Name:
Panicum virgatum - Tripsacum dactyloides Grassland Alliance
Reference:
NatureServe Biotics 2019
Description:
This alliance includes wet-mesic grasslands of the blackland and coastal prairie regions extending from the Gulf Coastal Plain of Texas and Louisiana north into Oklahoma. These grasslands are typically dominated or codominated by <i>Panicum virgatum</i> and/or <i>Tripsacum dactyloides</i>. Associated grasses and sedges include <i>Panicum hemitomon, Spartina patens, Carex</i> sp., <i>Scleria</i> sp., <i>Rhynchospora</i> sp., and <i>Fimbristylis</i> sp. Important forbs may include <i>Pluchea odorata, Symphyotrichum lateriflorum, Physostegia pulchella, Acacia angustissima var. hirta, Symphyotrichum ericoides, Bifora americana, Stenaria nigricans, Helianthus maximiliani, Ratibida columnifera, Rudbeckia hirta</i>, and <i>Ruellia humilis</i>. This alliance occurs on poorly drained or subirrigated areas interdigitated within a matrix of slightly higher upland prairies dominated or codominated by <i>Schizachyrium scoparium</i>. These low areas include broad low flats, drainage swales, small shallow basins, riparian areas, and inter-mound areas in prairies with mound-intermound microtopography. Soils include Alfisols, Mollisols, and Vertisols. Gilgai microtopography, with circular depressions and ridges, is characteristic of this community where it occurs over Vertisols. Often, the microtopographic low areas occupied by this community (small shallow basins, small drainage swales, and intermound areas) are too small to have been assigned separate soil types. They may be found as inclusions in areas mapped as hydric or non-hydric soils. Fire and native grazing likely played a role historically in maintaining this vegetation.
Accession Code:
urn:lsid:vegbank.org:commConcept:39270-{D53C5D58-B1D7-4080-AEBA-FAFF20168FE9}
Plot-observations of this Community Concept:
0
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