Name:
Vaccinium oxycoccos - (Vaccinium macrocarpon) / Rhynchospora alba - Drosera rotundifolia / Sphagnum spp. Fen
Reference:
NatureServe Biotics 2019
Description:
This dwarf-shrubland occurs on temporarily flooded, semipermanently flooded, or saturated peat deposits in the Allegheny Mountains region of West Virginia, at elevations between 780 and 1210 m, with a low-elevation outlier in the Great Valley of Virginia at 460 m. It is a small-patch type that occupies flat-lying land (0-1° slopes) in headwater basins. Hummock-and-hollow microtopography is well-developed, with rounded peat hummocks ranging from 5-50 cm in height. The substrate is poorly to very poorly drained peat. Peat deposits are greater than one meter deep in late-successional stands. According to carbon dating of peat at Big Run Bog and Cranberry Glades, some sites have been characterized by bog vegetation for more than 10,000 years. Carbon dating of peat at the Virginia site indicates the presence of wetland vegetation for at least 15,000 years. Younger stands often have shallower peat and may contain alluvial lenses of sand or buried clay layers from former beaver ponds. These younger stands sometimes occupy wetter zones within successional shrub peatlands. Mean soil pH is 3.7. Vegetation is characterized by a hummocky mat of <i>Vaccinium oxycoccos</i> with <i>Rhynchospora alba</i> in the hollows on an uneven bed of peat-forming mosses. The sparse short-shrub stratum may include <i>Aronia melanocarpa, Aronia arbutifolia</i>, and <i>Vaccinium myrtilloides</i>. The dwarf-shrub layer is dominated by <i>Vaccinium oxycoccos</i> with occasional dominance or codominance by <i>Vaccinium macrocarpon</i>. <i>Rubus hispidus</i> has high constancy in this stratum. The herbaceous layer is characterized by ombrotrophic bog vegetation with typically northern distribution. Dominant species are <i>Rhynchospora alba</i> and <i>Eriophorum virginicum</i>, with lower cover by <i>Drosera rotundifolia var. rotundifolia, Osmunda cinnamomea var. cinnamomea, Solidago uliginosa</i>, and <i>Gentiana linearis</i>. Nonvascular plants form a hummocky mat dominated by <i>Sphagnum</i> spp. (<i>Sphagnum rubellum, Sphagnum fallax, Sphagnum papillosum, Sphagnum flexuosum, Sphagnum cuspidatum, Sphagnum recurvum, Sphagnum magellanicum</i>) and often including moderate cover by <i>Polytrichum</i> spp. (<i>Polytrichum commune, Polytrichum strictum</i>). Indicator species that help to distinguish this community from others within the high-elevation wetlands of the Allegheny Mountains region are <i>Drosera rotundifolia var. rotundifolia, Rhynchospora alba, Vaccinium macrocarpon</i>, and <i>Vaccinium oxycoccos</i>. Mean species richness of all vascular plants and any nonvascular plants with cover >1% is 16 taxa per 400 square meters. In Virginia, this community occurs on groundwater-saturated, locally floating peat and sphagnum mats along the shoreline of depression ponds developed by solution and collapse of carbonate rocks underlying acidic colluvial materials deposited on the eastern edge of the Great Valley of Virginia, in Augusta, Rockingham, and southern Page counties, Virginia. This community is dominated by dense mats of <i>Vaccinium macrocarpon</i>. Associated species include <i>Calopogon tuberosus, Drosera rotundifolia, Dulichium arundinaceum, Eriophorum virginicum, Juncus canadensis, Pogonia ophioglossoides, Rubus hispidus, Triadenum virginicum</i>, and <i>Xyris torta</i>.
Accession Code:
urn:lsid:vegbank.org:commConcept:36041-{273093E6-F8F5-419F-805A-16A97C8779A8}
Plot-observations of this Community Concept:
26
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