthoxylum americanum), fragrant sumac (Rhus aromatica), and snowberry (Symphoricarpos albus). Other shrubs with low percent cover include blueberry (Vaccinium pallidum, V. angustifolium) and scrub oak (Quercus ilicifolia).
The herb layer can be quite diverse. Characteristic herbs include little bluestem (Schizachyrium scoparium), sedge (Carex eburnea), tufted hairgrass (Deschampsia flexuosa), buttercups (Ranunculus fasciculatus, R. micranthus) maidenhair spleenwort (Asplenium trichomanes), upland white aster (Solidago ptarmicoides), rockcress (Arabis missouriensis, A. lyrata), knotweed (Polygonum douglasii), bluets (Houstonia caerulea), and dittany (Cunila origanoides).
Other herbs include Pennsylvania sedge (Carex pensylvanica), rock cap fern (Polypodium virginianum), marginal wood fern (Dryopteris marginalis), and everlasting (Antennaria plantaginifolia). Larger grass dominated areas (e.g., > 0.5 acres) with little or no woody vegetation may be better classified as rocky summit grassland.
Nonvascular species include lichens such as Cladonia furcata and Cladina. stellaris, and mosses such as hair cap moss (Polytrichum spp.), Hypnum cupressiforme, Anomodon attenuatus, and Hedwegia ciliatia.
Accession Code:
VB.CC.28885.NYHERITAGEREDCE
Plot-observations of this Community Concept:
3
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