Name:
Picea rubens - Betula alleghaniensis - Aesculus flava Forest Alliance
Reference:
NatureServe Biotics 2019
Description:
These are evergreen or mixed forests and woodlands dominated by <i>Picea rubens</i> with or without some combination of <i>Aesculus flava, Betula alleghaniensis</i>, and <i>Tsuga canadensis</i>. Other species that may occur with low coverage in the canopy or subcanopy are <i>Acer pensylvanicum, Acer spicatum, Amelanchier laevis, Halesia tetraptera var. monticola, Prunus pensylvanica</i>, and <i>Sorbus americana</i>. Density and composition of shrub and herbaceous strata vary with association and geographic location. Exposed, drier sites, such as upper convex slopes or slopes with a southerly aspect, will often have high coverage of evergreen shrub species. Typical shrubs include <i>Crataegus</i> spp., <i>Ilex montana, Kalmia latifolia, Leucothoe fontanesiana, Aronia melanocarpa, Rhododendron carolinianum, Rhododendron catawbiense, Rhododendron maximum, Smilax rotundifolia, Vaccinium angustifolium, Vaccinium erythrocarpum, Vaccinium simulatum, Viburnum lantanoides</i>, and <i>Viburnum nudum var. cassinoides</i>. Herbaceous cover is typically sparse, but where the shrub stratum is more open, a moderate herb stratum may develop. Characteristic herbaceous species include <i>Athyrium filix-femina, Clintonia borealis, Dryopteris campyloptera, Galax urceolata, Huperzia lucidula, Lycopodium clavatum, Lycopodium dendroideum, Lycopodium obscurum, Medeola virginiana, Mitchella repens, Oxalis montana, Rugelia nudicaulis, Schizachne purpurascens</i>, and <i>Trillium undulatum</i>. Nonvascular plants are common and often abundant, especially on moister sites, where they grow on branches and around the base of trees and shrubs. Bryophyte species include <i>Bazzania trilobata, Hylocomium splendens, Polytrichum ohioense, Ptilium crista-castrensis</i>, and <i>Sphagnum</i> spp. These forests occur in the Central Appalachians and Southern Blue Ridge, from West Virginia south to western North Carolina and eastern Tennessee, on steep, seepy boulderfields, and on ridges and steep slopes with northeast to southwest exposures, above 1370 m (4500 feet) elevation. It descends to 1000 m (3100 feet) in the Central Appalachians. In local landscapes of the Southern Blue Ridge and Central Appalachians, this vegetation tends to occur bimodally, on high ridges and summits and steep, rocky upper slopes, and at lower elevations in frost pocket situations, where <i>Picea rubens</i> apparently has a competitive advantage because of moist, acidic, organic soils and/or cold-air drainage.
Accession Code:
urn:lsid:vegbank.org:commConcept:38022-{8E9D70B5-F79D-4D92-8BAA-740FDC0C3BF7}
Plot-observations of this Community Concept:
0
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