Name:
Quercus alba - Fagus grandifolia / Hydrangea quercifolia - Viburnum acerifolium / Carex picta Forest
Reference:
NatureServe Biotics 2019
Description:
This association includes mesic beech - white oak forests of the southern Cumberland Plateau and Ridge and Valley of Alabama (as well as the adjacent Upper East Gulf Coastal Plain and Piedmont ecoregions). This forest occurs on low, sheltered slopes and along small streams in narrow ravines, and on small, well-drained stream terraces and flats, usually over acidic to subacidic soils. This is a deciduous forest with a well-developed canopy and subcanopy, a variable shrub layer, and an open to sparse herbaceous layer. The canopy is always dominated by <i>Quercus alba</i> with codominance by <i>Fagus grandifolia</i> and/or <i>Liriodendron tulipifera</i>. Some examples may have large individuals of <i>Pinus taeda</i> blending in from forests on adjacent, higher slopes, or as an artifact of past disturbance. Species most typically abundant in the subcanopy include <i>Ostrya virginiana, Acer floridanum, Magnolia macrophylla</i>, and <i>Ilex opaca</i>. The most typically abundant shrubs are <i>Hydrangea quercifolia, Euonymus americanus</i>, and <i>Viburnum acerifolium</i>. Common vines are <i>Decumaria barbara, Smilax rotundifolia</i>, and <i>Toxicodendron radicans</i>. Herbaceous composition varies from site to site. The most abundant and constant species are <i>Carex picta, Polystichum acrostichoides, Solidago caesia</i>, and <i>Brachyelytrum erectum</i>. The diagnostic characters of this community include the dominance of <i>Quercus alba</i> in association with mesic hardwood species (<i>Fagus grandifolia, Liriodendron tulipifera, Tilia americana var. heterophylla, Magnolia acuminata</i>), the mesic environment on protected slopes and in narrow ravines, and the occurrence of a suite of species indicative of the Alabama Cumberland Plateau, e.g., <i>Hydrangea quercifolia, Magnolia macrophylla, Styrax grandifolius, Carex picta</i>, and <i>Decumaria barbara</i>.
Accession Code:
urn:lsid:vegbank.org:commConcept:35484-{20B5ADE5-E4B4-4690-9D51-60533C299C6B}
Plot-observations of this Community Concept:
27
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